I AM - BECAUSE YOU ARE

After 45 days in lockdown/quarantine/work-from-home-and-parent-hell due to Covid-19, last Monday our government announced their tentative plan to reopen schools in the coming weeks; more specifically, daycares and primary schools only – which means us. No one will be forced to send their children back to school or daycare, at least not until September depending on how things go. The government will even continue paying our daycare fees through August if we choose to keep our LO home, which is fantastic! But, at what cost to us? Let the debates, mom shaming, judgment and guilt begin! Within minutes of the announcement, one of my Facebook mom groups made a post saying that this is a choice parents must make, in order to do what’s best for their families and their individual situations, and they expect others to be respectful of everyone’s choices. Well, that lasted all of 2 minutes before people started commenting on what horrible parents you are if you are even considering sending...

I remember I was about 9 or 10 years old and I felt completely overwhelmed by extra-curriculars. Sundays were Church/Sunday school, Tuesday night Girl Scouts, drama club met many times through the week and Saturday mornings were either filled with ballet class or skating practice depending on the season. Heck, even my extra curriculars had extra curriculars! Church had special events, Sunday school put on plays and other activities for the congregation, girl scouts wanted you to sell cookies, school wanted you to sell various items for fundraising, drama club had it’s performances, ballet had extra group rehearsals and recitals and skating needed extra practices (mainly because I hated it and wasn't very good at it). Oh, and I also took swimming lessons after school and throughout the summer! I have no idea how I fit those in. I was constantly struggling with my schoolwork and life at home was anything but easy, so all these activities were simply exhausting! I quit skating first, ...