Making Friends

Child development took a detour! Our children are doing the best they can. They should not have to worry about spreading an illness….period.

I am getting on my soap box for a minute. What our kids need now is not more testing! Teach them…..teach them….love them…..play games with them…..challenge them…….they are surviving a pandemic! Family and friends are dying at a rate that is incomprehensible! It is not happening in a place far away, to people we don’t know. Our kids are directly related to the victims of Covid-19.

As we ended our school day today, our county cases were at 952. Once the active cases get to 965, all schools will pivot to remote. We are all to spend tomorrow getting students prepared to do remote work for the next day and a half. Talking to coworkers today, we agree that much of the anxiety comes from the unknown. When the cases rise like this, we don’t know from day to day, if this will be the last. We have all been keeping the pace like this since school started! Staying in “fight, flight, or freeze” is emotionally draining. Most every teacher I know is in a constant state of panic and anxiety these days. There is no doubt that kids need to be in school, but our teachers need to be able to teach without added stress of testing or risking their health or the health of their families. A single cloth mask, packs of alcohol wipes, and gloves just aren’t enough when the students aren’t asked to mask or stay home when having symptoms! I have asked for n-95 masks for teachers. We have been told that we will get them, but no one has seen one yet.

Three teachers have now died from covid-19 in one of our neighboring counties.

My nurse daughter is now experiencing covid symptoms, after being exposed three days ago. She is currently in the middle of final exams in college, and is worried that she won’t pass her classes if she misses. How much longer do we all hang on? As the vaccine rolls out, our nursing home residents and healthcare workers are first in line.

I hope you are all staying as safe as you can! I am really over this….fatigued.

~AoA