Honestly I think I have no perspective on what the last year has really been like. It's just too huge.
"Languishing"is part of how I've felt. It feels most connected to being almost completely out of work for over a year now (I'm a musician and make my living mostly playing on Broadway, so, no gigs). I am fortunate that my wife is still working full time and I have decent savings and unemployment.
My experience in parenting during the pandemic is mixed. The hardest thing this year has been managing my 5 year olds fully remote learning. She HATES zoom learning, and I have had so much fear around how this is affecting her, what is going to happen, what should I do, how much should I be pushing her to do the schoolwork, how important is it, etc. There was one day my wife came in and found me in the fetal position on the floor consumed by anxiety about whether to stay in remote learning only or to try in-person learning.
On the other hand, since I work most nights when we're not in a global pandemic, I now get to see my daughter WAY more than I ever had before. It's hard to imagine going back to only seeing her in the morning and then a little in the afternoon. Weekends I sometimes would barely see her at all. My relationship with her is SO different now, I am so much closer to her.
That idea of wrapping up that story with "families are unstoppable" misses the mark, in my opinion. What the hell does that even mean? Why not just say people are resilient?
I'm not a dad... but I had to comment on this idea of women and men and families being "unstoppable." Agreed, this is a dangerous take-away indeed. Insisting that families find a way to thrive with very little support is a popular capitalist tool. (Side note: When I was teaching special- ed, the culture at our school was life is hard for teachers and students, but we should all be working harder. That's how we demonstrated our value -- who could get the best grades/ be the best teachers/ work the longest hours, and not burn out. As adults, we were helping young students buy into this myth of "relentless grit" is normal for survival. It makes me SO angry that working families are struggling this much in one of the richest countries in the world.
Honestly I think I have no perspective on what the last year has really been like. It's just too huge.
"Languishing"is part of how I've felt. It feels most connected to being almost completely out of work for over a year now (I'm a musician and make my living mostly playing on Broadway, so, no gigs). I am fortunate that my wife is still working full time and I have decent savings and unemployment.
My experience in parenting during the pandemic is mixed. The hardest thing this year has been managing my 5 year olds fully remote learning. She HATES zoom learning, and I have had so much fear around how this is affecting her, what is going to happen, what should I do, how much should I be pushing her to do the schoolwork, how important is it, etc. There was one day my wife came in and found me in the fetal position on the floor consumed by anxiety about whether to stay in remote learning only or to try in-person learning.
On the other hand, since I work most nights when we're not in a global pandemic, I now get to see my daughter WAY more than I ever had before. It's hard to imagine going back to only seeing her in the morning and then a little in the afternoon. Weekends I sometimes would barely see her at all. My relationship with her is SO different now, I am so much closer to her.
That idea of wrapping up that story with "families are unstoppable" misses the mark, in my opinion. What the hell does that even mean? Why not just say people are resilient?
I'm not a dad... but I had to comment on this idea of women and men and families being "unstoppable." Agreed, this is a dangerous take-away indeed. Insisting that families find a way to thrive with very little support is a popular capitalist tool. (Side note: When I was teaching special- ed, the culture at our school was life is hard for teachers and students, but we should all be working harder. That's how we demonstrated our value -- who could get the best grades/ be the best teachers/ work the longest hours, and not burn out. As adults, we were helping young students buy into this myth of "relentless grit" is normal for survival. It makes me SO angry that working families are struggling this much in one of the richest countries in the world.