Will they talk about Covid shut down like the Great Depression

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People, you have to move on.
Many people struggled for various reasons and to various degrees, but unless you’ve lost a loved one, have serious health issues bc of Covid, or were financially ruined, you have to get over it and live your life.
I have wealthy and healthy friends who still go on and on about how devastating “lockdown” was. If that is the worst thing that has happened to you, you’ve lived a cushy life.

It wasn’t like the Depression, but trying to keep young kids participating in online school while also having to work my own job was nearly impossible. Schools were gaslighting us acting like 6-hour virtual school was perfectly fine for a 1st grader. I always considered just quitting school and “homeschooling”, but I was really too busy to do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had a hard pandemic. We worked FT in person. Some of our people - family, friends, colleagues - died.

It affected some people very badly and will influence public health policy, employment policy and trends, education policy, etc.

But from an historical perspective, it was a blip. The Great Depression lasted for years and years. Parenting in the Great Depression? On one side of my family the children (and adults, really) were malnourished for years. Could you feed your children during 2020?

My parents grew up in the depression and were so malnourished. They also had no medical or dental care which effected them their whole lives.

I have tremendous compassion for how everyone suffered during the pandemic but I don't think they compare at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Agree with all of this. I often feel like I'm the only one who remembers any of this.

I also think that part of the problem is that it was a narrow slice of parents who experienced the worst of it, and others happily minimize the challenges. If you had children between age 0 and 5 when the pandemic began, and especially if you rely on childcare and are not wealthy, the first 6 months or so of the pandemic were basically an ongoing crisis for your family. Like obviously the pandemic itself was a global crisis and everyone was worried about people dying, what was happening in hospitals, their personal well being, etc. But for middle and working class families with young kids, literally every day was a crisis of just basic functioning.

It was only later that I realized this wasn't everyone's experience. Many people just shifted to WFH, or to virtual school for older kids, and obviously there were struggles and it was a weird time, but it wasn't just this ongoing crisis.

During that time, I had a schedule where I got up at 7 and provided primary childcare to two kids under 4 until 2pm, at which point I'd work for 4 hours while DH watched the kids or they watched TV, then we'd have dinner and do bedtime, then both of us would work for another 4-5 hours until we went to bed at 1 or 2 in the morning. Sometimes I wouldn't got to bed until 3 or 4, but I'd get up again at 7 because I had to. And we did this for about 6 months. My oldest basically didn't get potty trained until 4 because we were so overwhelmed and exhausted that we couldn't be consistent or tackle the challenges of that. They both got addicted to TV and even though we've undone that, I still think it had long term effect. I still deal with hyper vigilance and some other anxiety issues that date back to that time, and it killed intimacy in my marriage and we've just never gotten it back despite efforts to do so. I also no longer trust any structural supports for our family, whether it's daycare, schools, public resources like playgrounds, nothing.

But yeah, I think this experience will just be lost to history. No one cares. But those of us who know, get it.

Oh the parents of kids under 5 were totally just forgotten, and not just during shutdowns, but after everything else went back to normal. Because they were the last to get vaccinated (or even just be eligible regardless of whether you wanted to vaccinate them), the young kids were still quarantining for exposures long after the world had gone back to normal and at which point employers no longer had any goodwill toward people with young children. We were told it’s been long enough we should have figured it out, but meanwhile we were the only ones still being forced to live like it was 2020. And the politicians stopped caring once schools were open. Daycares and preschools could make up whatever rules they wanted.

+1, raise your hand if people started telling you to "get over it" when your child was still regularly being forced to stay home for exposure quarantines, wear a mask to school and social distance daily, and had no access to vaccines or even age-appropriate Covid tests. We had to give weekly nasal swabs to a 3/4 year old for over a year.

I remember I used to go for walks in the evening after my DH (who worked in person through the entire pandemic) so that I could cry and decompress after working and taking care of little kids all day with minimal childcare. In Jan/Feb of 2021, these walks took me past restaurants and bars filled with people laughing and drinking and having a great time. My own children would not be back to "normal" in their lives for another year and a half.

It was a weird time, but it taught me a lot about what our society cares about and what they truly do not give a flying f**k about.

I’m the PP and yes it definitely taught me a lot. I was all in on masking and let’s flatten the curve, chipping in for meals for healthcare workers, I helped multiple elderly people in my family and randoms from FB groups track down priority vaccine appointments, etc. I kept such a positive attitude and wanted to help others. But watching people in the restaurants/bars around my house go back to normal while I was quarantining a special needs 4 year old yet again and barely hanging onto my job and then being told “get over it” made me so bitter. Sadly this will be an experience that pushes me into prioritizing my family in the future because I realized we were totally on our own.

[Anonymous]

For me personally, the biggest impact was realizing how many selfish pricks I know. They lashed out against teachers/schools, throwing massive tantrums. Very disappointing and we had to prune our friend groups.

As a community, I think it's going to be tough to get past the political divisiveness inflamed by the pandemic. We were already in a bad place, and instead of coming together to solve this problem, our community split further apart.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the pandemic really has made me fundamentally not trust schools. I don't know how to let it go. I didn't move during the pandemic for an open school (because I was actually financially ruined), but I still feel the need to move to just find a different school district. Just to get a cleaner slate.

Trust isn't something that is easy to get back once it has been ruined.

Same, I don't trust schools and I have lost the ability to believe that anyone associated with a school actually has a vested interest in my children.

It's really altered my perception of teachers. It's not that I don't appreciate what they do, I do. But I have limited capacity to believe that they, as a group, are invested in the well being of children. I think individual teachers may be invested in certain groups of kids. But I don't view the teaching profession as focused on the well-being of children. I think teacher's unions and educational organizations exist primarily for their own benefit, and if children benefit that's a nice side effect but not necessary for them to accomplish their goals.

I work in healthcare and think about how I and others took seriously our oaths to protect and care for our patients during the single biggest healthcare crisis of my lifetime. I simply do not see that same dedication or willingness to sacrifice on the part of teachers. They looked out for themselves and while I guess you can't fault them for that (most people did), coming from another helping profession where I don't think we put ourselves first at all, it was somewhat shocking to me to realize this.

Ok, comparing healthcare worker to teachers is NOT fair. Health care workers take an oath to take care of sick people. HC workers were also prioritized wrt ppe. And hospitals have been air quality than most schools.

Teachers do not go into the profession pledging to potentially put their lives at risk to take care of sick people. They were not given test fitted N95s. And in most districts very little was done to upgrade air quality. They certainly didnt have hospital grade air.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the pandemic really has made me fundamentally not trust schools. I don't know how to let it go. I didn't move during the pandemic for an open school (because I was actually financially ruined), but I still feel the need to move to just find a different school district. Just to get a cleaner slate.

Trust isn't something that is easy to get back once it has been ruined.

Same, I don't trust schools and I have lost the ability to believe that anyone associated with a school actually has a vested interest in my children.

It's really altered my perception of teachers. It's not that I don't appreciate what they do, I do. But I have limited capacity to believe that they, as a group, are invested in the well being of children. I think individual teachers may be invested in certain groups of kids. But I don't view the teaching profession as focused on the well-being of children. I think teacher's unions and educational organizations exist primarily for their own benefit, and if children benefit that's a nice side effect but not necessary for them to accomplish their goals.

I work in healthcare and think about how I and others took seriously our oaths to protect and care for our patients during the single biggest healthcare crisis of my lifetime. I simply do not see that same dedication or willingness to sacrifice on the part of teachers. They looked out for themselves and while I guess you can't fault them for that (most people did), coming from another helping profession where I don't think we put ourselves first at all, it was somewhat shocking to me to realize this.

Ok, comparing healthcare worker to teachers is NOT fair. Health care workers take an oath to take care of sick people. HC workers were also prioritized wrt ppe. And hospitals have been air quality than most schools.

Teachers do not go into the profession pledging to potentially put their lives at risk to take care of sick people. They were not given test fitted N95s. And in most districts very little was done to upgrade air quality. They certainly didnt have hospital grade air.

Shouldn’t you be busy teaching right now? Or complaining that you only get paid for working 180 days of the year like this was some sort of surprise?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Was your husband working in person?

My husband was working in person. As was his his ex. They were essential workers.

And we shuttled the kids between the two of our households.

I am very high risk. For Covid complications.

It was a terrifying time. I have to tell you that I got very internally fed up with all the people who were able to work fully remotely and stay home safely with their kids and houses in non-divorced families. They were basically safe from Covid. For many of us or risking death and long-term sickness every day and constantly having to worry about that stress.

So, I got pretty frustrated at all the well off parents Who were able to completely stay home for some of us were risking sickness and death.

I also realize that a lot of my friends who are well off had actually outsourced a lot of parenting before the pandemic. They were used to having nannies come in the morning, my friends went off to work, and by the time my friends came home, the kids were bathed and fed and all my friends really had to do is play with them for half an hour before bed. Once they actually had to care for their children full-time, they went crazy. Actually, I even had friends who took their nannies with them to their country houses who still went crazy being around the kids all the time.

They were totally safe from COVID, they had their jobs, Their families were safe, and yet all they did was complain. I thought it was really turned off given the fact that household like mine for dealing with the stress of covid coming into their lives.

So yeah, I didn’t feel too bad for parents Who were able to stay home and work remotely with their kids staying home as well. In fact, their vocal whining and complaining really pissed me off at times. Because they were actually very very lucky.

Now if your husband was working in person and therefore you were dealing with the constant threat of COVID as well, then I totally sympathize.

What did you want us to? Quit our jobs as lawyers or engineers (my husband and I) and volunteer to be a nurse?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Was your husband working in person?

My husband was working in person. As was his his ex. They were essential workers.

And we shuttled the kids between the two of our households.

I am very high risk. For Covid complications.

It was a terrifying time. I have to tell you that I got very internally fed up with all the people who were able to work fully remotely and stay home safely with their kids and houses in non-divorced families. They were basically safe from Covid. For many of us or risking death and long-term sickness every day and constantly having to worry about that stress.

So, I got pretty frustrated at all the well off parents Who were able to completely stay home for some of us were risking sickness and death.

I also realize that a lot of my friends who are well off had actually outsourced a lot of parenting before the pandemic. They were used to having nannies come in the morning, my friends went off to work, and by the time my friends came home, the kids were bathed and fed and all my friends really had to do is play with them for half an hour before bed. Once they actually had to care for their children full-time, they went crazy. Actually, I even had friends who took their nannies with them to their country houses who still went crazy being around the kids all the time.

They were totally safe from COVID, they had their jobs, Their families were safe, and yet all they did was complain. I thought it was really turned off given the fact that household like mine for dealing with the stress of covid coming into their lives.

So yeah, I didn’t feel too bad for parents Who were able to stay home and work remotely with their kids staying home as well. In fact, their vocal whining and complaining really pissed me off at times. Because they were actually very very lucky.

Now if your husband was working in person and therefore you were dealing with the constant threat of COVID as well, then I totally sympathize.

People like you, who make everything into a suffering Olympics, suck.

I guess I can't complain because I didn't have to have a bilateral mastectomy and the breast cancer didn't kill me, right? Please.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Agree with all of this. I often feel like I'm the only one who remembers any of this.

I also think that part of the problem is that it was a narrow slice of parents who experienced the worst of it, and others happily minimize the challenges. If you had children between age 0 and 5 when the pandemic began, and especially if you rely on childcare and are not wealthy, the first 6 months or so of the pandemic were basically an ongoing crisis for your family. Like obviously the pandemic itself was a global crisis and everyone was worried about people dying, what was happening in hospitals, their personal well being, etc. But for middle and working class families with young kids, literally every day was a crisis of just basic functioning.

It was only later that I realized this wasn't everyone's experience. Many people just shifted to WFH, or to virtual school for older kids, and obviously there were struggles and it was a weird time, but it wasn't just this ongoing crisis.

During that time, I had a schedule where I got up at 7 and provided primary childcare to two kids under 4 until 2pm, at which point I'd work for 4 hours while DH watched the kids or they watched TV, then we'd have dinner and do bedtime, then both of us would work for another 4-5 hours until we went to bed at 1 or 2 in the morning. Sometimes I wouldn't got to bed until 3 or 4, but I'd get up again at 7 because I had to. And we did this for about 6 months. My oldest basically didn't get potty trained until 4 because we were so overwhelmed and exhausted that we couldn't be consistent or tackle the challenges of that. They both got addicted to TV and even though we've undone that, I still think it had long term effect. I still deal with hyper vigilance and some other anxiety issues that date back to that time, and it killed intimacy in my marriage and we've just never gotten it back despite efforts to do so. I also no longer trust any structural supports for our family, whether it's daycare, schools, public resources like playgrounds, nothing.

But yeah, I think this experience will just be lost to history. No one cares. But those of us who know, get it.

Maybe you just harp on it more than others?

COVID sucked, for a lot of reasons, for a lot of people. But some of us choose to pick up the pieces and move on with our lives. I didn't remotely escape COVID unscathed - I lost someone who meant the world to me and I have not recovered from that but I have still moved forward with my life.

Unless you're actively doing something to counteract the horrendous policies that allowed bars to open before schools, what's the point of your continued moaning?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Agree with all of this. I often feel like I'm the only one who remembers any of this.

I also think that part of the problem is that it was a narrow slice of parents who experienced the worst of it, and others happily minimize the challenges. If you had children between age 0 and 5 when the pandemic began, and especially if you rely on childcare and are not wealthy, the first 6 months or so of the pandemic were basically an ongoing crisis for your family. Like obviously the pandemic itself was a global crisis and everyone was worried about people dying, what was happening in hospitals, their personal well being, etc. But for middle and working class families with young kids, literally every day was a crisis of just basic functioning.

It was only later that I realized this wasn't everyone's experience. Many people just shifted to WFH, or to virtual school for older kids, and obviously there were struggles and it was a weird time, but it wasn't just this ongoing crisis.

During that time, I had a schedule where I got up at 7 and provided primary childcare to two kids under 4 until 2pm, at which point I'd work for 4 hours while DH watched the kids or they watched TV, then we'd have dinner and do bedtime, then both of us would work for another 4-5 hours until we went to bed at 1 or 2 in the morning. Sometimes I wouldn't got to bed until 3 or 4, but I'd get up again at 7 because I had to. And we did this for about 6 months. My oldest basically didn't get potty trained until 4 because we were so overwhelmed and exhausted that we couldn't be consistent or tackle the challenges of that. They both got addicted to TV and even though we've undone that, I still think it had long term effect. I still deal with hyper vigilance and some other anxiety issues that date back to that time, and it killed intimacy in my marriage and we've just never gotten it back despite efforts to do so. I also no longer trust any structural supports for our family, whether it's daycare, schools, public resources like playgrounds, nothing.

But yeah, I think this experience will just be lost to history. No one cares. But those of us who know, get it.

I'm not one to compare people's suffering, but you lost sleep and your kid wasn't potty trained on time and they watched too much TV? Ok. Your perspective is way off. I truly hope you don't talk like that to people who were on the front lines.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the pandemic really has made me fundamentally not trust schools. I don't know how to let it go. I didn't move during the pandemic for an open school (because I was actually financially ruined), but I still feel the need to move to just find a different school district. Just to get a cleaner slate.

Trust isn't something that is easy to get back once it has been ruined.

Same, I don't trust schools and I have lost the ability to believe that anyone associated with a school actually has a vested interest in my children.

It's really altered my perception of teachers. It's not that I don't appreciate what they do, I do. But I have limited capacity to believe that they, as a group, are invested in the well being of children. I think individual teachers may be invested in certain groups of kids. But I don't view the teaching profession as focused on the well-being of children. I think teacher's unions and educational organizations exist primarily for their own benefit, and if children benefit that's a nice side effect but not necessary for them to accomplish their goals.

I work in healthcare and think about how I and others took seriously our oaths to protect and care for our patients during the single biggest healthcare crisis of my lifetime. I simply do not see that same dedication or willingness to sacrifice on the part of teachers. They looked out for themselves and while I guess you can't fault them for that (most people did), coming from another helping profession where I don't think we put ourselves first at all, it was somewhat shocking to me to realize this.

Ok, comparing healthcare worker to teachers is NOT fair. Health care workers take an oath to take care of sick people. HC workers were also prioritized wrt ppe. And hospitals have been air quality than most schools.

Teachers do not go into the profession pledging to potentially put their lives at risk to take care of sick people. They were not given test fitted N95s. And in most districts very little was done to upgrade air quality. They certainly didnt have hospital grade air.

My best friend is a third grade public school teacher in Virginia. She 100% would have been teaching at school had she been allowed to do so. Your anger is misplaced. Go after your school board. Hell, run for school board. That you would put this on all teachers is disgusting and entirely misplaced.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the pandemic really has made me fundamentally not trust schools. I don't know how to let it go. I didn't move during the pandemic for an open school (because I was actually financially ruined), but I still feel the need to move to just find a different school district. Just to get a cleaner slate.

Trust isn't something that is easy to get back once it has been ruined.

Same, I don't trust schools and I have lost the ability to believe that anyone associated with a school actually has a vested interest in my children.

It's really altered my perception of teachers. It's not that I don't appreciate what they do, I do. But I have limited capacity to believe that they, as a group, are invested in the well being of children. I think individual teachers may be invested in certain groups of kids. But I don't view the teaching profession as focused on the well-being of children. I think teacher's unions and educational organizations exist primarily for their own benefit, and if children benefit that's a nice side effect but not necessary for them to accomplish their goals.

I work in healthcare and think about how I and others took seriously our oaths to protect and care for our patients during the single biggest healthcare crisis of my lifetime. I simply do not see that same dedication or willingness to sacrifice on the part of teachers. They looked out for themselves and while I guess you can't fault them for that (most people did), coming from another helping profession where I don't think we put ourselves first at all, it was somewhat shocking to me to realize this.

Ok, comparing healthcare worker to teachers is NOT fair. Health care workers take an oath to take care of sick people. HC workers were also prioritized wrt ppe. And hospitals have been air quality than most schools.

Teachers do not go into the profession pledging to potentially put their lives at risk to take care of sick people. They were not given test fitted N95s. And in most districts very little was done to upgrade air quality. They certainly didnt have hospital grade air.

My best friend is a third grade public school teacher in Virginia. She 100% would have been teaching at school had she been allowed to do so. Your anger is misplaced. Go after your school board. Hell, run for school board. That you would put this on all teachers is disgusting and entirely misplaced.

1000%

So disgusting.

[Anonymous]

My DD was 11 months old in March 2020, right when things shut down. We immediately lost her in-home daycare which went belly-up. DH was able to work remotely but my job was 100% in-person. We were lucky to find a spot in another daycare a month later because I worked at a hospital and qualified for the essential worker quota. It was very stressful because both our families lived out of heh country and we couldn’t do anything except worry about their safety, especially when the Delta wave was raging through India.
My DD also got diagnosed with autism right in the middle of the pandemic so we had to juggle all the appointments and therapies as well. Anyway, life throws curveballs. We try to look at the positive side.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the pandemic really has made me fundamentally not trust schools. I don't know how to let it go. I didn't move during the pandemic for an open school (because I was actually financially ruined), but I still feel the need to move to just find a different school district. Just to get a cleaner slate.

Trust isn't something that is easy to get back once it has been ruined.

Same, I don't trust schools and I have lost the ability to believe that anyone associated with a school actually has a vested interest in my children.

It's really altered my perception of teachers. It's not that I don't appreciate what they do, I do. But I have limited capacity to believe that they, as a group, are invested in the well being of children. I think individual teachers may be invested in certain groups of kids. But I don't view the teaching profession as focused on the well-being of children. I think teacher's unions and educational organizations exist primarily for their own benefit, and if children benefit that's a nice side effect but not necessary for them to accomplish their goals.

I work in healthcare and think about how I and others took seriously our oaths to protect and care for our patients during the single biggest healthcare crisis of my lifetime. I simply do not see that same dedication or willingness to sacrifice on the part of teachers. They looked out for themselves and while I guess you can't fault them for that (most people did), coming from another helping profession where I don't think we put ourselves first at all, it was somewhat shocking to me to realize this.

Ok, comparing healthcare worker to teachers is NOT fair. Health care workers take an oath to take care of sick people. HC workers were also prioritized wrt ppe. And hospitals have been air quality than most schools.

Teachers do not go into the profession pledging to potentially put their lives at risk to take care of sick people. They were not given test fitted N95s. And in most districts very little was done to upgrade air quality. They certainly didnt have hospital grade air.

My best friend is a third grade public school teacher in Virginia. She 100% would have been teaching at school had she been allowed to do so. Your anger is misplaced. Go after your school board. Hell, run for school board. That you would put this on all teachers is disgusting and entirely misplaced.

Not really. Our district’s teachers union took a vote and an overwhelming majority did not want to go back and threatened to file a grievance and potentially strike if the district forced them back in the classroom. We were one of the last districts in our area to go back in person. I have no respect for these lazy, overweight teachers preaching about their “health”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the pandemic really has made me fundamentally not trust schools. I don't know how to let it go. I didn't move during the pandemic for an open school (because I was actually financially ruined), but I still feel the need to move to just find a different school district. Just to get a cleaner slate.

Trust isn't something that is easy to get back once it has been ruined.

Same, I don't trust schools and I have lost the ability to believe that anyone associated with a school actually has a vested interest in my children.

It's really altered my perception of teachers. It's not that I don't appreciate what they do, I do. But I have limited capacity to believe that they, as a group, are invested in the well being of children. I think individual teachers may be invested in certain groups of kids. But I don't view the teaching profession as focused on the well-being of children. I think teacher's unions and educational organizations exist primarily for their own benefit, and if children benefit that's a nice side effect but not necessary for them to accomplish their goals.

I work in healthcare and think about how I and others took seriously our oaths to protect and care for our patients during the single biggest healthcare crisis of my lifetime. I simply do not see that same dedication or willingness to sacrifice on the part of teachers. They looked out for themselves and while I guess you can't fault them for that (most people did), coming from another helping profession where I don't think we put ourselves first at all, it was somewhat shocking to me to realize this.

Yeah, it was pretty shocking just how little teachers and the teachers' unions cared about schoolchildren. You become a teacher because, presumably, you have an interest in the wellbeing of children, at least as one factor. And yet, teachers were the biggest obstruction to getting kids back into schools. If it had been left to the teachers in places like the DC area and California, schools would have remained virtual through 2022.

Before the pandemic, we were pretty engaged with our school community. Now, we're mostly checked out. We didn't even re-up our membership with the PTA.