We’ve decided to homeschool our first grader next year. Well, not really homeschool, but we’ll be using the distance learning option offered by our district. We just don’t feel safe sending him into an enclosed learning environment. I mean, how are 6 year olds going to do with social distancing and masks? Not very well I imagine. I certainly don’t envy teachers that have to go back in a month, I don’t know how I’d be weighing the risks and benefits. What if you’re a single parent and need daycare for your kids as well as needing a job to keep a rood over your heads? Teaching may be the only option. God, everything is such a mess.
Little Moe (that’s what I will to call my son, Little Moe, because I call his dad Moe in all my writing) is sitting on the couch playing video games on his tablet. We were never a very active family to begin with, but quarantine had made us sluggish and weak. The television is on all day. The PS4 is on half the day, and the other half of the day this kid is on his tablet. I try to limit the tablet and PS4, but the television I just can’t let go of. I need it on, even if it’s on kid’s shows all day the noise is comforting and the repetitiveness of the shows we watch is soothing.
I can’t get him out of the house except to go see my parents, Ama and Apa. They have a lovely little patio home with a green garden that contrasts with the desert around us. Little Moe runs outside and plays with their dog, Benny. Sometimes he waters all the plants, and sometimes he digs in the garden with Ama, but mostly he cuddles with Apa and has pillow fights on the spare bed. Or watches cable, just like he does at home. Or plays on his tablet.
I am at a loss. I know what needs to be done, but I cannot do it. I am afraid of the consequences and the yelling and crying that would be the result of me taking away his screen time. I mean, we totally use it as a punishment, taking away screen time when he’s naughty and such, but if I took it away altogether? I don’t want to know what would happen. And then I have to think about what he would do, and I’d love to shove him outside, but it’s pushing 100°F here and I don’t want to have a heat stroked son wandering around.
Catch 22. Damned if I do, damned if I don’t.
I guess I have to make more activities in the house. More art projects, more science, more everything.
I wish I knew how to be that kind of mom.