Being a parent just got harder.
Just? I know you’re laughing at that statement or scoffing at it, even maybe?
We all know that 2020 packed a punch with the arrival of coronavirus in the U.S. and our neighborhoods, schools and homes.
It brought with it a beating, but a beating that did seem to finally let up ever so slightly before the summer of 2021.
And with that little bit of sunshine and light at the end of the tunnel, most of us very Covid-conscious people let our guard down a bit. Not entirely, but down some.
And, with much hesitation and fear, we decided to send our kids back to in-person learning.
And here we are,
on day five of school,
and my oldest, my soon-to-be middle schooler,
is in quarantine.
Not because she is Covid positive
— a rapid test I scoured to get today confirmed she’s negative —
but because she is a close contact of one or two or many others (I’m not so sure) in her class who did test positive.
Guess what, though?
And I hesitate to say this because I might be in the minority here, but I still think I made the right decision to send my ten, seven, and five-year-old back to their brick-and-mortar for the 2021-2022 school year.
The safest?
That I don’t know.
In looking out for their mental and emotional health, and social well-being, heck yes. They need to be around other children.
For their physical health? Only time will tell.
And while they are in school, they are doing their best to stay masked-up for most of the school day.
As annoying as it is.
As hot as it is.
And we live in ‘effin Florida, so it’s freakin’ sweltering.
My kids are doing their due diligence to help themselves and their classmates where they can, but what stinks is that not everyone is.
And one person’s lack of safeguards it’s another person’s positive test or call to quarantine.
Listen. I know how freaking riled up everyone is about the vaccine and mask mandates and that we all have different beliefs when it comes to where we stand on those things.
But I do think..
I hope…
I pray really freaking hard that there is a singular common ground amongst all parents across the globe, which is that all children deserve to be kept safe and what we know is that:
