Is Zoom learning having an effect on our children’s mental health?

[Anonymous]

Zoom or DL is not the problem. The lack of mental health services is.

Newsflash: The mental issues your kids are having during distance learning would have happened anyway, you just wouldn't have noticed those issues until years down the line. And they won't magically stop because kids are in-person.

Kids were stressed, depressed, anxious, overmedicated, and overwhelmed before COVID hit. Now those feelings are amplified.

If you really care about your child's mental health then stop going around blaming zoom or distance learning. That won't create any meaningful reform, just lots of sound bites that "the kids are alright" now that they're back doing in-person school.

[Anonymous]

Kids who like learning on Zoom better must have had pretty lame teachers, boring classmates and a not very engaging or creative education back when they had in person learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids are not having a negative mental health impact due to Zoom. It seems an incredibly irresponsible claim to say the impact is uniform.

Exactly!

I will go one step further and say that IMO the only children having mental health impacts are those kids who aren't receiving enough structure and support from their parents. Either the parents are unstable and modeling that for their kids OR the parents are not able to provide structure and support because they don't know how to provide it.

Interesting theory. I am living proof that your opinion is unfounded.

[Anonymous]

Yes, of course zoom is having negative mental health impact on many children. Also, those of you saying “my kid loves it, this is better!” — whatever problem soon is solving for your kids is just going to come back twofold whenever they are back in person, whether that’s next year at school or at camp or in college or whatever. In person school is deeply flawed and fails in a lot of ways, but we can’t solve those problems by avoiding them.

But of course spending hours a day interacting via screen, having limited opportunities to interact with and learn from peers, and having more distant and protracted relationships with teachers and the overall school community is, on the whole, bad for kids. How is this even an argument. It is extremely obvious and all efforts to measure it have shown that DL is, on average, bad for learning and bad for mental health.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

mine prefers to stay home DL because they are snacks he can eat, jumping around at time, watch youtube videos at off time, wake up later, school end earlier etc.... Working parents do not have time for him, so he entertains himself with a lot of videos and TV every day. And, we used to put him at before care & after care school.

It is really unhealthy

God bless you for being honest. The things my kids like about distance learning are not necessarily great for them in the long run. (The snacks! My god, the snacks!)

Yes, NP, mine are exactly the same way, down to the jumping, snacks and way too many "funny animals" videos on Youtube. (1st and 3rd.) Sure, in a manner of speaking, they're "thriving." But they haven't learned sh#t. And their SEL skills have bottomed out. And that's with a much-loved college-age babysitter keeping them on task, parents making them turn in all class/homework, AND a (1x week) tutor. So sure, they "prefer" it, but is it hardly educational, and 90% of what they've learned is not from MCPS, but from reading such esteemed classics as Bad Kitty, Dog Man and Diary of a Wimpy Kid (/s) and Dad drilling them on multiplication tables at dinner.

We'll be going back March 15.

You want them to read other things? Give them to them. Read them too and discuss them.

I don't get the learned helplessness of so many parents here. One woman (you could practically hear the melodramatic tears in her typing) a while back said they need to open school buildings because her kids (oh, the horror!) ARE WATCHING TV WHEN THEY SHOULDN'T BE? Oh, if only there were solutions for these earth-shaking first world problems?

Pathetic.

This is the exact phrase I was looking for when I was posting in another thread. It's quite pathetic, especially coming from people who claim they are so smart, went to an ivy and make six figure incomes at super important jobs.

And it's literally every ranting post. And most of those rants, whining, issues, or problems can be solved with just 10 seconds of using their brains for problem-solving versus complaining.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Zoom or DL is not the problem. The lack of mental health services is.

Newsflash: The mental issues your kids are having during distance learning would have happened anyway, you just wouldn't have noticed those issues until years down the line. And they won't magically stop because kids are in-person.

Kids were stressed, depressed, anxious, overmedicated, and overwhelmed before COVID hit. Now those feelings are amplified.

If you really care about your child's mental health then stop going around blaming zoom or distance learning. That won't create any meaningful reform, just lots of sound bites that "the kids are alright" now that they're back doing in-person school.

Right, so mental health problems are caused solely by genetics? Or are you just ignoring the significant environmental stressor that is the pandemic because it doesn’t fit your narrative?

Social stressors, especially in the multiple forms they take right now, can absolutely interact with other factors (including but not limited to genetic predispositions) and lead to mental health problems. And when those stressors are removed or significantly reduced, yes, those problems can also remit. In other words, indefinite remote learning can negatively impact children’s mental health, and returning to school in-person can improve it. Not for all kids, but for many of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Zoom or DL is not the problem. The lack of mental health services is.

Newsflash: The mental issues your kids are having during distance learning would have happened anyway, you just wouldn't have noticed those issues until years down the line. And they won't magically stop because kids are in-person.

Kids were stressed, depressed, anxious, overmedicated, and overwhelmed before COVID hit. Now those feelings are amplified.

If you really care about your child's mental health then stop going around blaming zoom or distance learning. That won't create any meaningful reform, just lots of sound bites that "the kids are alright" now that they're back doing in-person school.

Utter nonsense. Putting elementary students on laptops all day is not developmentally appropriate and it IS harming them. I just talked to my house cleaner yesterday whose first grader went back in person last week. She said her daughter was so unhappy every single day during DL, and now that she is back in person she is like a different kid. And she loves school again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Zoom or DL is not the problem. The lack of mental health services is.

Newsflash: The mental issues your kids are having during distance learning would have happened anyway, you just wouldn't have noticed those issues until years down the line. And they won't magically stop because kids are in-person.

Kids were stressed, depressed, anxious, overmedicated, and overwhelmed before COVID hit. Now those feelings are amplified.

If you really care about your child's mental health then stop going around blaming zoom or distance learning. That won't create any meaningful reform, just lots of sound bites that "the kids are alright" now that they're back doing in-person school.

Right, so mental health problems are caused solely by genetics? Or are you just ignoring the significant environmental stressor that is the pandemic because it doesn’t fit your narrative?

Social stressors, especially in the multiple forms they take right now, can absolutely interact with other factors (including but not limited to genetic predispositions) and lead to mental health problems. And when those stressors are removed or significantly reduced, yes, those problems can also remit. In other words, indefinite remote learning can negatively impact children’s mental health, and returning to school in-person can improve it. Not for all kids, but for many of them.

The environmental stressor for the RTS crowd seems to be unstable and mentally unhealthy parents. The kids with stable and mentally healthy parents are doing well on DL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Zoom or DL is not the problem. The lack of mental health services is.

Newsflash: The mental issues your kids are having during distance learning would have happened anyway, you just wouldn't have noticed those issues until years down the line. And they won't magically stop because kids are in-person.

Kids were stressed, depressed, anxious, overmedicated, and overwhelmed before COVID hit. Now those feelings are amplified.

If you really care about your child's mental health then stop going around blaming zoom or distance learning. That won't create any meaningful reform, just lots of sound bites that "the kids are alright" now that they're back doing in-person school.

Right, so mental health problems are caused solely by genetics? Or are you just ignoring the significant environmental stressor that is the pandemic because it doesn’t fit your narrative?

Social stressors, especially in the multiple forms they take right now, can absolutely interact with other factors (including but not limited to genetic predispositions) and lead to mental health problems. And when those stressors are removed or significantly reduced, yes, those problems can also remit. In other words, indefinite remote learning can negatively impact children’s mental health, and returning to school in-person can improve it. Not for all kids, but for many of them.

The environmental stressor for the RTS crowd seems to be unstable and mentally unhealthy parents. The kids with stable and mentally healthy parents are doing well on DL.

Nope. Try again.

Or are you one of those self-proclaimed "stable and mentally healthy parents" who also likes to bash other adults and their children on an anonymous internet forum? That activity has long been the hallmark of stability and robust mental health.

[Anonymous]

Zoom v. extra hours of sleep every day. My teen chooses the extra hours of sleep. He is much more pleasant than he has ever been. He doesn't have to get up at 6:15 am every day.

[Anonymous]

Anyone else notice how these pro DL people keep talking and talking about how mentally stable they are? It's kind of weird. Who does that?

They seem to me to be VERY controlling. They love the control they've had this past year. Controlling their children. Controlling their husbands. Controlling the school system. They have no lives, and they have relished in the control the government has exhibited on the population.

Now that there is a vaccine, they are panicking. This is about to come to an end! Oh no!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone else notice how these pro DL people keep talking and talking about how mentally stable they are? It's kind of weird. Who does that?

They seem to me to be VERY controlling. They love the control they've had this past year. Controlling their children. Controlling their husbands. Controlling the school system. They have no lives, and they have relished in the control the government has exhibited on the population.

Now that there is a vaccine, they are panicking. This is about to come to an end! Oh no!!!

+1. I feel the worst for their poor children. Not allowed to have any meaningful social interactions as it might threaten their mother's pathological need for control.

[Anonymous]

My kid talks online with his friends every day. Not all kids need to be in the same physical space as their friends to benefit from social interaction. This too shall pass. Worry about your own kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids who like learning on Zoom better must have had pretty lame teachers, boring classmates and a not very engaging or creative education back when they had in person learning.

This, plus the bullying and mean kid behavior, loud crowded lunch/recess and much more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid talks online with his friends every day. Not all kids need to be in the same physical space as their friends to benefit from social interaction. This too shall pass. Worry about your own kids.

+1 chat, online gaming