Friday, January 22, 2021…1:51pm
The end of week 45. The first semester of the 2020-2021 school year ends today. One of my kids has not missed a beat and has grades and a work ethic that have not wavered in the time at home. The other one seems to have decided blaming online school for a variety of newly acquired poor academic choices is like a rite of passage for this generation of teenagers.
While it’s beginning to look like California will get all the elementary school students back on campuses in a matter of weeks, it is looking less and less likely that middle schoolers and high schoolers will return to campus this year. I was able to hold some hope for a springtime return to campus, until I heard the middle school principal this week say the campus would likely remain closed for the duration of this school year. I know it’s still possible, but I can feel the possibility slipping away a little more every day.
At this exact moment in time, I strongly dislike my entire family. Truth be told they’re probably not my biggest fans right now either. I love them like crazy, but am so over them being around ALL. THE. TIME. Seriously, they all need to go away. The kids need to go back to school, and extra curricular activities, and sleepovers with friends. My husband needs to back to his office office, and business trips, and beers with his friends after a hockey game. Too much togetherness is seriously problematic. It’s making me very cranky. Very, very cranky.
I understand why it is so much harder to bring middle school ad high school students back to campuses than it is to bring elementary students back. The logistics required break my brain when I try to think them through. I get that. I am sympathetic to the enormity of the problem. But I am also deeply resentful of all of the poor societal choices and questionable things prioritized over re-opening secondary schools. Seriously, do we not all realize that teenagers and parents were never, ever, ever meant to be together this much?!
Have I mentioned I’m cranky?
This will pass. We’re closer each day to being on the other side with increased access to the vaccines (that is increased access if/when they can solve the problem of getting adequate doses distributed at the local levels). But at this exact moment – when my kids have finished yet another semester of school at home instead of on their campuses, and my husband is working from our dining table, and I cannot even guess when I might get a moment of peace – it all still feels so far away and uncertain.
Here’s to noise cancelling AirPods, a closed bedroom door, and the escapism offered through good music, a (temporarily) clean house, and Pinterest browsing to plan for the home addition that is in our near future. And here’s to the day in the (close? distant? uncertain?) future when my house has been empty of my family long enough for me to miss them.
Be well my friends.
We're All A Little Broken 