A Special Photo Edition: Brought to You By Omicron Quarantines
Well, dear Readers, I don't need to tell you what a wild ride this first month of 2022 has been. You're probably having the same wild ride I am, or if not you've probably read about it in one of the countless articles describing the challenges of being a parent of a not-yet-vaccine-eligible child. This one about sending your kid out into shark infested waters is my favorite.
My children are at school today, but it's been 50/50 for the month (literally: they have been in school for about 8 of a possible 16 school days). So instead of crafting a more thoughtful letter, I am sending you some pictures that I've taken over the past 3 weeks as a reflection of what life with preschoolers in like in January 2022. And yes, I do use Snapchat. I've found it's actually a rather convenient way to caption a photograph so I don't forget what was happening in that moment.
On the 1st day of quarantine... I took my kids to the beach. We packed up the car with snacks, blankets, towels, sand toys, bathing suits, and extra clothes. How lucky we are to live in a place where we can go the beach in January, I thought to myself. We stopped by the covid testing location on the way and arrived at a near empty parking lot. Perfect! As we were unloading all of our things, another beachgoer passed by our car and called out to me, "you may not have noticed," they said, "but the air quality is really bad right now. You will probably want to leave." I did my due diligence (I checked three different air quality sites), determined that the risk from being in not really that bad air quality for a couple of hours was much lower than the risk of me and my kids being stuck inside all day, and then tried my best to explain to my kids why we didn't need to leave, even though the person in the parking lot had told us to. Then we built this cool driftwood fort and splashed in the freezing cold water.
On the 4th day of quarantine, I had some meetings I couldn't miss. But before those, I logged my children into Zoom circle time, on my computer. Later that day, two hours into my Zoom meetings, I realized my children had discovered some Zoom studio effects, ones it took my ANOTHER HOUR to figure out how to undo. I was frazzled. (Let's hope the people I was meeting with were paying less attention to my face than I was...)
On the 11th day of quarantine (1st day of the second quarantine), I decided we needed some structure. Actually, we all did. We made an agenda. It didn't get us very far.
On the 12th day of quarantine, there was a big wind storm. And on the 13th and 14th days of quarantine, we went to check out the damage. It was extensive! A car was crushed by a huge tree that fell across the street. And a redwood in a nearby park was also knocked down, taking a fence and many branches from neighboring trees with it. While out on one of these walks, a person walking at a brisk pace yelled to me as he passed, "I guess you don't want your children to breathe fresh air!" My children were wearing masks as they are accustomed to do whenever we leave the house. I wish I had had the thought in the moment to sit down with this fellow for a conversation. If he cares about advocating for children, perhaps his yelling could have been directed more effectively.
It's hard being a parent of young children right now, no matter how you're doing it. And in general (not just in parenting), there are a lot of people who think they know what you should do and how they would do it better. I'm no exception: I have a lot of thoughts about what schools could and should be doing differently. But I'm trying to remind myself to be patient, to remember I don’t have the whole story, to not be the person in the parking lot or on the street who tells strangers what to do, nor to be the person who says nothing. Perhaps there's something in between: the person who asks questions, who shares information with curiosity instead of conclusions, who brings perspectives and hears perspectives. The person who can still be surprised (and maybe a little befuddled too) by just how creative and intelligent little kids can be. And on my good days, maybe I get a little closer to this hypothetical person.