Last week you were shuttling your children to school, confidently heading to the office, going to their baseball game/musical/track meet, before making a healthy dinner and creating an easy bedtime routine (because everyone was tired!). Now, you are balancing work and homeschool responsibilities with no structure, few guidelines and a house full of a bizarre array of snacks that aren’t particularly healthy. The house is a mess, probably because the kids are ALWAYS there, and you are left to assume learning is taking place but since you aren’t actually a teacher, you’re not sure what the barometer is to measure that. Oh yeah, work is still happening, only your office mates are now begging for more Goldfish by 9am during a conference call.
It’s been less then one week and the wheels are coming off, so now what? Here is the answer: Lower your standards. And not just a little, a whole lot.
We see you trying, but the reality is that this is a once-in-a-lifetime event, so any aspirations of being a perfect are going to have to do what everything else is doing until we get this under control – close down. That’s right, for just a bit, social distance yourself from the need to be perfect – six feet away at all times.
If you are interested, there are plenty of great articles that offer suggestions on activities that you can do with your children or how to work with your child to understand the world of remote learning.
But this article isn’t one of those.
This article is to remind you that you are doing just fine, mom and dad – even if “the school day” lasted 20 minutes yesterday and screen time lasted two hours so you could be on a conference call. You’re doing fine when there are fruit snacks in your couch and a pile of laundry in the basement because you Just. Can’t. Even. And you’re doing fine if you printed off an activity list with the best of intentions but haven’t done one. It’s all good.
There will be a time for activities, assignments, and yes, even striving for perfection. Now isn’t it. Now is the time to take a deep breath and understand that if you are stressed, you child will be too. You’ve got this. Think of all of this as a learning experience, the good, the bad and the ugly. And when it is all said and done, look at your family and say, “we didn’t do it perfectly, but we did it together.”