Dear World: Parents are Still in a Pandemic Struggle

I had tears of joy practically running down my face when our schools finally opened up for on-site learning. After a year and a half of remote learning, saying I was over it would be an understatement. As September 2021 approached, I felt anticipation daily wondering if schools really would open back up. When that day came, I felt like a huge weight had been lifted. I have been both energized and exhausted with the start of a routine back in our lives. School, extra-curricular activities…normalcy was finally here.

Many of us may have had rose colored glasses on the first week or so of school. I know I had moments of such relief and optimism that it almost fooled me into believing the pandemic was really becoming a thing of the past.

But the reality now is that I hold my breath every time I see an email from the school or the district come to my inbox. Every time my phone rings or a text comes through from the area code of our school, I am breathless.

I gasp internally wondering if it’s an announcement that they will again be closing their doors and going to remote learning. Each Monday when our entire elementary school gets tested, I hold my breath awaiting the results worried one of my kids will be quarantined from a positive result. Worried they will miss a week or more of school just when I felt they were getting back on track from the struggles that remote learning brought.

Now that sports like soccer are up and running, we have to pause each time a player has a stuffy nose with that “what if it’s COVID?” thought that I know all of us have done hundreds of time. We mask up on the sidelines, test regularly and take every precaution we can. But we know better than to think anything is a sure thing.

All of these occurrences are a constant reminder that parents and kids are still in a pandemic struggle.

I can only imagine what a pandemic without elementary aged kids would be like. Much like those without kids or with grown kids can only imagine what it would be like to go through this in my shoes.

Mom, I don’t know about you but sometimes when I hear that employers are not being flexible with working parents or assuming that being back at school means it’s business as usual, I want to scream a PSA that we are still in a pandemic. There are still obstacles we are working through every single day as we keep the wheels turning for our families.

I would rather be in COVID now versus COVID then. I would rather hold my breath with each email versus having my house be a school, office, and our entire world. But until this pandemic is actually behind us, parents need grace as we continue through a near-constant struggle to keep those wheels turning for our families.