If you follow this blog, you know Mateo just started sharing how he’s feeling in the past months. For the first time in his life, he now tells me (using his ipad and communication app) that he feels happy, frustrated, angry. Well today, I want to use his app over and over and over again, to tell the world I feel angry. I feel frustrated. I feel sad. I just want to scream!
I mean, seeing the data, I knew it was coming. Still, though, the fact that it’s been confirmed…that our kiddos won’t be returning to school in person in the next few weeks..well, that just makes me so mad! I mean, I see why the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education made their decision. The Delta variant is here. Our cases keep rising. Our hospital beds are once again all full. It’s no joke.
No joke.
You know what else isn’t a joke? The fact that our kiddos are suffering. While we adults argue about conspiracy theories and whether or not curfew times should be adjusted, our kiddos are falling behind. While we adults debate about the pretend doctors on TV, our kiddos are regressing. While we blame each other for fake news and doubt science in favor of supposed social media experts, our kiddos mental health is suffering.
Online classes help, but many struggle with this form of learning. And even with that, many can’t access online classes. Packages are a joke, really, unless parents can find the time to truly work with their kids for hours each day – or can afford to hire someone who can. As for our special needs kiddos- even our more advanced teens- they are falling further and further behind. They are steadily losing critical social and developmental skills.
Every week, I speak to moms or dads who don’t know what to do. Their kiddos are being aggressive, when they never were before. They aren’t sleeping. They are regressing and losing basic life skills that these families took years working on. Our teens aren’t leaving their rooms. They are, quite possibly, depressed and suffering from anxiety. It’s bad people. Seriously.
Scary
We are in scary times. Not even the first world has the answer on how to handle all the effects of COVID! We can all agree that our economies are being hit hard. Our health systems are being pushed to the limit. And the long term effects of our kids being out of in-person school? Well, we know it’s not good at all. Hell, that’s probably the understatement of the year.
Plead
Not many might have seen Grease 2 -but I always loved the music from it. In that movie, there’s a song that says, “Just do it for your country.” If you want to be a science denier and believe the loud voices on social media who speak about feelings and opinions and not facts, fine. Then stay home – remove yourself as much as possible from society. However, if you’re really worried about our country, the effect this will have on our kids, our families, our most vulnerable – our kiddos with disabilities and those with medical conditions, then seriously, take the vaccine. Stop arguing about what others are or are not doing. Instead, take a look in the mirror and ask yourself what YOU can do to help make this situation better.
So yeah, today I am angry and sad and frustrated. But, I’m also gonna beg and plead for all the special needs families out there, all the persons with disabilities and various medical conditions, for ALL our kiddos who NEED to go back to school. Step up & help.
