I am a parent of 2 teen girls in an extremely blue area of a blue state. The pandemic had serious mental health effects on my kids. The loneliness and isolation really impacted them. They closed most outdoor trails and parks in our area, so not only were there no kids to hang out with, but there was nothing open and nothing to do. It was…
I am a parent of 2 teen girls in an extremely blue area of a blue state. The pandemic had serious mental health effects on my kids. The loneliness and isolation really impacted them. They closed most outdoor trails and parks in our area, so not only were there no kids to hang out with, but there was nothing open and nothing to do. It was insane and it did not make sense to me-a lifeling liberal Democrat. Our state government just seemed to not care at all about kids worsening mental health. Our schools stayed closed for 17 months. I called school board members, I called principals, I even called a mental health hotline one night sobbing in my car because I did not know how to help my kids. And I was told "hang in there!" by well meaning people but no one seemed willing to do anything. I felt abandoned. It was infuriating to me that restaurants were open but schools weren't. It was infuriating that I had for 12 years worked as a public school PTA parent and raised money and supported our teachers and was now being told by those same teachers that I was a thoughtless & selfish jerk for wanting kids to go back to school-didn't I care about the teachers? Apparently I was supposed to care about them more than my own children.
Now I am still picking up the pieces of my kids mental health and my own (paying out of pocket for therapy because health plan therapy is crap-we are lucky this is even an option for us). One is struggling with anxiety and one is identifying as *trans* . We will be OK. My kids are doing better, and I am glad for this, but me personally? I have a lot of rage that I am not sure what to do with and how to process. Rage at the smugness of the childless Instacart -DoorDash crowd, rage at the school and teachers unions for the abandonment, rage at the ones who use "Follow the science!" as a cudgel to silence people's honest inquiry, rage at the intolerance masquerading as virtue, rage at the indifference to the suffering of our kids, and yes, even rage at the "geez who could have seen this coming?" articles that are now popping up in one MSM publication after another. Well, I saw it coming, so did millions of other parents, but no one listened to us. I am working through it but it has changed me as a person a bit.
I am a parent of 2 teen girls in an extremely blue area of a blue state. The pandemic had serious mental health effects on my kids. The loneliness and isolation really impacted them. They closed most outdoor trails and parks in our area, so not only were there no kids to hang out with, but there was nothing open and nothing to do. It was insane and it did not make sense to me-a lifeling liberal Democrat. Our state government just seemed to not care at all about kids worsening mental health. Our schools stayed closed for 17 months. I called school board members, I called principals, I even called a mental health hotline one night sobbing in my car because I did not know how to help my kids. And I was told "hang in there!" by well meaning people but no one seemed willing to do anything. I felt abandoned. It was infuriating to me that restaurants were open but schools weren't. It was infuriating that I had for 12 years worked as a public school PTA parent and raised money and supported our teachers and was now being told by those same teachers that I was a thoughtless & selfish jerk for wanting kids to go back to school-didn't I care about the teachers? Apparently I was supposed to care about them more than my own children.
Now I am still picking up the pieces of my kids mental health and my own (paying out of pocket for therapy because health plan therapy is crap-we are lucky this is even an option for us). One is struggling with anxiety and one is identifying as *trans* . We will be OK. My kids are doing better, and I am glad for this, but me personally? I have a lot of rage that I am not sure what to do with and how to process. Rage at the smugness of the childless Instacart -DoorDash crowd, rage at the school and teachers unions for the abandonment, rage at the ones who use "Follow the science!" as a cudgel to silence people's honest inquiry, rage at the intolerance masquerading as virtue, rage at the indifference to the suffering of our kids, and yes, even rage at the "geez who could have seen this coming?" articles that are now popping up in one MSM publication after another. Well, I saw it coming, so did millions of other parents, but no one listened to us. I am working through it but it has changed me as a person a bit.