by William Skink

This post is for all you parents out there: what the fuck are we going to do?

I try to frequently remind myself of how lucky my family is. The kids have a big yard to play in, my parents live here and help us out tremendously, and we have savings to fall back on.

That said, the kids are already driving us insane.

Last week was spring break, so we were prepared for the kids to be around and demanding our attention from the second they wake up to the end of the day, when we finally get a reprieve. But this week? And the next week? And the next after that?

My wife and I have already resigned ourselves to the likelihood our kids won’t be going back to school for the rest of the year. We are trying to download apps and are awaiting emails from teachers either today or tomorrow to give us further instruction.

We haven’t even begun to do this “distance learning” thing, but our first stabs of getting things set up online has me already deeply sympathizing with this Israeli mom and her rapid-fire rant about distance learning with her four kids:

There are so many huge sections of the population already being significantly impacted by the Coronavirus who need help, but if parents don’t get the support they need then the impacts on an entire generation of kids will be much more traumatizing.

A few days ago my little girl was telling me that it makes her sad she can’t see her friends, and she can’t go to gymnastics, and she can’t go to school, so we do our best to explain what is going on.

But I’m not going to bullshit my kids, they are too smart for that, so if I don’t know that answer to something, I say so. If I am worried about something, I explain what exactly is worrying me.

Obviously I maintain a filter. I’m not going to describe all my worries to my kids because they still need the space to be kids. It’s a difficult balance that I don’t always do a good job of maintaining, just ask my wife.

That’s all for now. The little beasts have finished their breakfast, so it’s all hands on deck.