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I think it’s official that we can all collectively say “I never saw that one coming” in reference to a global pandemic, and subsequently, what to do with ourselves and our children. I never stared into any one of my three fresh newborns faces and thought “I will do my very best by you in a global pandemic.”
When COVID-19 happened, and the world shut down and schools never resumed from spring break 2020, I thought: THIS IS WILD.
When the world slowly started reopening and people were trying to figure out how to navigate living in 2020, I thought: THIS IS WILD.
Truthfully, when people realized how strict our family’s decisions were among that crazy year, I’m certain they thought: THIS IS WILD.
The truth is: We all were and are doing our best. For us, we felt that our best was to virtually school our three children. This meant giving up our spots in a preschool we loved for our youngest two, and it meant virtually educating our first grader. How did we come to this?
Let me break it down for you:
1. I was worried. I work in healthcare reform. Reading healthcare data is what I do, and the data on COVID-19 was and is troublesome. I wanted to keep my loved ones as safe as possible.
2. We are extremely privileged. I say this in a slightly snarky way, but it’s true. I used to be a single mother, and I’m here to say that I couldn’t have done what we chose to do if I remained a single mom. As it stands, I work from home and my husband is a stay at home dad. We had choices, and we had a body to care for the kids. We were, in short, very lucky.
3. We were in a pod with some very strict rules designed to keep the grandparents as safe as possible. My parents, bless, are the exact sorts of people that statistics weren’t friendly to in the event of a COVID-19 infection. Additionally, my parents, bless, are social vibrant people, and the way we could best serve both of those things was to live strictly, so we could be in contact with them.
4. We wanted to keep the educators as safe as possible. Prior to vaccination, the ways to combat COVID-19 were to socially distance and wear a mask. By sitting my kid out, because we could, we gave more room to the students who didn’t have that luxury. By proxy we put more space in classrooms for teachers to stay just a little bit safer.
5. The days are long, but the years are short. School days are long, and I found myself wildly thankful for the extra time with my kids. It was really nice to be able to make a lunch and eat with my kids every single day. It was great to be able to take a few hours and go on a spontaneous field trip with my family. It was nice to have the extra time with them.
No matter what we decide to do with our kids, there’s one thing I’m sure of, and that is that we are doing our level best with what we have in front of us. We don’t have to be doing the same things to support the heck out of each other. Mama, please know, I think you’re doing your best.
Rebecca is a modern day Rosie the Riveter, a career professional, and a voracious reader. She is a self proclaimed three Michelin star home chef who knows enough about every craft type to be dangerous and enough about 50 percent of those craft types to be useful. She believes that red lipstick is her own personal good luck talisman and is on a personal mission to collect every cool vintage scarf left on the planet. She drinks whiskey on the rocks when she drinks, but is more reliably found with a cup of hot tea. She is the founder of Such Pretty Faces and loves to write. Rebecca lives in south Arlington with her three quirky children and the love of her life.
