By Ale Garcia

Surviving the Year at Home

As a mother of two, a six-year-old and an 11-year-old, the mere thought of the potential ramifications in their development due to distance learning was scary enough for me to have to break it down in small pieces. So much to learn, so much to explain and so many things we didn’t understand. I just kept thinking, all I can do is try to do the best with the information that I am provided. And again, we came back to, “let’s take this one day at a time.”

Eventually the end of the 2020 school year came around, yet we still found ourselves sheltering in place due to the stay-at-home orders. One part of me was thankful we could get a break from distance learning, but then the realization of quarantine summer activities reminded me of the age old saying, “A mother’s work is never done.”  Great, it’s summer and we don’t have to worry about school but oh man, we are stuck inside?? The anxiety went up a couple levels. What is a Californian to do when you have no pool at home and public pools, parks, and beaches are closed!! I can imagine each state had their own version of this.

Eventually the end of the 2020 school year came around, yet we still found ourselves sheltering in place due to the stay-at-home orders. One part of me was thankful we could get a break from distance learning, but then the realization of quarantine summer activities reminded me of the age old saying, “A mother’s work is never done.”  Great, it’s summer and we don’t have to worry about school but oh man, we are stuck inside?? The anxiety went up a couple levels. What is a Californian to do when you have no pool at home and public pools, parks, and beaches are closed!! I can imagine each state had their own version of this.

My kids just languished into the couch and their devices. It’s like we needed a break from one another and our devices were our only escape. AND I was not trying to stop it because I needed the escape too! If ever there was a time to be grateful for devices, it was now. 

However, once I began to hear and think about the negative effects of these devices, (staggering really: vision and developmental problems, bad – even dumb content, the list goes on), WE GOT A DOG. I needed to have my children involved and worried about more than YouTube, even if just for brief moments in the day. There is no escaping the fact that our dog became my responsibility, which I continually try to delegate every day to my oldest with inconsistent results. LOL

Speaking of which, can we just take a moment to thank the upper graders or older aged kids who took accountability for school and handled this change like a boss? I mean, my oldest just transitioned into virtual school like no big deal. I tell her all the time how proud I am that she is so good in school, getting good grades independently with guidance from her amazing teachers and staff! 

However, those of us with younger kids, I’m talking PreK -First graders 😳wow, right? I know I don’t have to say more – I can hear the collective sigh from all of us with young ones. I mean, it’s hard enough to get them to eat veggies and brush their teeth and, you know, be upstanding citizens of humanity. Now we have to teach them their school lessons! They never want to learn from mom and dad! It was so hard to keep up with all the homework, my child was only in class virtually for 2 hours and the rest of the day was on us to complete. This became nearly impossible while working full  time, cooking meals and tending to the dog (I love him but eyeroll to another chore I added to myself). I was practically working 12–14 hour days when you put it all together. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was asleep and then the good ol’ anxiety was there to wake me every morning.

However, those of us with younger kids, I’m talking PreK -First graders 😳wow, right? I know I don’t have to say more – I can hear the collective sigh from all of us with young ones. I mean, it’s hard enough to get them to eat veggies and brush their teeth and, you know, be upstanding citizens of humanity. Now we have to teach them their school lessons! They never want to learn from mom and dad! It was so hard to keep up with all the homework, my child was only in class virtually for 2 hours and the rest of the day was on us to complete. This became nearly impossible while working full  time, cooking meals and tending to the dog (I love him but eyeroll to another chore I added to myself). I was practically working 12–14 hour days when you put it all together. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was asleep and then the good ol’ anxiety was there to wake me every morning.

There have been so many tears, so many standoffs, but at the end of the day we did it.
I know I don’t have to say more – I can hear the collective sigh from all of us with young ones.

As our community begins to open back up again, we are receiving notices from our children’s schools that they can go back to class. Full time!! Not hybrid, not virtual, not AM or PM sessions but in-person and for me this comes as a huge relief. It is starting to feel like there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and I just want to give a shout out to all the working parents/guardians/nannies who survived distance learning! And please comment below and tell me, I am not the only one that got roped into getting a pet? 😅