Who Is 100% Confident in the Plan for Children Returning to School This Fall?

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I don’t know who is 100% ready to send their kids back to school, but I can tell you with certainty that I am NOT! To be completely honest, if just thinking about it makes me this anxious and conflicted, I have no idea how I will be able to send my daughter to school with a clear conscience a few weeks from now.

For me, the issue is the unknown. We still have no idea what this virus is capable of.

With new illnesses popping up linked to COVID-19, in particular those affecting children, I am concerned with what else we may have to face in the near future. We still have no vaccine.

Not for nothing, even if we did, I don’t know how I feel about enlisting as a guinea pig. However, I have always been in full support of vaccinations and remaining compliant.

We are still not out of the woods yet. There is all of this talk about a second and possibly third wave of coronavirus. It is mid-July, and we are still in the process of reopening in stages; while attempting to manage the first wave, which is still here! I struggle with wanting to be realistic and embrace the “new normal.”

I know we can’t live in a bubble, and I can’t keep my children home forever. I have been baby stepping them back out into the world in moderation. Last week I let my 13-year-old go out to lunch with her grandmother. This week I took my three-year-old to the park and let her run around. I even let her have a brief interaction with another little girl before insisting she sanitize her hands again and enticing her to ditch the park for some ice cream at home.

I’m trying. I really am! Perhaps what I am really struggling with is the unrealistic notion that there is a correct choice to be made.

The thing is, none of us know enough about what’s going on to do anything other than what we feel is best for our families, based on the information we have at the moment. If we take that burning desire to be on the right side of the fence out of the equation, then we should all be just fine.

My opinion changes from day to day, based on the current climate. One day I am adamantly opposed to my daughter going to school. The next day, I am considering a hybrid option. Just as quickly as I feel like I have made up my mind, I scroll down that good old social media timeline and see that there are so many people with an opposite point of view.

I am continually reminding myself that my decisions are my own. Most importantly, no one else will have to deal with the consequences associated with the choices that I make. So if I could encourage you to do anything as far as making these tough calls is concerned, I would tell you to do what is best for your family and not to worry about what anyone else is doing.

Stay well informed; let your mind and heart lead you to a place where you feel comfortable. Then rest there, reassured that you have done your best to do what you feel is “right” during days where everything seems so wrong.