Week One

Week 1 is done. We did it! Parents all over the country.... we survived! The kids too! Let’s take a moment to reflect on a few things. First, teachers are heroes. Often overlooked, undervalued and to be honest, completely under-appreciated, let us never forget how hard they worked to get us up and running. From packets, to virtual classrooms with zoom lessons and power point, America’s teachers are shining extra bright right now. For those who have ever mocked a summer break, a teacher’s pay or even the career itself, you can reassess at any point now. (I’ll get to stay at home moms in another post.) Second, this is a both crisis and a gift. Obviously there is the glaring health issue, serious and scary. Potentially fatal combined with the fear of the unknown, it is shaping our (new) everyday lives. Our economy is coming to a grinding halt and we are all worried. How will we recover? What will we do to support those who are most vulnerable? And there, my friends is the gift-WE. We will recover. We will heal. We will rebuild with a new lens, with a gracious and open heart. We will help. We will support. ME is slowly transforming to WE. Third, forgiveness and flexibility. We have a chance to be gentle and forgiving with ourselves and others. I am looking at this from the Taormina Village Elementary view. This is interesting, especially for me as a veteran teacher and now, a full time stay at home mom. As I awaited the school work, carefully coded and detailed schedules were flooding social media. It seemed simple enough, and may work for some- but I will venture to say it does not work for all. One would think that after more than a decade of teaching I would have felt prepared and at ease. But I wasn’t. I was overwhelmed. The 30 minute segments in teal, pink, green, yellow etc were stressing me out. I was in my element, but also in my own private hell with the kids working on totally different assignments and feeling as though I was failing if we veered off schedule or didn’t complete appropriately. Needless to say we finished the first two days of work and I couldn’t help but feel like I was a human ping pong ball between the two. I sank onto the couch and made an executive decision. We needed to reevaluate. This wasn’t working. For 3 to 5 weeks this was niether maintainable or healthy. We would burn out. So in that moment I forgave myself for unrealistic expectations of an at home classroom with the rainbow schedule and made a promise to be gentle with myself (and them) in the weeks to come. Every teacher has been there- a lesson that has gone so so terribly wrong that you pause, start again and revamp for success. And thus, every mom has been there too- a day (or 5) that have pulled at every nerve. The bottom line is we are all in this together. We are unpacking the week’s assignments one day at a time. We are taking breaks. We are learning and playing, chatting and biking, we are exploring and tantruming. It’s a mix that works for us- a schedule of musts for the day, but rigidity, comparing is gone. This is certainly unchartered territory for us ALL and we owe it to ourselves, one another and our children to be gentle and flexible. And most importantly, we need to grant ourselves permission to forgive the mistakes and unrealistic expectations that will inevitably unfold in choppy waters. So as the fabulous Empire State prepares for a lock down I leave you with this- we will emerge both exhausted and hopeful. We will greet friends and family with long hugs, and I will probably cry. We will chat closely at a bar over a glass of wine or a beer. It will be great. It will be lovely. ❤️