“One moment honey, mommy is on the phone.”
How many times have you had to blow your kid off during this pandemic while working from home with little to no childcare? I for one have lost count.
Seems expectations are that you attend meetings as normal, which can be back to back. And to be honest I have opted out of a few. But if you are also the primary parent responsible for distance learning, the stress can be too much.
I find myself getting short tempered and frustrated having to go back and forth between homeschooling and work. It’s like getting daily mental whiplash. And when the technology doesn’t work or the instructions are not clear I want to scream. Let’s face it sometimes I do scream.
But the part I feel most guilty about is the amount of time I need to leave my kids to their own devices. Sometimes quite literally. Let’s just say any screen time limitations are out the window. Add to that often times the kids are outside playing completely out of earshot.
Latchkey Kids
There is a term, “latchkey kids,” which was quite popular a couple decades ago. But I predict will make a comeback in this pandemic. It refers to an entire generation of kids that, after school, would let themselves into the house while two parents were still at work. In some cases, it was a form of low key neglect as kids were a bit vulnerable in this afternoon window of time.
Even though my body is technically at home, that’s where it ends. I am so focused on getting my work done, attending meetings etc. that I completely lose track of what’s going on with the kids.
So for me and I suspect a number of you working-from-home-parents-with-no-childcare I see this as a form of having latchkey kids. I just hope it doesn’t scar them for life.
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