My COVID Anxiety Is In Full Force As We Approach Back-To-School

When we left school in March, two months before the end of the academic year, I thought by now we would have this figured out.

I assumed with the allowance of time and more data that when began approaching another school year, we would know just what to do.

We don’t.

Nor do I have any real consensus on my own personal feelings towards in or out of school learning.

What I do know, is that my anxiety thrives in these sorts of situations. I bet yours does, too. It causes my mind to put out a steady stream of unanswered questions.

I’m flooded with them and out of dozens of these thoughts, I can only really answer a few.

Are my kids going to be safe?

Will they get sick?

What if I get sick too and then I can’t take care of them?

If they open school, should I keep mine home anyway? Homeschooling wasn’t fun in the Spring but I guess it wasn’t that bad.

How could I possibly do a real, legitimate risk analysis on that?

Can their teacher monitor that many little hands to wash and sanitize?

Will they get to play on the playground? Kids really need a break to run and play.

Are they going to wear masks? 

How can kids keep a mask on all day? I know I couldn’t do it.

What about the janitors? Is it possible they can clean that much stuff after school?

Do we have enough money in the budget to pay them overtime?

Or hire more of them?

How they heck are they going to do lunch? There are so many kids in the cafeteria at once. And they sit so close together.

If we do school work at home again will they fall behind?

Will I lose my mind?

Am I being irrational? 

Am I taking this too serious or not serious enough? What’s the appropriate level of seriousness???

I know the answer to almost none of these today, which isn’t even the point of writing this. My point is really just to tell all the other moms and dads that you’re not alone.

We’re stressed a little more than normal right now which isn’t helpful at all when trying to make educated, sound decisions that involve our children.

We will get this figured out eventually, even if we change our mind half a dozen times.

Hang in there, parents!