I was just watching a video a teacher friend of ours posted on Facebook. He actually teaches at the high school that he and my husband graduated from. The video included teachers and faculty members holding up signs that created a message to the students as each frame progressed. The message being sent was one of encouragement and hope, acknowledging the challenges that these students have encountered and their ability to continue adapt to distance learning.
It struck something deep within me. As trying as these times are for parents, some of which are trying to work from home and home school their children, others who have to work the front lines and wish they could be home with their children and those who have been laid off or furloughed and are trying to home school their children, while working about the financial stability of their families, think about it from a child’s point of view.
Just as one day you were leaving your house and going to work, seeing your friends and enjoying the social aspects of work and the next day all of that ended, the same thing has occurred for your children. However, you are a grown-up who for the most part understands working from home and how to do your job, because many of us work on our computer and can still attend remote meetings. We are adults, we know what is expected of us.
Our children on the other hand have been thrust into this learning environment, where teachers by no fault of their own, have been building the ship of online learning, as it has already started sailing. The challenges of meeting the expectations that are continually changing, much like the course of this pandemic, while trying to make sense of having everything that they know in their lives changing, is overwhelming for adults, imagine the how our children feel.
BUT, they are doing it! They are figuring out how to make this work. It may not look how we want it to, but they are making it work. I was on the phone with a co-worker and she had asked her daughters to go do some reading. One did, and the other chose to draw a picture instead. In the picture the family was sad, the dog was sad, and the fish was sad. She may not have completed the reading assignment, but she did what she needed to do to make it through the day. Much like I eat that bowl of ice cream at the end of each day, or Facetime my sisters, I do what I need to do to get through the day, and that is okay.
April is the Month of the Military Child and April, 11-17, 2020 is the Week of the Young Child. During this time CELEBRATE our children and their amazing ability to adapt and continue to be sailors on this pirate ship that is being built as we are sailing! Loosen your grip a little bit on the grasp you have on what you think this whole working from home and homeschooling your children in supposed to look like. Think about the amazing ways our children have adapted to this new normal and focus less on the craziness of their behavior as they work to adapt.
Just tell people…I run a tight shipwreck!
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