While parental burnout is something a lot of people face as is, it has only gotten worse during the pandemic. Sure, spending time with your kids is a great thing and most enjoy it but being out of work or having out hours cut back on top of trying to decide how to best protect your children from a virus is complicated at the very least.
Some parents are struggling big time and well, they are in serious need of a break. This pandemic is only making things worse and putting more and more stress on mothers and fathers. Could you imagine getting a call that there were covid cases at your child’s daycare and being unsure of how to move forward? That’s something a lot of people are facing right now. They want to keep their kids home to protect them but at the same time might not have any means of actually doing that.
The New York Times wrote as follows covering this topic a bit and going over how some people are trying hard to keep their jobs and do right by their children during all of this:
After Gloria Monique Jackson learned that her son’s school would be closing in March, panic set in. A single mom, she was a district sales manager for a telecommunications company, a job that required her to be on the road for field visits sometimes up to five days a week. Jackson cobbled together child care: her 8-year-old went to stay with his father in Chicago for a week, and a friend who was working from home watched him after that. Finally, Jackson was pulled from the field and told to work from home, which was a relief — for a bit. She struggled to manage her son’s online classes on top of her work. “They probably Zoom more than us,” she said with a laugh. Jackson felt added pressure because her son is an only child. “I had to be the teacher, the mom and the friend.”
Throughout the summer, the uncertainty about whether her son’s school would reopen weighed on her. “The feeling was so heavy,” she said. She read articles about women dropping out of the work force to care for their kids; she was passionate about her career, desperate to not become one of them. She sent her son to school in person this fall, but the building has closed three times so far after discovering positive coronavirus cases.
“I would be lying if I said it was easy,” she said. “But you just find a way to make it work.”
It’s also even harder because smaller kids don’t understand what is going on. They want to get out and have fun but doing that right now isn’t the best option. While you can explain things to your kids, not all of them are going to understand like an adult would. Honestly, a lot of adults even now don’t fully comprehend what we are facing.
I guess the best advice I can give right now is to hand in there and rely on those who support you the most. We all need to be cautious but if you’re stressed to the max and don’t know where to go from here, talking things through and making a plan will help. Things will get better and that burnout won’t be as bad once all is said and done. I know, you’re stressed but you will get through this and you’re doing the best you can.