If you were firmly in the schools should stay closed camp ...

[Anonymous]

When we had a choice again to change instructional styles, we chose to stay virtual. Now that the adults are vaccinated, we could send our kid back to school, but he's doing fine and we're in a routine now. No point in messing it up for a whole five weeks.

The only regret now is that my son probably won't meet his teacher this year.

There is a middle ground.

Rehashing all of your disagreements ad nauseam must keep that blood pressure up. You need yoga and meditation, my dude.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My house hasn’t caught on fire, but I don’t regret having working smoke detectors. I’ve never been in a serious car accident, but I don’t regret decades of wearing a seatbelt. I’ve never had an unintended pregnancy, but I don’t regret having used birth control. I took precautions to avoid covid. Maybe I wouldn’t have contracted it even if I wasn’t cautious, but that doesn’t make me regret the precautions. I make the best choices I can based on the information I have.

Occasionally buying batteries for a smoke detector or buckling a seatbelt when you’re driving isn’t quite on par with asking a 5 year old to spend a year of learning sitting in front of an iPad and having no socialization with peers.

That wasn’t the choice most people were making.
Doing virtual school didn’t have to mean no socialization.
My 8 year old did virtual school and played outside on hikes and with kids in the neighborhood with masks. We did less in the winter but still did some. I don’t regret the choice - of course now i can see how much better things are but as parents we are also fully vaccinated now so it is different. We made the right choice at the time. We also sent my 5 year old to an in person kindergarten. And she played outside.

Everyone I know chose middle grounds, some a bit different than others. Last year was terrible in many ways but we made choices because we were rational and had to. And many many people did get covid last winter. Had one family been less cautious it wouldn’t have been much different for that family. The reality is though that if every or a large number of families had been less cautious it would have been worse. I am glad the majority of people in my community worked together to be reasonably safe. I am so happy to enjoy the time now with friends given that.

I mean - you had the option to send your 5 year old to in person K. that makes you very lucky compared to many of us! and also on the less cautious side. hopefully you can see that your family had many many more advantages than those of us stuck with only online learning and without all the social opportunities your kids had.

DP. Many of us made lemonade from lemons. Sounds like you didn't. What you see as lack of opportunities the rest of us saw as challenges to overcome. This past year was tough, don't get me wrong, but it was also one of the most relaxing years our kids have had. It was scary because of Covid and we had to totally revamp our lifestyle to adjust to online learning but our kids thrived because of the choices we, their parents, made so that they could thrive. For most of the people complaining, I saw that we had the same lack of options and the same lack of opportunities but we got our acts together and made it work. It was hard but we did it. I am tired of listening to all the moaners and complainers bellyaching about this and that. The only way to change your output is to change your input. You make your opportunities.

Dude. That PP **SENT HER CHILD TO SCHOOL**. Many of us did not have that option. Many of us did not have the option to get our kids extensive other opportunities for socialization. The point is that school is an entitlement; not something that we should just throw our hands up and say "oh well, everyone needs to "change their input."" I mean really, you're horrifically tone deaf.

Dude, we didn't have that option either but yet we MADE IT WORK. That isn't tone deaf. It is calling you out and telling you that you are more of the problem than anything else. The rest of us got with the program and made it work. You didn't. Your problem, not mine.

right, we were the only family struggling with DL. sure, sure, sure.

The only families like yours who we saw struggling were, frankly, the families who always struggle. They're the families always running around like their hair is on fire. They're the families always in a state of disruption and eruption. They're the families where something is always forgotten, they're always late or they completely miss the date, and they're the families where they always have problems.

From our vantage point DL didn't make any substantive changes to the negative quality of their lives because they were already there living in negative land. It is their permanent home.

The same with the RTS. It isn't going to make any change. The kids will still be disheveled, the parents will still be frantic, their lives will still be massively disarrayed. Next year the complaints will continue only they'll be focused on the elements of RTS - they'll complain about the teachers, they'll complain about the schools, they'll complain about "learning loss" like it is someone's fault other than their own. In essence, nothing will change except where they used to blame DL now it will be these other things.

At this point I just can't find it in me to care anymore. Their problems (YOUR problems) are not mine to solve and I am not going to listen to the constant litany of complaints. Either get your act together or shut up about your inability to parent your kids and manage your family adequately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When we had a choice again to change instructional styles, we chose to stay virtual. Now that the adults are vaccinated, we could send our kid back to school, but he's doing fine and we're in a routine now. No point in messing it up for a whole five weeks.

The only regret now is that my son probably won't meet his teacher this year.

There is a middle ground.

Rehashing all of your disagreements ad nauseam must keep that blood pressure up. You need yoga and meditation, my dude.

+1 And therapy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My house hasn’t caught on fire, but I don’t regret having working smoke detectors. I’ve never been in a serious car accident, but I don’t regret decades of wearing a seatbelt. I’ve never had an unintended pregnancy, but I don’t regret having used birth control. I took precautions to avoid covid. Maybe I wouldn’t have contracted it even if I wasn’t cautious, but that doesn’t make me regret the precautions. I make the best choices I can based on the information I have.

Occasionally buying batteries for a smoke detector or buckling a seatbelt when you’re driving isn’t quite on par with asking a 5 year old to spend a year of learning sitting in front of an iPad and having no socialization with peers.

That wasn’t the choice most people were making.
Doing virtual school didn’t have to mean no socialization.
My 8 year old did virtual school and played outside on hikes and with kids in the neighborhood with masks. We did less in the winter but still did some. I don’t regret the choice - of course now i can see how much better things are but as parents we are also fully vaccinated now so it is different. We made the right choice at the time. We also sent my 5 year old to an in person kindergarten. And she played outside.

Everyone I know chose middle grounds, some a bit different than others. Last year was terrible in many ways but we made choices because we were rational and had to. And many many people did get covid last winter. Had one family been less cautious it wouldn’t have been much different for that family. The reality is though that if every or a large number of families had been less cautious it would have been worse. I am glad the majority of people in my community worked together to be reasonably safe. I am so happy to enjoy the time now with friends given that.

I mean - you had the option to send your 5 year old to in person K. that makes you very lucky compared to many of us! and also on the less cautious side. hopefully you can see that your family had many many more advantages than those of us stuck with only online learning and without all the social opportunities your kids had.

DP. Many of us made lemonade from lemons. Sounds like you didn't. What you see as lack of opportunities the rest of us saw as challenges to overcome. This past year was tough, don't get me wrong, but it was also one of the most relaxing years our kids have had. It was scary because of Covid and we had to totally revamp our lifestyle to adjust to online learning but our kids thrived because of the choices we, their parents, made so that they could thrive. For most of the people complaining, I saw that we had the same lack of options and the same lack of opportunities but we got our acts together and made it work. It was hard but we did it. I am tired of listening to all the moaners and complainers bellyaching about this and that. The only way to change your output is to change your input. You make your opportunities.

Dude. That PP **SENT HER CHILD TO SCHOOL**. Many of us did not have that option. Many of us did not have the option to get our kids extensive other opportunities for socialization. The point is that school is an entitlement; not something that we should just throw our hands up and say "oh well, everyone needs to "change their input."" I mean really, you're horrifically tone deaf.

Dude, we didn't have that option either but yet we MADE IT WORK. That isn't tone deaf. It is calling you out and telling you that you are more of the problem than anything else. The rest of us got with the program and made it work. You didn't. Your problem, not mine.

right, we were the only family struggling with DL. sure, sure, sure.

The only families like yours who we saw struggling were, frankly, the families who always struggle. They're the families always running around like their hair is on fire. They're the families always in a state of disruption and eruption. They're the families where something is always forgotten, they're always late or they completely miss the date, and they're the families where they always have problems.

From our vantage point DL didn't make any substantive changes to the negative quality of their lives because they were already there living in negative land. It is their permanent home.

The same with the RTS. It isn't going to make any change. The kids will still be disheveled, the parents will still be frantic, their lives will still be massively disarrayed. Next year the complaints will continue only they'll be focused on the elements of RTS - they'll complain about the teachers, they'll complain about the schools, they'll complain about "learning loss" like it is someone's fault other than their own. In essence, nothing will change except where they used to blame DL now it will be these other things.

At this point I just can't find it in me to care anymore. Their problems (YOUR problems) are not mine to solve and I am not going to listen to the constant litany of complaints. Either get your act together or shut up about your inability to parent your kids and manage your family adequately.

New poster here. Unless parents who claim they "made it work" give specific examples, I find it hard to take them seriously. You "made it work" because you bought your child a desk to do DL, or you "made it work" by hiring a nanny, hiring tutors, paying for private school, paying for extracurriculars so your child could socialize, moving to a beach house for the school year, just accepted the reality of DL and didn't let your kids hear you complain about it, made Mac and Cheese or spaghetti every night to make space to help your kids more with school? Frankly, OP sounds more than a little privileged if he/she the way she writes about families who are always in a state of disruption, like she can't fathom why that might be the case...

[Anonymous]

Look, obviously some people lack the resources to “make it work” but those aren’t the people posting here. They aren’t. If you’re an average Arlington parent, “making it work” looked like checking your attitude and reassessing your actual level of privilege . It looked like teaching your kids resilience by modeling perseverance and perspective even when things got tough. You don’t even need money to do that, or nannies, or a beach house. The problem is, a LOT of DCUM parents had such a hard time this year because they themselves lack resilience and perspective. They couldn’t fall back on it, let alone teach it to their kids. No amount of tantruming or “throwing money at” something fixed it (for the first time in their life for some of them). Even with health, a home, jobs, food, utilities, some parents here felt they were exclusively being targeted to suffer. I’m sure that was tremendously difficult on them and their family. But thag doesn’t mean they objectively truly had it all that bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I lost my spouse and my mother to covid back in the fall. My child was just vaccinated. She will not return to school until next fall. When you haven't seen someone you love die, its pretty easy to think schools should have reopened earlier.

omg pp, I'm so sorry. Hugs to you.

[Anonymous]

Someone in another thread cited to this non-partisan study of the effects that Texas reopening schools before other school districts did had on Covid rates and it turned out that an estimated 40,000 people got covid as a result and 800 more people died. https://www.texastribune.org/2021/05/10/texas-schools-coronavirus-increase-study/

The newspaper article notes the competing tension between the positive effects on kid's mental health (and academic performance) from reopening schools vs. the negative effects, obviously, of having people die and prolonging the effects of the disease. It also notes that having your teachers die can also cause trauma for kids so you have to split the mental health benefit/risk calculations. (Beyond the obvious actual negative effects of the teacher deaths themselves, of course.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My house hasn’t caught on fire, but I don’t regret having working smoke detectors. I’ve never been in a serious car accident, but I don’t regret decades of wearing a seatbelt. I’ve never had an unintended pregnancy, but I don’t regret having used birth control. I took precautions to avoid covid. Maybe I wouldn’t have contracted it even if I wasn’t cautious, but that doesn’t make me regret the precautions. I make the best choices I can based on the information I have.

Occasionally buying batteries for a smoke detector or buckling a seatbelt when you’re driving isn’t quite on par with asking a 5 year old to spend a year of learning sitting in front of an iPad and having no socialization with peers.

That wasn’t the choice most people were making.
Doing virtual school didn’t have to mean no socialization.
My 8 year old did virtual school and played outside on hikes and with kids in the neighborhood with masks. We did less in the winter but still did some. I don’t regret the choice - of course now i can see how much better things are but as parents we are also fully vaccinated now so it is different. We made the right choice at the time. We also sent my 5 year old to an in person kindergarten. And she played outside.

Everyone I know chose middle grounds, some a bit different than others. Last year was terrible in many ways but we made choices because we were rational and had to. And many many people did get covid last winter. Had one family been less cautious it wouldn’t have been much different for that family. The reality is though that if every or a large number of families had been less cautious it would have been worse. I am glad the majority of people in my community worked together to be reasonably safe. I am so happy to enjoy the time now with friends given that.

I mean - you had the option to send your 5 year old to in person K. that makes you very lucky compared to many of us! and also on the less cautious side. hopefully you can see that your family had many many more advantages than those of us stuck with only online learning and without all the social opportunities your kids had.

DP. Many of us made lemonade from lemons. Sounds like you didn't. What you see as lack of opportunities the rest of us saw as challenges to overcome. This past year was tough, don't get me wrong, but it was also one of the most relaxing years our kids have had. It was scary because of Covid and we had to totally revamp our lifestyle to adjust to online learning but our kids thrived because of the choices we, their parents, made so that they could thrive. For most of the people complaining, I saw that we had the same lack of options and the same lack of opportunities but we got our acts together and made it work. It was hard but we did it. I am tired of listening to all the moaners and complainers bellyaching about this and that. The only way to change your output is to change your input. You make your opportunities.

Dude. That PP **SENT HER CHILD TO SCHOOL**. Many of us did not have that option. Many of us did not have the option to get our kids extensive other opportunities for socialization. The point is that school is an entitlement; not something that we should just throw our hands up and say "oh well, everyone needs to "change their input."" I mean really, you're horrifically tone deaf.

Dude, we didn't have that option either but yet we MADE IT WORK. That isn't tone deaf. It is calling you out and telling you that you are more of the problem than anything else. The rest of us got with the program and made it work. You didn't. Your problem, not mine.

right, we were the only family struggling with DL. sure, sure, sure.

The only families like yours who we saw struggling were, frankly, the families who always struggle. They're the families always running around like their hair is on fire. They're the families always in a state of disruption and eruption. They're the families where something is always forgotten, they're always late or they completely miss the date, and they're the families where they always have problems.

From our vantage point DL didn't make any substantive changes to the negative quality of their lives because they were already there living in negative land. It is their permanent home.

The same with the RTS. It isn't going to make any change. The kids will still be disheveled, the parents will still be frantic, their lives will still be massively disarrayed. Next year the complaints will continue only they'll be focused on the elements of RTS - they'll complain about the teachers, they'll complain about the schools, they'll complain about "learning loss" like it is someone's fault other than their own. In essence, nothing will change except where they used to blame DL now it will be these other things.

At this point I just can't find it in me to care anymore. Their problems (YOUR problems) are not mine to solve and I am not going to listen to the constant litany of complaints. Either get your act together or shut up about your inability to parent your kids and manage your family adequately.

New poster here. Unless parents who claim they "made it work" give specific examples, I find it hard to take them seriously. You "made it work" because you bought your child a desk to do DL, or you "made it work" by hiring a nanny, hiring tutors, paying for private school, paying for extracurriculars so your child could socialize, moving to a beach house for the school year, just accepted the reality of DL and didn't let your kids hear you complain about it, made Mac and Cheese or spaghetti every night to make space to help your kids more with school? Frankly, OP sounds more than a little privileged if he/she the way she writes about families who are always in a state of disruption, like she can't fathom why that might be the case...

I have posted here repeatedly about how we made it work and I have been lambasted for it. Wah wah wah.

This is what we did in a nutshell: we kicked one kid out of his bedroom and made him bunk up with a sibling so that we could turn the room into a schoolroom. We set up the schoolroom with 3 kid desks, each kid with a gaming headset (to hear & speak on Zoom), a printer in the schoolroom (completely unnecessary as it turns out but we didn't know that in April of last year), an adult's desk in the schoolroom, a whiteboard and a chalkboard (both we know now were completely unnecessary but they did add some fun for drawing), 2 bookcases, extra powerstrips. We painted and decorated. At some point we added an aquarium because it was fun.

My husband and I completely changed our schedules. We rise at 4:30 am. We begin work at 5 am and work until 7 am. At that point we begin a 2 hour ON and 2 hour OFF schedule with the kids. The ON person is responsible entirely for the activities of the children for the 2 hours while the OFF person continues working. The ON person sits in the school room and supervises while the OFF person works in the office. The ON person makes breakfast or lunch or snacks for everyone. We switch back and forth all day until the school day ends. At which point I have satisfied my obligations to my employer and my husband keeps working until dinner.

We did not move, we did not go live at the beach, we did not hire tutors. Our schedule, honestly, is a lot like the schedules of OTHER PARENTS LIKE US WHO MADE IT WORK!!! It would take me at least three hands to count the number of families who have made similar shifts and whose kids are thriving.

When you have walked in our shoes then you can cast shade. Until then I will judge you for complaining and not making it work, and my judgement is that you have failed. Sure there are some people with extenuating circumstances but mostly ... not.

Most people have fairly regular jobs with fairly regular demands. Those are the people who I think are on here whining and complaining all the time.

As for the first responders we know, they already had plans in place. The first responders we know already had a game plan and they barely batted an eye when Covid hit. Their problems weren't so much the school day as some of them needed coverage after school and in the evenings when they were working at the hospital. We, and others we know, helped out and that made it work.

So stop whining and complaining. Your kids are back in school. I don't care what you think about hybrid or concurrent, I don't care what you think about this past year, I don't care about what you think about next year because I don't care about your opinion. You've proven that you're not cut out to do the job you elected to take, parenting, and I leave you to the hot mess you've created.

[Anonymous]

That's a really great schedule. I can see exactly how it works and everyone gets their 8 hours of work in either by 5pm or by 7. We have wound up doing it sort of the reverse way and getting work in at night after bed, but I like your way better (if I could ever get up at 4:30 am again instead of go to bed then), it seems more human and more humane on the parents. Nice work there!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I have posted here repeatedly about how we made it work and I have been lambasted for it. Wah wah wah.

This is what we did in a nutshell: we kicked one kid out of his bedroom and made him bunk up with a sibling so that we could turn the room into a schoolroom. We set up the schoolroom with 3 kid desks, each kid with a gaming headset (to hear & speak on Zoom), a printer in the schoolroom (completely unnecessary as it turns out but we didn't know that in April of last year), an adult's desk in the schoolroom, a whiteboard and a chalkboard (both we know now were completely unnecessary but they did add some fun for drawing), 2 bookcases, extra powerstrips. We painted and decorated. At some point we added an aquarium because it was fun.

My husband and I completely changed our schedules. We rise at 4:30 am. We begin work at 5 am and work until 7 am. At that point we begin a 2 hour ON and 2 hour OFF schedule with the kids. The ON person is responsible entirely for the activities of the children for the 2 hours while the OFF person continues working. The ON person sits in the school room and supervises while the OFF person works in the office. The ON person makes breakfast or lunch or snacks for everyone. We switch back and forth all day until the school day ends. At which point I have satisfied my obligations to my employer and my husband keeps working until dinner.

We did not move, we did not go live at the beach, we did not hire tutors. Our schedule, honestly, is a lot like the schedules of OTHER PARENTS LIKE US WHO MADE IT WORK!!! It would take me at least three hands to count the number of families who have made similar shifts and whose kids are thriving.

When you have walked in our shoes then you can cast shade. Until then I will judge you for complaining and not making it work, and my judgement is that you have failed. Sure there are some people with extenuating circumstances but mostly ... not.

Most people have fairly regular jobs with fairly regular demands. Those are the people who I think are on here whining and complaining all the time.

As for the first responders we know, they already had plans in place. The first responders we know already had a game plan and they barely batted an eye when Covid hit. Their problems weren't so much the school day as some of them needed coverage after school and in the evenings when they were working at the hospital. We, and others we know, helped out and that made it work.

So stop whining and complaining. Your kids are back in school. I don't care what you think about hybrid or concurrent, I don't care what you think about this past year, I don't care about what you think about next year because I don't care about your opinion. You've proven that you're not cut out to do the job you elected to take, parenting, and I leave you to the hot mess you've created.

DP, but JFC, no wonder you're so miserable. That sounds like a great way to model self-sacrifice for your kids, if that's what you were going for. Who cares about the consequences of chronic stress, amirite?

For the thousandth time, people who have made it work don't harbor the kind of hostility you do. Period. Like, no one who is actually thriving feels the need to shout "WE'RE THRIVING!!!!" repeatedly on an anonymous internet forum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My house hasn’t caught on fire, but I don’t regret having working smoke detectors. I’ve never been in a serious car accident, but I don’t regret decades of wearing a seatbelt. I’ve never had an unintended pregnancy, but I don’t regret having used birth control. I took precautions to avoid covid. Maybe I wouldn’t have contracted it even if I wasn’t cautious, but that doesn’t make me regret the precautions. I make the best choices I can based on the information I have.

Occasionally buying batteries for a smoke detector or buckling a seatbelt when you’re driving isn’t quite on par with asking a 5 year old to spend a year of learning sitting in front of an iPad and having no socialization with peers.

That wasn’t the choice most people were making.
Doing virtual school didn’t have to mean no socialization.
My 8 year old did virtual school and played outside on hikes and with kids in the neighborhood with masks. We did less in the winter but still did some. I don’t regret the choice - of course now i can see how much better things are but as parents we are also fully vaccinated now so it is different. We made the right choice at the time. We also sent my 5 year old to an in person kindergarten. And she played outside.

Everyone I know chose middle grounds, some a bit different than others. Last year was terrible in many ways but we made choices because we were rational and had to. And many many people did get covid last winter. Had one family been less cautious it wouldn’t have been much different for that family. The reality is though that if every or a large number of families had been less cautious it would have been worse. I am glad the majority of people in my community worked together to be reasonably safe. I am so happy to enjoy the time now with friends given that.

I mean - you had the option to send your 5 year old to in person K. that makes you very lucky compared to many of us! and also on the less cautious side. hopefully you can see that your family had many many more advantages than those of us stuck with only online learning and without all the social opportunities your kids had.

DP. Many of us made lemonade from lemons. Sounds like you didn't. What you see as lack of opportunities the rest of us saw as challenges to overcome. This past year was tough, don't get me wrong, but it was also one of the most relaxing years our kids have had. It was scary because of Covid and we had to totally revamp our lifestyle to adjust to online learning but our kids thrived because of the choices we, their parents, made so that they could thrive. For most of the people complaining, I saw that we had the same lack of options and the same lack of opportunities but we got our acts together and made it work. It was hard but we did it. I am tired of listening to all the moaners and complainers bellyaching about this and that. The only way to change your output is to change your input. You make your opportunities.

Dude. That PP **SENT HER CHILD TO SCHOOL**. Many of us did not have that option. Many of us did not have the option to get our kids extensive other opportunities for socialization. The point is that school is an entitlement; not something that we should just throw our hands up and say "oh well, everyone needs to "change their input."" I mean really, you're horrifically tone deaf.

Dude, we didn't have that option either but yet we MADE IT WORK. That isn't tone deaf. It is calling you out and telling you that you are more of the problem than anything else. The rest of us got with the program and made it work. You didn't. Your problem, not mine.

right, we were the only family struggling with DL. sure, sure, sure.

The only families like yours who we saw struggling were, frankly, the families who always struggle. They're the families always running around like their hair is on fire. They're the families always in a state of disruption and eruption. They're the families where something is always forgotten, they're always late or they completely miss the date, and they're the families where they always have problems.

From our vantage point DL didn't make any substantive changes to the negative quality of their lives because they were already there living in negative land. It is their permanent home.

The same with the RTS. It isn't going to make any change. The kids will still be disheveled, the parents will still be frantic, their lives will still be massively disarrayed. Next year the complaints will continue only they'll be focused on the elements of RTS - they'll complain about the teachers, they'll complain about the schools, they'll complain about "learning loss" like it is someone's fault other than their own. In essence, nothing will change except where they used to blame DL now it will be these other things.

At this point I just can't find it in me to care anymore. Their problems (YOUR problems) are not mine to solve and I am not going to listen to the constant litany of complaints. Either get your act together or shut up about your inability to parent your kids and manage your family adequately.

You’re a toxic, toxic person who should not touch schools with a 10ft pole. Unfortunately you’re also likely the PTA president type. *Shudder.*

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I have posted here repeatedly about how we made it work and I have been lambasted for it. Wah wah wah.

This is what we did in a nutshell: we kicked one kid out of his bedroom and made him bunk up with a sibling so that we could turn the room into a schoolroom. We set up the schoolroom with 3 kid desks, each kid with a gaming headset (to hear & speak on Zoom), a printer in the schoolroom (completely unnecessary as it turns out but we didn't know that in April of last year), an adult's desk in the schoolroom, a whiteboard and a chalkboard (both we know now were completely unnecessary but they did add some fun for drawing), 2 bookcases, extra powerstrips. We painted and decorated. At some point we added an aquarium because it was fun.

My husband and I completely changed our schedules. We rise at 4:30 am. We begin work at 5 am and work until 7 am. At that point we begin a 2 hour ON and 2 hour OFF schedule with the kids. The ON person is responsible entirely for the activities of the children for the 2 hours while the OFF person continues working. The ON person sits in the school room and supervises while the OFF person works in the office. The ON person makes breakfast or lunch or snacks for everyone. We switch back and forth all day until the school day ends. At which point I have satisfied my obligations to my employer and my husband keeps working until dinner.

We did not move, we did not go live at the beach, we did not hire tutors. Our schedule, honestly, is a lot like the schedules of OTHER PARENTS LIKE US WHO MADE IT WORK!!! It would take me at least three hands to count the number of families who have made similar shifts and whose kids are thriving.

When you have walked in our shoes then you can cast shade. Until then I will judge you for complaining and not making it work, and my judgement is that you have failed. Sure there are some people with extenuating circumstances but mostly ... not.

Most people have fairly regular jobs with fairly regular demands. Those are the people who I think are on here whining and complaining all the time.

As for the first responders we know, they already had plans in place. The first responders we know already had a game plan and they barely batted an eye when Covid hit. Their problems weren't so much the school day as some of them needed coverage after school and in the evenings when they were working at the hospital. We, and others we know, helped out and that made it work.

So stop whining and complaining. Your kids are back in school. I don't care what you think about hybrid or concurrent, I don't care what you think about this past year, I don't care about what you think about next year because I don't care about your opinion. You've proven that you're not cut out to do the job you elected to take, parenting, and I leave you to the hot mess you've created.

DP, but JFC, no wonder you're so miserable. That sounds like a great way to model self-sacrifice for your kids, if that's what you were going for. Who cares about the consequences of chronic stress, amirite?

For the thousandth time, people who have made it work don't harbor the kind of hostility you do. Period. Like, no one who is actually thriving feels the need to shout "WE'RE THRIVING!!!!" repeatedly on an anonymous internet forum.

that PP reminds me of the posters who get totally outraged when a new mom posts something like “my DH has to go on business travel when our baby is born. I feel overwhelmed!” They post “You lazy woman, I had quintuplets in Antartica while DH was deployed to alaska. Stop complaining!!”

[Anonymous]

I don't understand why everyone is so mad at PP for waking up at 4:30 every day. That's an example of a (pretty hardcore) schedule that worked for them. I've made similar sorts of sacrifices to support at home learning and my kids are okay though it has been a slog. I *have* had to be involved and a general supervisory presence; hands off had not worked, we found that out early on.

It does seem like a lot of the voices you hear complaining about schools not being fully open yet might have more successful children in virtual if the parents who complain over here for 2 hours a day would spend that time with their kids instead.

[Anonymous]

Nope. I think everything has happened how it should have. Was it inconvenient? Yes. Was it ideal? No. I believe it was what we had to do. This was an epic moment in history. I feel grateful that my family is okay, and my heart breaks die those that lost people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nope. I think everything has happened how it should have. Was it inconvenient? Yes. Was it ideal? No. I believe it was what we had to do. This was an epic moment in history. I feel grateful that my family is okay, and my heart breaks die those that lost people.

For!