09/30/2020
For the mama’s with older kiddos... I can’t even imagine. ❤️❤️
Because the world is a trash heap, I missed my annual back-to-school PSA because what even is school? What is "back"? What is life?
Well, I'll tell you that my kids had virtual school for a while and started back yesterday on campus in the new upside-down world of public spaces which Ben reported is "NOT the high school experience, Mom."
It was Remy's first day of actual high school. In an absolute fog, she walked back in the house at 4:45, took some Advil, and went straight to bed by 5:00pm until I woke her up at 7:00am this morning: "Did I miss dinner??"
YOU DID, YES.
The child slept through a house full of screaming aunts and uncles and grandparents watching the Chiefs, baby nephew noise, bonus children stomping around upstairs, and a totally empty stomach since she skipped lunch because it was "gross."
I realize we missed the normal back-to-school rhythm, but just a reminder: these children haven't been in real school since the first week of March. They are an absolute mess. They forgot how to sit in class and do the thing. Covid School is bananas (our kids can only walk on the right side of the hall, so if they pass their classroom or miss it, they have to walk all the way around the building). Masks all day. Desks spread out. Lunch time separated. Half their friends in school, half doing it virtually.
Plus all the other stomach-clenching things about a new school year. New grade, new teachers, new classrooms, new rules, new students, new trends, new ways to feel like you are getting it all wrong.
My point is that if they come home and sleep for 14 hours, THEY MUST NEED TO. Let's give them a million breaks these first few weeks. Don't over-schedule, overstimulate, over-interrogate, or overrun them with stuff. Weekends are for doing nothing. Friday nights especially are DOOMED if you try to "go have some fun" (don't say I didn't warn you). When they bite your head off, don't take the bait. When they cry at the dinner table because their "food is touching", just agree that touching food is the worst thing in the whole universe. They can skip baths. They can phone in their reading minutes. They can threaten to drop out. They can howl at the moon. Their exhaustion and big feelings just need somewhere to go, and that somewhere is the homes they live in.
It will all get better.
Unless they are in the throes of middle school in which it never gets better and I'm sorry for your luck.
