How families coping and some tips for those parenting through the pandemic.
LEHIGH VALLEY (WLVT-TV) - Signs of reopening are beginning to bloom, but as the country slowly gets back to business many parents are left feeling like they are doing anything but flourishing. Macungie mom Tamara Williams describes her new routine, saying “my husband is doing more of the working right now and I'm kind of doing all of the homeschooling stuff, but being able to say, okay, that's work time, this is family time, just being able to kind of divert and split it all is different, When you are outside of the home, it seemed a little bit easier because you kind of had your structure of activities then home. Now everything is the same, that's been a bit frustrating.”
Also feeling the added stress is Naree Simmons, who has two little ones at home in Easton. She adds "the hardest thing to juggle really is the schedule between my and my husband's schedule, because we're both working from home. I also I work in higher education and I'm also a current student, so I'm in school in the evenings once a week in classes, so I think that the most difficult thing to juggle is balancing our schedules when we're both in zoom meetings and my daughter, she's in first grade, she had some meetings with her classroom and then just trying to juggle all that keep the little one quiet, keep him from jumping in the screen when we're in important meetings and different things like that. I think that's been the biggest struggle and trying to just find that time and to find that balance.”
The pandemic has families across the Lehigh Valley and the country navigating a new normal. After more than 6 weeks, Mom of 3 Jenna Urban is still trying to get used to her home-bound work-life balance.
“We kind of get into a routine and then we kind of get off of the routine. Just everyday taking it one day at a time," says Urban. The northeast PA parent has kids in 7th, 4th, and 2nd grades. She’s also a computer teacher at a school outside of Scranton attempting to educate 600 children virtually. Urban says “I normally take my kids to school with me. So for me being home and trying to help teach them hasn't been that much of an adjustment. However, it's been a long time since I've done fourth grade math. So it's been a little struggle.” A struggle many with school-aged children are facing everyday as there’s no word as to when school will be back in session. Simmons talks about the unknown timeline saying “I think it's a little bit stressful just not knowing I think that's stressful for everyone because I like to plan and a lot of people like to plan but you can't really plan for the unknown, you know, as well as you would like to. I know that School's out for the rest of this year. So right now, I think my next short term goal is just getting her through getting my daughter through done with school through June so that they can just enjoy the summer take a little break, it'll be a little bit easier for us from a workload perspective.” Williams adds “I have kind of prepared myself mentally to say, I don't know if they're going back in the fall. I have really thought about that and if they do go back, it's going to be at a very small rate meaning like my thought is like, what, two or three days a week. I am not feeling like, I'm going to be a failure, but it's definitely a whole new thing to digest and say, really gonna be teaching kids at home, but it's just really challenging to think that they won't be going back to school and there isn't any end in sight right now. I want my kids to be safe, but I also want them to have some sort of social interaction. So I am kind of a little concerned about it. Try not to be fearful but concerned.”
To ease the education anguish Urban is sharing some ways she’s coping. She says first don’t try to mimic the school day. “Our kids are used to the brick and mortar school. So this online learning is like a whole new world to them. So if you're trying to stick to like, you know, following an eight hour school day, it's really going to stress the kids out. So what we do is we tried to come up with a schedule that allows some flexibility. So for example, you know, we're trying to wake up every day at the same time. And then we try to get some chores done before we get started in our schoolwork. And then we also have some, like creative time, which could be you know, whether it's doing art or music, practicing piano, or maybe even doing something on the computer like my kids have been doing a lot with stop motion, my boys, so they've been using their creative time for that. So it's just trying to stick to the schedule, but it's really hard to mimic a school day, because again, our students are not used to sitting at the computer for you know, six to eight hours a day,” says Urban.
If you have multiple children at home, she says to ask the older kids to help out with the younger ones. "I think they're a really useful tool, especially for you know, my younger kids are in second grade and fourth grade. So my older son, he loves taking on that role of helping them out. And it benefits me because it's been a long time since I've done fourth grade math, like I mentioned, that's what we're struggling with today, you know, the area finding the area and perimeter. So I'm able to kind of ask my son who's in seventh grade for some help, and he loves helping the kids out. So he's been helping them all along. And that even goes for kids that are as, as early as five years old, you know, they can help out with the younger toddlers, too. If if you need to have them read a book, you know, their early starting, they're starting to read a little bit earlier or even explain something to the younger kids. They want to be useful too, so use your siblings as a benefit to yourself."
Frustrations can run high during this time of virtual learning. She adds communication is key, not only with your kids, but with their teachers, “make sure that you're communicating and being honest, as a parent and a teacher. I've seen both ends of this and I'm hearing a lot from my fellow colleagues that they're noticing a lot of parents are doing the work of the students and they could tell and that doesn't benefit anybody in the long run. So just be honest and be in communicate with the child's teacher.”
As parents, we are constantly reminded that too much screen time is a bad thing, but go easy on yourself says the media specialist, “now is not the time to really worry about the limits that you set on screen time. However, it's important to really make sure how you're monitoring theirs their screen time. For example, you want to make sure that they're not going off on YouTube or TikTok when it's supposed to be school time.“ She suggests YouTube Kids to keep a close watch on the content little ones are consuming and for the older children, she uses apps like the Bark App to monitor screen time.
To cut back on the amount of time your kids are spending in front of a screen she encourages all of us to think outside of the classroom. She says "think about something that you remember or you're good at, so you might not be able to help your kids with math or remember, you know, certain aspects of English grammar, but maybe you could teach them about financial literacy of money, counting money, writing envelopes out, for example, like my son last week, we were sending cards out and we sat down and we just went over simple things like how to write an envelope.”
As we all try to navigate this “new normal” Urban reminds us that we are not alone when it comes to parenting through this pandemic. Urban also reassures us saying “these are not traditional learning experiences and there is no playbook. Like, you know, I always laugh about parents you know what to expect when you're expecting, there is no book what is expecting what what to expect during a pandemic. So just do what you can and take each day as a new day. And you know what, if you're having a bad day, like I said, reach out to the teacher, and just tell them today wasn't a good working day for us. But we'll try again tomorrow. So, give yourself some grace and don't be so hard on yourself. “
