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It's a tough subject to discuss, and to admit that your kids are in a less than ideal school situation.
I'm worried about our 3 grandkids. My wife retired from teaching and is now helping out as a volunteer at the middle one's (age 7) school. They are pretty much out of control worse now than when they returned to the classroom after the2020-21 lockdown. Some of that of course could be the teacher, but with many of the more experienced teachers burning out and changing to other work, the younger and less experienced teachers have to deal with a more difficult group of kids. With lower overall enrollment districts are also having to lay off people, and the first to go are para-educators and classroom aids helping the teachers. Then there is the recent school shootings, and having to worry about that happening at your kid or grandkid's school. One teacher interviewed last week told the news reporter that she considered the job too dangerous and was quitting after this year ends in June.
Thanks for your feedback - it must be so difficult on all involved. I hope things improve all-around.
Your question is too undefined. The title says "since the pandemic" which implies the question is about COVID. But the initial post throws in a bit of the kitchen sink. Which can make the same person, talking about the same kids, answer yes, no, maybe, and other answers all at the same time. Then what age group of kids are you talking about? Littles? Elementary? Middle School? High School? College? ???
It's not "about Covid." The inquiry was about the impact "since the pandemic" - it could have been anything - it just happened to be a pandemic with lots of rules and lockdowns and other things that would affect children.
When on a "parent" forum, I would expect kids to mean under 18 - which was what I meant - kids who live at home that you are raising and have observed. All ages are of interest. Just curious what parents have noticed.
Pick up a newspaper from 100 years ago. The politics are no more polarizing now than they were at any point in history. It's a fallacy that I've been hearing my whole life- whether politics, environment, economy... "[fill in the blank] is so bad right now, it's the worst it has ever been!". Life is fine.
I'm a parent and I treat my kids no different now than I did in 2019. They still run off and play with their friends most days, and we just stick our head out the door and yell for them to come home at dinner time, or send a group text to the parents in the neighborhood "can you please send mine home for dinner" if they happen not to be playing outside. They are 7 and 9. Been playing that way since the oldest was 5, although the youngest has only been tagging along for 3-ish years. Since it was established very early on that covid doesn't hurt regular kids, our neighborhood never stopped playing even at the height of the pandemic. And everyone was- and still is- fine.
This is very heartening. Surprised but glad to hear it.
My kids were 3 and 5 in March 2020. Both turned 4 and 6 a few months later. I don't think they were that affected. We tried to keep things as normal as possible. They asked about masks, learned about a new virus and probably more about germs.
My youngest son was a high school freshman in 2020. Just recently I asked him what the impact of Covid was on him. His answer surprised me.
He told me that the Covid years were the best years of his life. He was able to cycle to meet his friends at local parks and there was no traffic and no adults around to spoil the fun. He loved going to the nearby state park, he could cycle all the trails and swim in the lake.
By summer 2020 we knew that the risk to healthy kids was minimal and the chances of catching Covid while outside were very low. We didn't think it was right to deprive ours kids of socializing as it is such an important part of development.
While the risk was low we still didn't want our kids to catch it as they could pass it on to older family members (like us !). So our friends all agreed that the kids could meet as long as they stayed outside. We insisted they carried masks with them in case they had to go to a store to get drinks or pizza or in case they got harassed by adults for not wearing masks. Everything worked out fine. None of the kids got sick.
My youngest son was a high school freshman in 2020. Just recently I asked him what the impact of Covid was on him. His answer surprised me.
He told me that the Covid years were the best years of his life. He was able to cycle to meet his friends at local parks and there was no traffic and no adults around to spoil the fun. He loved going to the nearby state park, he could cycle all the trails and swim in the lake.
By summer 2020 we knew that the risk to healthy kids was minimal and the chances of catching Covid while outside were very low. We didn't think it was right to deprive ours kids of socializing as it is such an important part of development.
While the risk was low we still didn't want our kids to catch it as they could pass it on to older family members (like us !). So our friends all agreed that the kids could meet as long as they stayed outside. We insisted they carried masks with them in case they had to go to a store to get drinks or pizza or in case they got harassed by adults for not wearing masks. Everything worked out fine. None of the kids got sick.
Yes, we were telling the kids to always bring their masks with them, not because we were concerned that they would get sick but because we were afraid that they might get into trouble/be harrassed if they didn't wear a mask in a store or something.
It was nuts at the time and looking back on it with the benefit of hindsight it really was nuts.
It's not "about Covid." The inquiry was about the impact "since the pandemic" - it could have been anything - it just happened to be a pandemic with lots of rules and lockdowns and other things that would affect children.
When on a "parent" forum, I would expect kids to mean under 18 - which was what I meant - kids who live at home that you are raising and have observed. All ages are of interest. Just curious what parents have noticed.
Thing is, the rules and lockdowns and such varied wildly around the country. Youngest was in college. Finished his sophomore year at home but flew back to school in July. Not a lot of rules and panic around here but there was more in other parts of the state. But since his school was in New York (state, not city) there was a lot more sillyness for most of his junior year.
Schools around here closed for the remainder of the 2020 school year but classes started back in fall. The system did a good job pivoting to on line and now actually offers on line as a general option.
In general most of the kids around here came through just fine because the area didn't panic as much as other areas.
Note: I'm not saying COVID isn't real or such. I'm saying in a crisis panic, fear, can make the crisis worse and there were a lot of people stirring up panic driven responses right when we needed rational thought the most.
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