Every morning I wake up and think “The debauchery cannot continue: there must be less eating and more walking! less Candy Crush and more cleaning out sock drawers!” Those goals are apparently too high. Yesterday I had freezing feet for four hours because I felt like if I went upstairs for warmer socks I should really clean out the sock drawer, which currently cannot be closed. Finally I just got the warmer socks.
Paul told me yesterday evening that he had ordered the 50-pound bag of flour we’d discussed a couple of weeks ago and then casually decided not to order. He said he hadn’t wanted to say anything until it actually shipped, because it appeared he’d basically ordered the very last 50-pound bag of flour available from a company that may not have realized it was still offered on their site. Normally I would say I am not keen on situations where a couple makes a decision together and then one of them goes ahead and does a different thing. But in this case I was so happy to hear the flour was on its way, I cried a little. (And am half-imagining it will be a Downton Abbey situation and the bag will be full of plaster dust.)
I am very, very worried about the country starting to re-open.
Our government was supposed to be doing things while we were closed: we all got out of the pool so they could clean up the toxic spill. But then they didn’t do those things: we all got out of the pool, and nothing happened. We can all see that what was supposed to happen didn’t happen, but apparently those things are not going to happen, and that’s the plan: to just not do those things. The first people back in, the ones who say “Oh thank goodness, they’re letting us back in the pool so it must be safe to swim again!,” and the ones who are shoved into the pool by the re-opening, are going to show us whether this was a good plan or not. Not that it will keep the rest of us from having to get into the pool eventually too. What a mess. What a stupid, avoidable, wasteful, fatal mess.
Oh, Swistle. I hear you. I hear you so much.
I set a couple of goals for myself yesterday and was trying not to beat myself up for not getting around to doing it. But it is so irritating. One goal was to right a letter to a favorite high school teacher whose address I just got. It seems I SHOULD have time.
I did end up going to Costco AND the grocery store yesterday. So glad that’s over but what a time suck. Basically not a great time for a kid to decide to eat vegetarian because finding products I have NEVER shopped for has me walking in circles in a place I would rather not be in the first place.
Glad you are getting your flour. Maybe cleaning the sock drawer will happen when it is too warm for socks?
I think you are my soul mate.
That is all.
Sincerely,
Woman sitting here with cold feet because I need to sweep the steps and going upstairs would make me face that again.
Yep. Yep yep yep.
My youngest spends the vast majority of their waking hours binge-watching The Good Doctor. Schoolwork only takes 1-2 hours a day, so I guess when the school year ends, they’ll just take up permanent residence in front of the tv. It doesn’t seem good, from a mental health perspective, but arguing with them about it seems even worse.
This: arguing seems worse. Yes.
Yeah. We all have to live in this house together for the foreseeable future. I will do a lot to avoid the arguing, even if it means I have to let less than “ideal behavior” slide. I think that is the only way to preserve any mental health for anyone, frankly.
I’ve said as much to my kids, and it actually seemed to help them to understand that we would all need to do things that we don’t usually want to do. For example, my kids who have always, always, ALWAYS complained about what I make for dinner have not complained once since we started our quarantine. Prior to quarantine, my husband and I had to set a rule that each child was allowed one complaint per meal–along the lines of “This is not my favorite meal.” Any further complaints resulted in the loss of any chance of having dessert, whether they ate their veggies or not. It was a struggle for them; they would often catch themselves making faces about the food but saying dramatically, “But I’ve already had my ONE complaint.”
Now, they see how hard I am working just to make sure that we have a ready supply of food and they literally don’t complain. They say thank you and they eat their meals. They repeatedly compliment me. It’s shocking, actually. It’s one of the nice bright spots about this mess.
This is not to say we are saints. We have had our fair share of arguments over schoolwork. With the eldest, these end when I say, “Ok. Don’t do the work. I’ve already graduated from 5th grade and your grades don’t tell anyone anything about me.” He hates that. He has literally told me that he wants me to fight with him on this topic and he hates that I won’t. As for my little one, he fights because he wants MORE work, but I’m in the middle of my own schoolwork and don’t have time to devise lessons for him. I’ve just recently realized that this must change and I will have to find time to make lessons, because I have a sinking feeling that school will not get back to normal next year. Sigh.
You don’t need to devise lessons, buy them instead. There are tons of workbooks that go off the beaten path. Math patterns, things that demonstrate the Fibonacci sequence, all sorts of quirky ways to expand what they’re working on now.
Alternatively, have your little one cook with you: math, reading, chemistry, and attention to detail.
Seriously, you don’t have to remake the wheel. Maybe investigate the homeschool market, my daughter loves the critical thinking company. If you don’t mind extremely religious stuff, we also use Christian Light Education. Each little unit is very inexpensive, the math is extremely solid. All About Learning also has a lot of free samples and options.
Let me preface this by saying that we are fortunate to be financially reasonably secure/stable and I realize this solution might not be open to everyone for either financial or other reasons.
That said, my middle schooler was meeting with a college kid (in person! So 2019!) to review math stuff before all this started (but this was a comparatively new experience for us) and it was so great. When the pandemic started, we went to Zoom. But then on top of that — my kid’s public school is not doing much teaching, now. There are some assignments, and some connectivity (even a tiny bit of that, interactive), and I totally get that they were not prepared and are not set up to do what they are being called upon to do. But as compared to what he gets at/from school, what’s he’s getting now is SO MUCH LESS. So I tracked down a reading/writing tutor and he is now doing that via Zoom (as well as some assignments a other times) twice/week.
Again — not feasible for everyone and others may have good solutions that work for them, but I am so grateful to have someone ELSE working interactively with my kid on some learning tasks, even if only a few times a week.
I found both the tutors we are working with over Nextdoor (they had posted ads).
How old is your little one who wants more work? What grade level? What type of work? If you give me your email I bet I can send you some ready to print stuff.
Oh man, this. My kids clearly spend too much time playing video games but they do it with friends online and and so it’s also the only social activity they get and I don’t have the heart (or the will) to argue with them about spending less time gaming. I already have to figure out how to do my own job while they are home all the time and come summer I guess they will literally just turn into computer games and it makes me want to sob when I think about it. If we ever get back to any kind of normal I might throw the various gaming consoles into the sea but until then…
This is the best Tweet I’ve seen about this
Yeah. I was telling my therapist yesterday that the thing that has kept me from having panic attacks during this quarantine was the fact that we were, in fact, locked down, and that other people were supposed to be doing the same. As in…we were doing something (however inefficient) about this mess, which gave hope that we might do some other things that were actually efficient. But now we are not doing anything. So, now my husband and I have to literally protect our family by ourselves–no cavalry is coming from the government to help, even though I pay a shedload in taxes for them to do. just. that. The job of the government is to “provide for the common defense.” I just cannot wrap my head around people who claim to be patriots who can look at this President’s response to the pandemic and say, “Yep. NAILED it.”
It isn’t technically true that my family is all alone, of course. I know lots of people who will continue to quarantine, both because they can see the writing on the wall (viral rebound) and because they are able to quarantine. (My God. The guilt I feel about the people who want to quarantine but cannot: the weakest, poorest, sickest of us. I hate that this administration is making me complicit in their suffering.) The most overwhelming thing is that our country does in fact have two separate problems: a looming economic Depression and a pandemic. Both will kill people, but one is actually “easier” to solve: give people money for the duration of this mess. Give them money and keep them alive. When we get to the end of this, THEN we can sort out the economic implications.
I guess what I’m saying, Swistle, is that I Hear You.
Now, off to look at home-school curricula, because I cannot fathom that school will be able to open on time *and stay open* in the fall, and I’ll be damned if my kids will lose another year of school. I’ve not ever wanted to homes-school a 6th grader and a 1st grader, but I’ll do what needs to be done.
I live in one of the states that said it was okay to get back in the pool. The majority of people I am close to, as well as myself, all agree that it is in fact NOT safe to get back in the pool and we are continuing to shelter as much as we are able. I still have to work but my building is closed to the public, so my exposure is limited to a handful of coworkers. I spend the majority of the day closed up in my office. Yes, our state leadership is terrifyingly nuts, but thank goodness we’re not all crazy here.
Here in Canada there is talk of very cautiously, slowly, beginning to open things up. The idea is if the numbers head in a bad direction, everything will be closed again.
Yesterday I was on a local Facebook group for parents of kids at the elementary school my son attends and someone was asking what time the bus came at their stop so she could plan for next year, and the head of the Parent Council chimed in to say that people shouldn’t count on things being back to normal for their planning; in order for sufficient physical distancing to happen in the fall it’s possible classes will be broken into shifts so only a fraction of each full class attends every day, and that could mean in-person learning only one or two days a week for each kid, and the other days doing online learning. This made sense but was still a bit of a reality check. I mean, I’m glad the government here is being cautious. The vast majority of us want the government to be cautious. But it’s still a bit freaky/heartbreaking to look forward towards the fall which seems so far away, and realize that things will still be very different as we figure out the new normal. My workplace has projected returning to work possibly in September, but if the kids aren’t back at school there will be a need for parents to stay home and try to continue to juggle work with home learning activities, and that’s if they have the luxury of having jobs that allow them to do that (which I do, though not very productively on either front).
I’m not complaining (or at least not just complaining) I’m mourning the end of the way I’m used to things being for the foreseeable future. But I’m counting my blessings and one of those blessings is that I’m not in the US, where it seems that the government and far too many citizens have started to think that sacrificing hundreds of thousands of lives is acceptable, and the idea is normalizing.
Please keep in mind that my impressions of the US come solely from things I read: blogs, media and social media. I know not all Americans think it’s fine to sacrifice so many for “herd immunity” that hasn’t even been proven to happen after recovery. And maybe not even the majority of Americans. But of course the news is full of pictures of protestors and governments pushing for the pool to be opened, and the grim, ever-rising statistics.
It’s so heartening to read the opinions of the Swistle community and my American friends on Facebook and know that not all US folks fit the stereotype.
This post just summed it all up for me. And YAY! on the 50lb bag of flour!
I don’t know what to say other than: yep. You’re right.
I had my husband buy both regular flour and self rising flour at the store last time. He found both! Yay! Then I realized, days later, that I wanted to make something in the bread machine, and I did not have enough bread flour for even one loaf. Sad. Maybe next time.
I am very interested to see what happens in the fall. My kids’ (small, private) school is extremely unprepared for online learning; we are doing paper worksheets for kindergarten. On one hand I’m extremely glad it’s almost over, as we are both working full time at home and caring for a 3yo as well. But, once there is no homework, how to prevent her mind going to mush?? At least Mr. Rogers is available for streaming.
I for one, while things are still very hard, am incredibly glad to NOT be yelling at kids every morning because we’re late (WHY are children so SLOW), not buckling car seats, not doing drop off, not packing lunches, not getting to work late EVERY SINGLE DAY. Sure, the challenges are different now, but I had almost entirely lost my mind with that routine.
In conclusion, I am also extremely angry on behalf of those who have to get back in the pool.
I haven’t fully understood the way that the governing people in the states where reopening is happening have or have not learned from what we have been through, and will continue going through for a very long time, in New York.
It seems that there has been a discounting of the data and the firsthand accounts of medical workers of how horrific this virus is and how rapidly it overwhelmed our pretty robust medical system here. Many of the places that are charging ahead with reopening are still on the upward trend of number of cases and deaths. Many of them also have less-robust medical systems than NYC. While most places have much less population density than we do, letting people rush back into churches and bowling alleys seems to defeat that advantage.
I have hoped all along that rural areas and smaller cities and towns would be spared completely – for one thing, how did the virus even GET to some places in the first place? – but it appears that that is not the case. There are parts of GA, where I am from, which are hotspots with rates of infection rivaling that of large US cities. And the more things go on here in NY, the clearer it becomes that the virus is worse than we thought. It’s causing long-term health issues. It’s thrombotic, not just respiratory. It’s easily spread. It’s affecting kids. It’s affecting younger people. It’s devastating vulnerable populations.
I don’t know what the absolute right answer is, or whether there even is one, but if lessons are not being learned which could save many lives and a lot of suffering, that is dismal and upsetting to say the least. I hope everything goes well and I hope my worries turn out to be unfounded. I hope communities emerge unscathed and get to enjoy life in a close approximation of normality. I hope that more than anything.
This week seems to be where I stop being able to handle things. I just… can’t. I can’t with people. I can’t with America. I can’t with our not just incompetent, but at this point actually evil and maliciously misleading leadership. I keep reading the posts by nurses in the ICU because I feel like SOMEONE has to witness this and clearly the right people are not reading these posts (or what.. reading them and thinking they’re MADE UP!? who would or could lie about these things?!) and then I can’t sleep. I am one of the most insanely lucky and privileged people possible right now: my husband and I both have our jobs. We can both work from home. We have a yard to let our insane children run around. We have food. We have the ability to maintain social distancing even though apparently our state will no longer suggest or require it despite daily confirmed cases continuing to go up. I feel so ungrateful and ashamed that I, of all people, feel bad and depressed and like I Can’t Deal when there are people who are not even given the option. But this week is not good and I can’t help how I feel, i guess. Perhaps next week I will regain the Ability To Deal.
I work at an assisted living community and feel, in a way, that I never got out of the pool. Maybe moved to a separate, private pool, but still a pool none the less. Thankfully, my company got “ahead” of things and upped our sanitizing/disinfecting schedule back in early February and locked out all but a handful of therapists/nurses in early March. We have not had any cases and pray it stays that way. My poor old folks are Desperate to see and touch their families, We have done some facetime and window visits, but it’s not the same. Especially the ones who can barely see and/or hear.
My state is opening in phases and phase 1 starts next week. I am not looking forward to it. I take small comfort in knowing that my state and region haven’t been doing all that great at social distancing (according to the released cell phone reports) thus far, so maybe the smart ones will continue to stay home even when we start opening up and there won’t be much change due to the rule-breakers no longer breaking the rules. I am not optimistic. Oh, and did I mention my 60 year old house needs about $5,000 worth of plumbing work so that I can use my kitchen and laundry room again? Ugh. So many things I am not looking forward to.
You are the only blog I subscribe to, I feel like I am having a conversation with my sisters (or myself) I hear what your saying about getting back in the pool. Are we ready? The reports we are hearing don’t seem to support it. I was amazed that the gradual re-opening in some states STARTED with hair, nail, tattoos and gyms…really…the places where social distancing just cannot happen. Now I read this morning that the federal task force will likely be disbanded by the end of the month because “of the tremendous progress we have made as a country” really?? Well, maybe FEMA and NIH, CDC will do better without the ‘help’ from the upper levels of our federal government involved.
https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/05/05/850959187/white-house-cornoavirus-task-force-to-wind-down
We’re in a state that partial reopen last week. We’re sending our kid back to daycare on Monday. I am so unhappy about this being the choice I’m making, but it’s looking like the less bad of only bad choices. I feel it as a major personal failure that I can’t keep us in full lockdown no matter what the state is doing.
Oh, Alice. I’m so sorry. I know it doesn’t help, but please don’t beat yourself up. It is NOT personal failure that you cannot keep yourself in quarantine. The federal/state governments are responsible for that; you have very little leverage as just one person. Honestly, your situation is the one that keeps me up at night: the people who don’t have a choice, no matter what their preferences might be or how well they follow the data. One person cannot solve this problem on her own; this is the whole reason we have a public health office.
Holding you and your family in my thoughts. XOXOXOX
Yes. This, all of it, just this.
I broke social distancing once during quarantine, when my brother was losing his ever-loving mind and I watched my three-year-old nephew for two nights. That visit was followed by a week of sniffles, and then five days of the worst flu I’ve ever had in my life. I know with states and cities opening up my brother is going to take it as a free pass to resume his life and I’m dreading having to refuse visits from the kiddo because I’m afraid.
Very pleased for you about your flour! I haven’t had the urge to bake like the rest of the world, but I am making some kick-ass tomato sandwiches lately.
You don’t owe me a response, but if you feel like answering I’m wondering if you got tested for Covid-19? The criteria under which people do or do not get tested seem to vary from location-to-location. A friend here had something similar and was tested, though it did ultimately turn out to be a flu. However, his job takes him to multiple hospitals (he works on radiation equipment), otherwise I’m not sure he would have qualified for a test.
It’s frustrating. I live in Oregon and I phoned my doctor to request a referral for a test. I was pretty certain it was Covid-19 since I lost my sense of taste and had the full range of typical reported symptoms. But then the recovery seemed too quick, so maybe not? Anyway, the doctor never returned my call. So. Yeah.
You sound like a perfect candidate for an antibody test!
Yep – our office opens to 50% on May 18 and I am very concerned, yet I must go as of course, one needs to be paid. I wish there was someone in charge. That would be nice.
My extended family is at odds on everything pandemic. One member (who is really loud) is insistent this whole thing is a hoax. Their refusal to practice social distancing and shaming my parents for wearing masks and being cautious about going out even though they both have underlying conditions (“I have asthma too and you don’t see me worrying about this.”) and pressuring them to spend time with them and their large family…it’s been fun. The hospital doctor next door says we should just open up and get it over with. ?? My husband seems to sway from one side to another and I just feel like…can’t we agree to care about the vulnerable? Yesterday morning was an unpleasant conversation about what should/shouldn’t happen and when. I feel like there is no leadership and no clear plans anywhere for any of us. It seems that our elected officials don’t have clear plans for what we should do, so who is driving this flying umbrella? It is all very discouraging, and I appreciate having this little place to come and feel like I am among like-minded friends. I love that we don’t all agree politically, but we can all agree that this isn’t/shouldn’t be political. I love Rebecca’s “I’ll do what needs to be done,” attitude and am wondering…what can/should be done? Our elected officials aren’t doing much…perhaps we can do what needs to be done and come up with a clear plan?
My area is opening at “yellow level” on Friday. From what I’ve witnessed it never really closed outside of the mandatory business closings. Minimal social distancing, people using Wal-Mart as a place to socialize. Tons of people talking about refusing to wear masks and very few people actually wearing masks. Health Dept surveys showing something like 25% mask usage and the majority of that done improperly. I’m a front line worker and it’s terrifying.
BUT I am wondering what you think should have been done? Welding people into their apartment complexes like in China? That may have helped alleviate the virus but at what cost? I don’t have an answer. I don’t think reopening is the answer. But outside of actual martial law for a month+, what could possibly be done to contain this at this point? It was always a too little too late effort. It was ignored when something could have been done. When I talked about it and started preparing in January (stocking up on essentials) I was called crazy and told I was over reacting.
We could have required mask-wearing, at least in situations where social distancing isn’t possible.
We could have shut down things like playgrounds and basketball courts where social distancing wasn’t going to happen.
The government could have set the pandemic office off to implement the policies it developed. Oh, wait, scratch that.
The government could have provided funds, with proper policies and oversight to ensure the policies were followed, to ensure that people had enough money not to have to work in unsafe conditions.
School districts could have had ways to ensure that kids who rely on school meals still got fed.
The Defense Production Act could have ensured that PPE and other medical supplies were produced. The government could have helped ensure that distribution was equitable.
The government could have provided scientific, consistent messages about how to promote public health.
There could have been a system of testing and contact tracing based on science rather than connections.
There could have been a clear plan for opening the country, with a way of tracking whether the virus was spreading as a result and measures for knowing whether restrictions needed to be reinstated.
These are all things we could still do. Maybe Trump could call Jacinda Adern with a cheery, “Hey, girlfriend!”
Slim for president! Also, all the YES for calling up Jacinda.
I am wearing my “She’s electable if you *!@?$! vote for her” shirt. Can you tell?
I’m from New Zealand and never been so proud to be a Kiwi. She’s a tremendous leader and we’re so, so, lucky. I just wish we could send a big boat to bring all you (sane) ones to safety.
TESTING is what I think should have been done, at the bare minimum. Widespread testing, so that we knew who had it and needed to quarantine. And much, much earlier. But doing it now, if not back when we should have.
MEDICAL SUPPLIES. Ordering vast quantities of necessary medical supplies for our healthcare workers, long ago when this was all obviously on its way to us. Directing factories to switch production to things like protective equipment, ventilators, the necessary medications. Again, this should have been done months ago, but if not then, at least do it NOW.
Watching what other countries were doing, and noticing what worked and what didn’t, and making decisions based on that. If not back months ago, at least do it NOW.
And above all else: LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE WITH THE MEDICAL/SCIENCE/VIRUS EXPERTISE. If not back then, when it should have been done, at least NOW.
Oh, Swistle, a thousand times yes. I’ve been extremely fortunate this whole time, with only not having access to things that weren’t strict necessities (I have medicine and plenty of food, but never did find any yeast), and a job that sent us all home to telework pretty early on. My anxiety is at an 11 thinking of all I’ve seen over the past week with people acting as though we’ve been given an all clear.
I was thinking, ok, maybe I can see how a salon could open in an extremely limited capacity and with really strict rules about having to wait in your car until your appointment time, everyone wears masks, people wash hands and get a thoroughly-washed smock as soon as they come in…but who enforces that? Is it up to business people to throw out customers who refuse to wait outside, or don’t wear masks? What a terrible position to be in, pitting small business people against the clients they need to survive and putting them in danger at the same time. And then the alternative, to just be unemployed until the vaccine is developed, is no better for a lot of people. And, wait—IS the vaccine being developed? Will we all have to sneak across the border to Canada and buy vaccines on the gray market?
I just feel terrible every single day about, well, everything.
I feel this so much and love your pool analogy. I’m currently very frustrated when there are people who did get in and clean up their smaller pools, and then our governments went and basically undid all the work they had done. It is beyond maddening. Like, I can see a parallel world where things went better and differently, and I can see where this country went the wrong way each time. But I can’t see how to get to the better place from here. Because it feels like we are going deliberately wrong. And I feel powerless and weepy.
Well. No wonder I’m drinking more than usual.
Also, I live in Utah, and our outdoor recreational areas are absolutely overrun with hordes of people. Our governor began our opening up last week. It occurred to me yesterday, as we were reading that the trails near us are being used at 5 times the regular amount, that perhaps the reopening of business is in part to cut down on that. Is it better for the Public health to have 50 people go into the same office each day, as opposed to those 50 people going to 6 different state parks per week? Because of course the first choice is people staying home, but they aren’t. So making them stay at work would reduce the transmission of the disease more than them exploring the state. Humans are our own worst enemies.
I would like to put in a good word for debauchery, which seems like a reasonable course of action as most of us have devised it. I am reading books for plot! Buying croutons rather than making them! Putting off weeding! Woo-hoo, Moms Gone Wild!
In a discussion about cooking with some people at work, and I mentioned not making ice cream even though I have the ingredients and an ice cream maker. And a woman who eats a wholesome plant-heavy diet and owns a Peleton and all that health-conscious stuff asked me what I was thinking and argued, quite vehemently, that if ever there was a time to be soothing yourself with something a la mode, this is it.
A national testing and tracking system should have been put in place by now. We don’t know what our risks are until we know how many people have it and who they’ve been in contact with. Instead our president has been tweeting, lashing out at the press, basically doing nothing but working on his poll numbers while thousands die every day. It’s scary and tragic and I fear the worst is still ahead. It is a mess.
I live in Los Angeles and since the weather is warmer, people are starting to gather. Construction workers aren’t wearing masks even though it’s mandatory. We have good leadership but it’s meaningless if people stop complying. I may be forced to briefly leave quarantine soon although I’m trying to find workarounds but I don’t know if I have enough authority to say no. I will do everything I can to not be pushed into the pool!
Thank you Swistle for speaking to this and all the thoughtful comments too. It’s nice to not feel so alone.
I also live in the SoCal area, and I’m seeing people I know – even people who a week or two ago were adamantly against getting together even with family they didn’t live with – starting to relax social distancing. Like, I believe it’s a personal choice whether to, say, go have dinner with your sibling’s family, if you feel you’ve all been quarantining and safe for a long enough time, but … it feels like a slippery slope? If THAT’s okay, then why not invite a couple close friends you think are “safe,” too? And what about when somebody has to go back to work, and you’re STILL getting together more frequently? We found out someone my husband works with just tested positive for covid-19. The whole office (a very small one) has been working from home since mid-March, so there’s little chance this person caught it from or passed it to anyone there. But if I lived in a state that was sending people back to work, and my husband had a boss who insisted everybody come in … I mean. Ugggh.
In response to your questions about the slippery slope I feel like the answer is that you can only control your own actions and choices. There are some things you can’t control like having to go back to the office to keep your job. But control what you can control. This article is out of date (we’re now preparing to come out of lockdown in New Zealand and I very much do not want to) but the graphics are still relevant (and pretty cool). Be the person who doesn’t go to that family dinner or drinks with neighbours. Break the chain of transmission. You have that power.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/22-03-2020/siouxsie-wiles-toby-morris-what-does-level-two-mean-and-why-does-it-matter/
I hear you, Swistle. Our state is supposed to open very slowly and in phases starting this Friday at 5:00 pm and it terrifies me. At least we aren’t throwing open ALL the doors; but still.
I just read an article in the local paper this morning that basically said, if you remove NY from the picture, the data is trending up and not down. I’m trying not to think about it, honestly.
I talked to my son – who is an elementary school PE teacher – this morning and he was telling me that he was hearing about the possibility of having A and B days next year; where so many students are to come to school on their designated day and doing online learning on the other days. But who knows? At this point, I’m just ready to stay home forever.
OH! And of course I forgot – cut yourself some slack. Some days are productive and some days aren’t. I find a list helps propel into some sort of action – but that list isn’t the boss of me – so I do what I feel I have the mental and physical energy and let the rest go; maybe tomorrow – maybe not.
I bought my eldest a proper ergonomic adjustable desk and chair. She’s in 1st grade. Never would’ve thought that would be a purchase I felt compelled to make, but there is nothing I’m seeing that makes me think all the kids are going to be back to school like normal. I’m near San Francisco so our counties have their own set of lockdowns compared to the state orders. At this point, I’m honestly just hoping that there’s some safe way for my youngest to attend preschool with friends. She’s been having a far harder time with the isolation than my eldest.
I don’t understand how elementary school is supposed to work at all. Like, I get that we might be alternating days to reduce class sizes, but tell me how my kid’s teacher is supposed to keep “only” fifteen 5- and 6-year-olds six feet apart for an entire school day? How she’s supposed to help them understand lessons or hear their questions while everyone is wearing a mask? How the playground monitors are going to be able to keep everybody apart at recess and lunch? Or do the kids just not go outside at all? I do not want to school my kids at home or do distance learning any more, and yet I don’t see how anything else makes sense, because the pressure on teachers to implement rules that will be almost impossible for kids aged 5 through 10 to follow seems untenable.
I have no idea how they’re going to make it work. I’ve been seeing numbers like 10-12 kids and the recommendation/requirement that the adult stay with that particular group. But how on earth do you make that work when there are 24+ kids per class?! It’s not like you can hire twice as many teachers.
Our preschool is worse. The guidelines (from CDC I think) are ridiculous. How do you avoid hugs and interpersonal contact with preschoolers??