For Parents Who Are Trying To Survive the Quarantine/While Their Children Need to be Homeschooled

If you’re like me, you have spent a night with a glass (or two) of wine in your hand trying to reconcile your current life with the life you had when your child(ren) was in school. Having this “school suspended due to corona virus” has thrown me through a loop.  I can’t tell you how unprepared I was and how unready I was to rise to the occasion.  It, to say the least, has been rough.

Fortunately, our teachers have been wonderful.  They have pulled together and created lesson plans and online and paper activities for our children to do because we are virtually teaching incompetent and would send our children back to school knowing less than they did when they left. For that, I thank teachers.  I tip my hat to you all and pray you all get six figures when the world rights itself again.  In the meantime, I’m trying to do everything the teacher tells me to do… and a little extra.

I read a post that basically said that while adults will remember this time as a time of turmoil, displacement and unsureness, children will remember it differently.  They will remember the time they were able to spend with their family and the things they did together.  Honestly, had I not read that, I would have never thought about it.  Now that I do have a chance to sit and think about things, I can’t help but think about times when I was a child and may not have had seen the despair that my parents saw in similar instances.  For example, when I was a small child, maybe five or so, there was an ice storm.  I now can recognize that the power was out and we were probably cold, but my memories aren’t of being miserable and cold.  They are of us huddled around the fire, my mom putting me on my snowsuit and playing with me outside and eating icicles off of pine trees.  I’m sure if you ask my parents, it was a miserable time.  But for me, I remember having fun and being with my family.

That’s why I’m taking this time to really get to know my child.  Just me and Peyton.  Having fun doing whatever we want, after we do that teacher assigned schoolwork.  We have definitely had way more time to fuss and argue than we usually would have had if school was in session.  But we’ve also had more bonding and quality time that we would not have had too.  Since school has been out, I’ve been on walks with him, played basketball with him, and played several other games with him that we don’t normally get to play.  So while I’m thinking about all the adult things, i.e. bills, money, cooking, etc., I’m also trying to create memories with him so that when he’s 35 he can think back to that time when he was out of school and remember his mom spent all the time in the world with him.  Time is precious.  Our babies are precious.  I’m just thankful that I realized it before it was too late.  I know this whole thing has thrown us adults for a loop, but our children are still children.  They are still here wanting our love and attention.  What better time to give it to them than right now.