In Judaism when we are in mourning we sit Shiva. This means that for seven days we sit in mourning with loved ones and typically talk about the loss. Well, I'm mourning a loss. I can't sit around with loved ones right now, but it seems that all of social media wants to talk about it, so I'll weigh in too.
As summer comes to an end, we are mourning the loss of normalcy. We missed our splash pads, our library, summer bbq's, and pool parties. The Children's museum is empty. The park is quiet. And of course, we are now mourning the loss of a normal school year for our kids. (I do think we are making the right call.) Like my typical response to loss, this sucks. I never try to sugar coat it. It just sucks.
Don't get me wrong. We made the best of our summer and I'm grateful as always to be able to spend the summer with the boys. We visited new places and tried new things, and a quick scroll through this page and you might not notice much difference other than the masks. But we really missed some our tried and true favorites, and we mostly missed doing them with friends.
It sucks for teachers, who like me have small kids at home and will be expected to be on zoom for hours upon hours with kids under their feet. It sucks for kids who we have told forever that they can't have too much screen time. It sucks for parents who now have to figure out how to work and monitor their kids.
To the mamas who are overwhelmed, sad and tired, who are happy to be around their kids so much but also so bummed that they are missing out so much, I see you. To the mamas who want to scream from the mountain tops about how unfair and hard this is, I see you. To the mamas who are scrambling trying to figure out what the heck next month is going to look like, I see you. This sucks, and sometimes we don't have to pretend that it doesn't.
