Okay, I’ve had enough. When do kids find out who their teachers will be next year? Because I hope it’s not me.
This is hard. It’s hard because the only break I get is the 2 hours between when my kids go to bed and when I go to bed. It’s hard because I’m at home with my kids ALL. DAY. by myself. It’s hard because I’m trying to home school a 5 and 3 year old which is like trying to potty train a human and a puppy at the same time – one is much better at listening. I’m also trying to run and grow my business, make all the food, give all the snacks, do all the dishes, and everything else in between. Each new tantrum, cry, whine, sibling fight, or kid yelling my name from the next room feels like another drop in a cup that’s already full.
Who’s with me?
But, you know what else I’ve had enough of? Feeling like shit because I’m supposed to somehow know how to quickly adjust to working from home while homeschooling 2 kids. My “old life” already felt like too much at times, but now I have the added responsibility of trying to teach a 5 and 3 year old. You know what’s worse than trying to home school two small kids? Homeschooling two small kids who don’t give a shit about learning and just want to watch Masha and the Bear.
I want you all that are reading this to know this: just because we are parents, doesn’t mean we know how to be teachers. Let me say that again. Being parents doesn’t qualify us to be good teachers. Would we be expected to know how to diagnose our sick children if doctors weren’t around? No, because we’re not trained doctors.
So, I confess: I suck at being my children’s teacher.
Sure, I can teach my 5 year old how to be nice, say please and thank you, and to throw away her snack wrappers (still not even great at that), but if I knew how to teach a 5 year old math I’d be better at it myself by now. Does she count using her fingers? Is there a new method? Can I giver her my calculator? Oh, I don’t know what sound a long /U/ makes, or what the hell a consonant blend is. That’s why Google exists for adults.
Some days my teaching only goes as far as, “If we had 5 packs of animal crackers left, and mommy gave you 3 so far as snacks, how many do we have left?”
So, let’s be okay with the fact that we’re not the best teachers, but we’re trying our best to be good parents. Let’s give ourselves some credit for trying to keep it together and be strong for our kids, even when we just want to hide in our rooms and cry because we’ve had enough. Right now, the most important thing we can do is focus on keeping our kids safe and healthy. So whether you’re rocking color coded lesson plans and schedules (I see you on social, Karen), or you’re praying there’s something educational in every Disney movie, you do what you need to do to get through this time.
Let’s just support one another, and be honest about how we’re feeling so that other mamas know they’re not alone.
Here’s to all of my peanut-butter-and-jelly-everyday for lunch and pasta-every-night-for-dinner moms. We’ll get through this together, and when we do, you can find me at the local Starbucks or hair salon without the kids.
Leave a Reply