The school in our district recently came up with a plan for students in the fall: It’s optional to return to school and there will be online learning available with guidelines in place.
Since I realized how serious this pandemic was I’ve said that my kids would stay at home when school starts up again if there was a choice. There are many reasons for my decision which doesn’t mean that this has been an easy road. Keeping my teens home from school, and making them tone down their social lives to a nearly non-existent level has NOT been easy.
I have been keeping my teens home and it’s hard
A few months ago, I had it out with my oldest son who said he wanted to go for a drive. I knew that was code for, “I want to go see my friends” and I told him no. I’m not sure how it escalated so fast, but I found myself in a lawn chair sitting behind his car. You should also know that his car was running as he sat in the driver’s seat waiting for me to give up and go inside. I didn’t.
He spent the next few days fuming at me saying he was going crazy.
I’ve had to repeat myself to my kids as I’m sure you all have. I’ve tried to get it to sink in that this virus is bigger than their social lives and their friends aren’t going to disappear. Now that the numbers where we live have been falling and things feel like they are headed in the right direction, each of my kids have had one of their closest friends over and that has helped immensely. I am very thankful.
But it feels like we are constantly on top of each other and we are all feeling the pinch. It would be easy to let my kids’ lives go back to semi-normal and let their social lives fill up again. I could tell them they were going back to school and have my days to myself again to work in peace and quiet with less of a mess surrounding me. I wouldn’t have to listen to the television blaring in the background.
It would be a lot easier if we went back to our normal lives
I wouldn’t have to be so involved in their schooling and run the dishwasher as much. I could go back to not having to spend so much money on groceries and I’m sure they could do with less mom time and more friend time.
We are all feeling the effects for sure and there’s nothing I want more than to have this nightmare behind us and to be able to set my teens free and go back to the way things were before March.
As parents of teens, we are tired. We are tired of explaining why we can’t just let them go hang out with their friends. We are over having them underfoot every second and seeing that they forgot to close the cupboard or change the empty toilet paper roll again.
We’d all love a little breathing room and our teens would love it even more.
I’m just not ready to go back
But, I’m just not ready. I’m not ready to send them back to school and then just wait and see what happens as I hope for the best. I am not willing to take the risk and just let them hang out with anyone they want. And I’m not ready to give up and just let things go back to normal. I’m deeply afraid something bad is going to happen to one of them– they will get sick or they will unknowingly infect someone else.
I don’t know enough about COVID yet and I don’t yet trust all the information that’s being thrown around. I’d rather sit back, keep my kids at home and see how this all shakes out.
Yes, I’m exhausted just like every other parent but honestly, I’d rather be exhausted than take chances on our health right now. I know we all have our comfort zone when it comes to this very new pandemic. But as for me and my family, we will continue to stay home. It’s a tough battle to fight but their health and the health of others is too important.
I’m exhausted but my kids will stay home
I’m not ready to let my guard down and I’m more than willing to stay in our bubble and have a sore throat from repeating the dangers of them going back to their normal lives and asking them 100 times a day to pick up after themselves.
I’ll remain exhausted for as long as it takes–it’s a small price to pay to keep my kids and everyone else safe.
You may also enjoy:
I Need To Know: Do The Scary Parenting Moments End? We thought each stage of parenting had scary moments until we arrived at the teen years…now we know.
This Is How I Got My Teens To Do Things With Me Again Katie Smith reveals the secret to how she has been able to get her teens to do fun things with her, again.
