Collectively we would like to forget diatnace learning.

Lets be honest here! Gone are the days of parents and grandparents using, “when I was a kid” in trying to elicit that their kids or grandkids have it easy. Say that now to a kid who went through distance learning and you will get a serious “Are you Fucking Kidding Me, try distance learning during COVID.” Same thing goes for a parent who has gone through playing the role of “attentive parent teacher” while sipping on the cocktail at 3pm, because school is now over. Now of coarse there are those who endured a lot worse in history, the holocaust, WWII air raids, refugees from hundreds of countries. I am not daft, we are still in a bubble which comes living in first world country. What I want to emphasize is things are changing for the future of our children and eventually grand children.

It’s crazy to think we are now through 7 months of distance learning and almost 9 months of attempting to quarantine or trying to physically be distance from places that put us at risk. I won’t lie, Ive been pretty crazy about making the right choices. We have loosened our grip on quarantining the children. In the Fall months, the kids were doing front yard playdates/hangouts with close friends. For the last month, I got this crazy idea of doing ceramic painting play dates.

The ceramic playdates are a hit. I was struggling to figure out an activity that was fun and unique and didn’t include food or the kids sharing something. I got an email one day from Petroglyph about selling starter kids for people to paint at home. After a month and three trips to Petroglyph to restock, we’ve now done about 8 painting playdates and all were pretty fun. The kids typically paint for about half and hour or forty minutes and then run around to burn off energy. Well the little kids.

Paley’s hangouts, (not playdates, those aren’t cool anymore) are mostly painting and lounging around talking. Let’s face it, the older kids just want to connect with their friends.The twins on the other hand love painting and riding scooters with their friends. There were a lot of “GIVE-INS” during this crazy period. Things I said I would never let the kids have or let them do. The mohawk for Lochlan was my first give-up for 2020. Another big one, is Paley’s gift from Santa, a big furry bean bag chair that is currently taking up 4 square feet of the TV room. How is it’s going to fit in her new room is another issue I have to tackle.

Next, I gave-in on the latest hot kids game right now. Among Us!! For the past few years I have steered them away from games like Roblox because their social feature built into the game was too loosey goose for my taste. One parent, was trying to pressure me to allow my oldest to be on Google Hangouts with all her friends and tried to spin it I was alienating her. My reply to that parent:

In less than 10 minutes of reading articles on the internet I found that Hangouts security is primitive and has a rich history with pedophiles.
After talking to other parents, the whole, “all her friends are on it” was a grand exaggeration.

Clem earlier this Fall started playing Among Us with his coworkers as a way for them to stay connected, especially through the holidays. He gave the game a green light, before I had a chance to really look into the game. I will admit, I was dropping the ball. I was promising I would give the game a chance. That’s said, they got the green light and two weeks later some male was asking my son his name, age and where he lived. Closed social connections my ass.

While we made it through the thick of distance learning. January is a new year and new approach to school. Change is around the corner but I fear that change is going to be a slow process for most. I’ve spoken to a lot of friends who’s kids have returned to campus and a good portion of that number has already closed their schools again because either an outbreak or high numbers at the local level.

HKfamily5 Virustopia: Chapter 2 We Made It…..

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