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

[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!!!

No one is panicking. There is a vaccine BUT its not 100%, its not available right now to all adults and its not available to kids. Personally I care about my child's health. I gave mine a choice to go in person or not. They choose to stay home as they don't covid and want to do their part to help stop the spread.

You are a pretty mean person to not seem to understand how serious covid is and how hard some communities have been hit by covid.

Real question is why isn't DL working for your kids and why are they so unhappy at home? And, what are you doing to address their mental health issues beyond talk about it online?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is horrible for my children. So unethical that, as a society, we’ve decided kids don’t matter.

It is terrible snd having effects on a massive scale.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is horrible for my children. So unethical that, as a society, we’ve decided kids don’t matter.

Except we have decided they matter which is why we are doing it online because of the health pandemic we are in the middle of.

Yep, we could have just canceled school altogether.

[Anonymous]

When children are vaccinated, will you send your kids back to in person school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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!!!

No one is panicking. There is a vaccine BUT its not 100%, its not available right now to all adults and its not available to kids. Personally I care about my child's health. I gave mine a choice to go in person or not. They choose to stay home as they don't covid and want to do their part to help stop the spread.

You are a pretty mean person to not seem to understand how serious covid is and how hard some communities have been hit by covid.

Real question is why isn't DL working for your kids and why are they so unhappy at home? And, what are you doing to address their mental health issues beyond talk about it online?

DP, and I hope it's just one or a very few people who keep insisting how mentally healthy they are. It's bizarre.

PP, DL isn't working for many kids for multiple reasons: they're too young to adequately learn remotely; their parents have to work FT and can't provide constant supervision; they have learning differences that make online learning particularly challenging; they're too socially isolated, etc. I'm not sure why that seems challenging to comprehend.

As for addressing their mental health issues, it's virtually impossible to find a qualified mental health professional with openings right now, let alone one in-network, with expertise in the specific issues, etc. Of course, many parents are accessing these resources as they can, but too many kids are going untreated (even more than pre-pandemic) and/or ending up in the ED when things really go south.

Stop being so smug about DL, truly. Be grateful that it's going so well for your children, if it truly is. Educate yourself on how in-person school contributes (or not) to community transmission. Finally, stop gaslighting parents who are struggling right now. That speaks volumes of negative information about your mental health.

[Anonymous]

I will openly tell anyone who wants to listen that a major reason DL has been a disaster for my family is because I deal with depression and anxiety and the stress of DL plus the pandemic makes it hard for me to create a home environment that is conducive to learning, or to provide all the myriad things that my child gets at school, at home.

Some of you may sneer and feel superior because you are “mentally healthy” and therefore are not struggling in this way. That’s fine for you. But from a public health standpoint, millions of people struggle with mental health concerns like mine and in-person school has been part of a network of social supports that helped us parent well and effectively despite these concerns. Plus add in the many people with financial and housing instability, relationship problems, domestic abuse, etc. The truth is that while you, personally, may not need in person school in order to function as a family, many of us do.

We sucked it up for a year and did our very best for the sake of our kids. But we need help, as most people do. We cannot simply maintain DL indefinitely and not expect it to have severe societal effects.

Those of you claiming it works great for you are missing the point. It’s not about you. It’s about our collective functioning as a society.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mine are fine with zoom. They are flexible. They understand we are in a major health pandemic and have really good teachers this year which to them is far more important than in person vs. zoom. The relaxed pace between school and activities has been nice. Much less rushing around, able to eat together and much more has been a bonus. We are surprised how well things like music lessons are working via zoom. We have given them comfortable spaces with all the gadgets to make them successful and are available to provide support.

My kids are flexible too and we haven’t brought them up to be special snowflakes who need the world bent to them. However one of my kids is thriving and the other is failing. It’s not a parenting issue here, his needs are just vastly different. I’m glad your kids are doing well, but there are a lot who are not and it’s very very scary to those of us who had good students now failing.

+1

The idea that we should just ‘teach our kids resilience’ and ‘they’ll be fine’ is so blunt and lacking empathy. Just looking at the adults in our house, my DH could stay in the house for a year and not care at all. I, on the other hand, am really struggling with my mental health due to this isolation. Some of this is just the way people are wired.

Thank you for backing me up. It hurts when people are easy to judge things that are not in our control.

My DH has no problem stay in the house for a year, and I think he only has stepped out of the door for about 10 times (for drive thru carry out, buy liquor from liquor store, and walk a few times outside) in a year. I am the one handling with 2 young kids and mentally insane want to keep a balance of letting them have some happy time outdoors vs staying home to protect them from covid. My youngest one is scared of all strangers & new environment, and my oldest one wants to go to all the places. We make a bucket list what to do once there is covid free, and I want to give him some hope to dream for. He is sad that some places that he used to love to go to is out of business already. I don't want them to go to farm because who knows if animals or pets has covid as well.

You need to speak to your pediatrician to learn about the true nature of risk to your children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is horrible for my children. So unethical that, as a society, we’ve decided kids don’t matter.

Except we have decided they matter which is why we are doing it online because of the health pandemic we are in the middle of.

Yep, we could have just canceled school altogether.

I think that would have been better. Bank the savings from not paying all the school employees for a year, and everyone just starts back in the fall. This was a lost year for most kids anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is horrible for my children. So unethical that, as a society, we’ve decided kids don’t matter.

Except we have decided they matter which is why we are doing it online because of the health pandemic we are in the middle of.

Yep, we could have just canceled school altogether.

I think that would have been better. Bank the savings from not paying all the school employees for a year, and everyone just starts back in the fall. This was a lost year for most kids anyway.

DP, and I agree. I've heard people suggest that any child should be allowed to repeat this year--the same people who are very pro-DL. If it's so great, kids shouldn't need to repeat a year, and we wasted a hell of a lot of resources trying to force a model that doesn't work for the vast majority of kids.