Will they talk about Covid shut down like the Great Depression

[Anonymous]

In terms of how hard it was to parent during that time? Do you think there will be pictures in text books?

The shut down in April 2020-July 2020 was one of the hardest periods of my life. For people with young kids do you think historians and parenting experts will do in depth analysis about that time? And the affects of parenting young kids during such a huge life event?

I had a 4 week old, 3 year old and 5 year old when shut down occurred - my husband was back to work after taking time off when I had the baby and so I was solo with 3 kids, terrified someone was going to get sick and sooo sleep deprived.

[Anonymous]

I don't think I've ever seen any articles about parenting during the Great Depression. Probably because what we call "parenting" is a modern construct. Back then, most people just had kids. Feed them, raised them, and off they went. The End.

[Anonymous]

Were you working as well?

[Anonymous]

No. And how could you even compare those two?

[Anonymous]

Oh, FFS.

[Anonymous]

I think covid will be written about in history books because it was an historic even. Maybe there will be discussions on poverty, unemployment, access to health care, education. I don’t think anyone will bother to research and publish pieces about how hard it was on stay-at-home moms…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think I've ever seen any articles about parenting during the Great Depression. Probably because what we call "parenting" is a modern construct. Back then, most people just had kids. Feed them, raised them, and off they went. The End.

+1 If you have the luxury to frame something as to how it affected your parenting for four months, it probably wasn’t that bad (for you) in the grand scheme of things.

[Anonymous]

Op here - just for context no I am not a stay at home mom. I work full time.

I was on maternity leave for a portion of the shut down and then back to work full time with very little child care or childcare that closed constantly due to Covid policies.

I think the affects for working moms during the first year of Covid were tremendous. I had very bad postpartum depression that was exacerbated by Covid (maybe from it?). I sincerely wanted to die every day for months. I was sleeping 45-50 minute intervals at night for months with no ability to rest during the day because I had kids at home and was trying to work at the same time.

Maybe it was just a problem for me and everyone else had an amazing relaxing time “off” during the first year of Covid.

What bothers me the most were the people who just didn’t give a flying F what was going on and saying things like “we are living our best lives!” Since they could work from anywhere and could travel cheaply. But that’s probably a me problem.

[Anonymous]

I imagine that we'll look at it like we recall other major flus that have hit in the last 100+ years.

It might be discussed in the context of the paradigm shift to work / learn from home, but I don't think the event itself will be studied in great depth by school children.

[Anonymous]

I think people will talk about it sort of the way they talked about the AIDS crisis in the health world. And I think it will be somewhat historic in the financial world due to supply chain disruptions, vast technology improvements and changes in work environments, but much less than the Great Depression. Even less than recent recessions.

OP I think your views are skewed due to your PPD. This was a tough time but not crisis level like the Great Depression. And I say this as someone who also had a tough time due to having a seriously mentally I’ll child and no medical care available.

[Anonymous]

Yes, history books will cover covid, likely in the same way they cover the 1918 pandemic. School books will not talk about parenting challenges but there will be sociological studies on things like women in the workforce, widespread mental health, how pandemic babies do in school, etc.

I'm very sorry for what you went through. I hope you got help for your PPD and I hope things are better now. I think what you're describing is more about having small kids and no childcare or help: common I'm certain, but not a universal pandemic experience.

[Anonymous]

I think working moms bore the brunt of the shutdowns at home. I’m sure it will be part of the history told at some point in the future.

I had a rough time of it then and honestly I’m not quite past it yet. I have a sister with health anxiety who is still masking and living like it’s 2020 and I don’t know when she’ll let that go.

[Anonymous]

They won't talk about it because it mostly impacted women and history doesn't value women's experiences the same way it values men's.

If it led to some sort of great social reform on par with say the creation of Social Security and Medicare, it would get a write up, but I think society has made it pretty clear that solving things related to parenting are not a priority.

I think the pandemic probably changed public health and work culture forever. I don't think it will make a bit of difference for moms.

[Anonymous]

The pandemic taught us that no one cares about parents. Even in this thread some people are attributing the challenges to ppd. No, it was extremely difficult for all working parents with young kids who suddenly lost the even minimal supports we had, like any childcare whatsoever, and playgrounds. Then bars opened before schools. I am still recovering. Maybe I'll never be the same. But given that nobody cared even during the pandemic, no, I do not think this will be given a second thought in history books.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The pandemic taught us that no one cares about parents. Even in this thread some people are attributing the challenges to ppd. No, it was extremely difficult for all working parents with young kids who suddenly lost the even minimal supports we had, like any childcare whatsoever, and playgrounds. Then bars opened before schools. I am still recovering. Maybe I'll never be the same. But given that nobody cared even during the pandemic, no, I do not think this will be given a second thought in history books.

No one cares about CHILDREN--apparently, including their own parents. All of the above just talks about how hard this was on parents, and not a word about how hard it was on the kids.