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2020-03-16
A Year of Workspaces
When lockdown started, I was quarantining with my husband, our 2.5 year old daughter, and our elderly cat, Floofy. This series of images captures a year of my workspaces (March 16, 2020 to March 15, 2021). I worked all over our house. The living room when I was on kid duty. The porch when the weather was warm enough. A brand new desk when the porch got too hot. The bedroom when my husband, who had been laid of in March 2020, needed the desk to job hunt and eventually began doing off and on temporary work in December 2020. I returned to the office some of the time in September 2021. My husband is now fully employed again. Our daughter returned to pre-school in September 2020. Floofy died in January 2022. She had attended every work meeting with me. -
May 24, 2021
Chronicles of the Plague Years
[From the Introduction] For the students, faculty, and staff at Bronx Community College, March 2020 was a sucker punch to the gut. Our vibrant campus, a beautiful haven filled with vitality and life, became a kind of petri dish—ground zero for the COVID 19 virus to make landfall. Not only were many students and staff sickened in those early days, but the City University system was forced to close, then transition to remote learning in the space of a single week. It was a challenge, to say the least: for faculty who needed to quickly learn the tools to make it possible, and even more so for the students, who—cut off from socialization and in person learning—had to adjust to this new reality. Stranded in their homes, some students were forced to continue working frontline jobs, while others lost jobs and income, facing financial devastation. Students were confronted with their own illness as well as that of family members. Online learning was fraught in those early days. As a community, we improvised our way forward, without the proper technology and knowhow to do it. But two years on, our students have proven their resilience. In time, we adapted to remote learning, to new ways of doing things, of coping. 2020 was harder, and in 2021, the challenges continued. But, somehow, we got through. These student books provide a glimpse into the minds of the talented BCC Digital Design students who persevered, strived, and thrived. -
2022-04-28
A New Normal
It's been over two years since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and I’m beginning to doubt that life will ever go back to what we once knew. Even with restrictions lightened, things are far from “normal”. A lot has changed in my life during this time and the pandemic has come with many struggles. One of the biggest of these for me has been raising young children in our new modern world. My kids are at a curious age where they’d like to explore their world and see new things, an age where social interaction is especially crucial. When COVID first struck I had a young son so I found myself with the concern of not only my health but his as well. In June of 2021 I had my second child, and while I am so grateful for this new addition to our family, having a baby mid-pandemic is tough. I experienced the same obvious concerns for my child's health once again. No parent wants to imagine their child with any illness. I remember feeling so paranoid that they would end up getting sick, or that myself or my fiance would catch it and eventually pass it along to them. It took two years for us all to catch it, but we did, and it sucked. In the beginning it was scary, most people had no idea what we were dealing with. The idea of a life threatening virus was horrifying and caused mass confusion. I found myself with a mask on my face and a bottle of hand sanitizer as well as some Lysol wipes in my pocket at all times. I was afraid to take my son in public because I didn’t want him to be exposed. With time, the paranoia has died down while remaining vigilant to combat germs but still I wonder if this is the new “normal”. -
2022-04-05
Gabrielle's First Dose
This is an Instagram post by lavie_est_belle8. This is a post about Gabrielle getting his first COVID vaccine dose. Based on the caption, it looks like the parent/guardian planned a fun day with Gabrielle after getting the shot, including: out for sushi for lunch; games at the arcade; and out for dessert at the end. Gabrielle is standing in front of a backdrop and holding a "I'm Vaccinated" sign. -
2022-02-18
Covid Has Made Me Hate People
This is a news story from Scary Mommy by Samm Burnham Davidson. This is a story written from the point-of-view of someone who has experienced some of the negative social effects of COVID. She says that before the pandemic, social media posts that annoyed her would only be mildly so, but with COVID and lockdowns, she started to feel senses of inadequacy compared to other parents. She thought that she needed to overhaul her entire wardrobe, her son should get ice skates, and that her four-year-old needs to learn to ride a two-wheeler bike. She has three young kids, and a 2020 baby. She describes feeling very isolated and the exposure to social media made her feel like she had to measure up to some imaginary standard of parenting, like trying to forgo all plastic toys for Christmas to help the environment. This is a good story for the perspective of mothers with many kids to take care of, resulting in even more isolation than what would happen for adults with no kids, as kids caused her to stay home more even before COVID. -
2020-09-27
My First Pie and Other Sensory Snapshots
I gave birth to my first child two months into the COVID-19 pandemic, and so to me, memories of this time are centered around life as a new parent. Because we live in a different state than most of our family, and because we had a newborn (whose immune systems are not well-developed the first several weeks of life) in a global pandemic, we did not go anywhere. I had a few months off of work and school to care for my son, so my experience of COVID-19 to that point was time spent just with my son. As any parent knows, those first few weeks are an exhausting blur consisting of the never-ending cycle of feeding your baby, changing them, and helping them sleep. But the sensory memories from this time of my life that have stuck with me the most involve the feeling of holding my baby; feeling his head on my shoulder, hearing his tiny little breaths and occasional squeaky coos in my ear, noticing the sweet smell of his baby shampoo on his head, feeling him stretch and reposition from time to time. Though it seemed like the days when he would sleep independently would never come, little did I know how quickly they would, and how much I would miss these quiet moments. When he started getting the hang of napping, I suddenly had these open stretches of time in my day, which I was not used to. What to do to fill this time, especially in the midst of a pandemic and with a baby to boot? Like many people, I developed a baking hobby while my little one napped. Now I associated his nap time with the sticky feel of flour and butter on my hands as I kneaded dough for soda bread, the smell of buttery, sugary deliciousness coming from the oven as scones were baking. On my husband’s birthday, I produced my most time-consuming bake so far: a strawberry rhubarb pie. This one required some cooperation on the part of my little guy, whose giggles I heard as he batted at toys in his baby swing while I chopped and prepped the filling and made the pie crust. The finished product wasn’t necessarily perfect, but I was proud of it, and the memory of making it will always stick with me since it is a representative snapshot of that moment in time, a few months into a global pandemic with my young son. -
2021-04-19
The pandemic gave parents the chance to work from home. Now they don’t want to give it up.
Teleworking has provided advantages to parents - they are able to spend more time with their child during the day, not commuting has given them more time to devote to parenting, and the flexible schedule available in teleworking allows them to work around their children's schedules. Many parents don't want to give up their ability to telework after the pandemic. -
2020-05-06
It’s Not Just You: Working from Home with Kids Is Impossible
Parenting while working from home is challenging. This article acknowledges how difficult it is and offers emotional support to work-at-home parents, who may be experiencing guilt and frustration. -
2021-04-12
Lizza Weir Oral History, 2021/04/12
Toddlers are natural explorers who run, touch and sniff as they learn about the world. But these behaviors can be dangerous during a pandemic. Parents of toddlers need to weigh the risks of catching Covid against their children’s developmental needs. Lizza Weir, whose daughter Simone was 16 months when Covid first arrived in New York, talks about the hard choices she’s been facing. -
2021-04-23
COVID 19, BLM and Religion - My story of 2020
This story tells my experience of having Covid-19 along with being the mother of a brown child during the pandemic and BLM movement. I also share how this year drew the line in the sand for our family's faith and how my partner and I finally found the courage to come out. -
2020-11-10
Virtual Learning for the Parents of New Middle Schoolers
As a mother of twin 12-year-olds who started middle school during the pandemic, virtually, there are many challenges we have faced. I am working from home during the pandemic and must help them both with school work. They are both in the gifted program, which makes the curriculum that much more difficult, especially since as 6th graders this is their first year in middle school. I find that on top of working from home, I have to learn the materials my children are learning before I can help them. As a parent, I have been forced into the teaching role, and there is not much anyone can do about it. The teachers are doing all that they can but virtual learning is difficult fpr all parties involved. As a history major, I am struggling to help my daughters in pre-algebra, an eight grade math class, and worry that the virtual setup may damage their academic progress. Also, there has been a major social development delay, as this is a transitional time. -
2020-11-17
KW Oral History, 2020/11/19
[KW] is a New Zealand immigrant currently living in Apple Valley, Minnesota with her husband and their three children, ages eight, six, and three. [KW] shares her experiences with COVID 19 from an immigrant’s point-of-view as well as a mother’s point-of-view. [KW] reflects upon the difference between the handling of the pandemic in New Zealand and the handling of the pandemic in America. Additionally, [KW] discusses how the pandemic has affected her children, their schooling, and her own role in their lives. She breaks down their routines before the pandemic and compares it to their routines now. She talks about how the pandemic has changed her daily life and the daily lives of children, especially her two school aged sons and their activities in and out of school. Finally, she reflects upon how different her families’ lives would be if they were still living in New Zealand instead of Minnesota. -
2020-09-06
Jewish Melbourne: NCJWA (Vic) Fathers Day during Covid Facebook post
The NCJWA (Vic) posted on facebook for Fathers Day, reflecting on how fathers have coped during lockdown. -
2020-04
Summer Reading Time
A friend whose child recently beat cancer started the Teddy Bear Foundation this last summer. He reads to children in both English and Spanish. Since he is no longer able to do so in person, he started a YouTube channel in order to read stories to children suffering from cancer. -
2020-06-13
Summer fun- Santa Barbara Drive-in Theater Re-opens for Social Distancing
It was our first time doing something as a family outside the house after the pandemic reached the U.S. Since my daughter is a cancer survivor, we have to be extra careful. -
2020-10-20
Not cut out for this shit
This is a post from one of my favorite ig pages. I have not been a parent for a decade but I can relate to this post. It was a nice reminder on a tough day that our current “normal” is NOT normal. I appreciate all the optimism of people getting used to this all and calling it their new normal but I refuse to stop seeing this as a phase. This can’t be my new normal, I know there’s an end to it all and I hope it comes with a new government administration. -
2020-05-21
Israeli Mom Melts Down When She Has to Homeschool
This Israeli woman had a meltdown when she first attempted to homeschool her kids. She was overwhelmed by what the school wanted her to do. The way she put it, no mother would be able to keep up. -
2020-06-11
Parents to COVID-19: We’re taking back our weekends.
Excerpt from article: Weekends used to have a rhythm that worked for Ezina LeBlanc, filled with adventures for her 19-month-old twins in Calabasas, California. “Every Saturday, we’d be off to the beach, hiking, a picnic, a museum, a theme park, or even up to Mammoth Lakes to ski,” she recalls. -
2020-03-18
Ben's First Day of Homeschooling. Ben is Eight
The transition from in-person classrooms to remote learning was very difficult for many parents. Most parents didn't have any idea where to start. Ben's school assigned him a journal project and this is his entry from his first day at home. -
2020-05-26
Writing to fight fear
I am a writer of fan fiction (informal stories about published works). While I was in quarantine, like much of the world, I was very nervous about the future. It was then that I saw a post that was similar to the one that directed me to this site. EarlyBloomingParenthesis knew that some people were driven to write during this pandemic to relieve stress. She suggested that we make a collection for works that we write during this time, and that we explain WHY we wrote them. As I began to worry more and more about the virus being persistent and immunity not being permanent, I wrote a story about how I imagined such a world might be from the point of view of a child. I published it on Archive of Our own (archiveofourown.org), the Hugo award winning fan fiction website. I have resubmitted it here because I think it fits what you were requesting. I also suggest you check the other works in the collection. Although most of them are unrelated to the pandemic directly, they reflect on how people deal with these challenging times. Some people use fantasy to get away, some use it to face their fears. The introduction to the collection says: "Hello! We live in strange times! A lot of folks have been talking about the importance of fic and fandom communities in this moment. This collection wants to know: how is the global crisis of the coronavirus impacting the fic we write? How are we using fic to cope? This is an attempt to document the relationship between fic written during the crisis and the experience of the crisis itself. Each fic includes an end note about the impact of the coronavirus situation on the fic/writing process. Hopefully we'll all get a chance to process our feelings together and feel a little less alone!" It helped me feel less alone to know that others like me were going through the same thing, and I was pleased that my worried thoughts and plans could help others to make sense of our times, and the times to come.