So that leaves us with kids returning (at best) part-time... And the rest of their education being online learning at home. Which my children just did for four months. Speaking as a full-time working parent married to another full-time working parent... please no. Not again. We barely crossed the finish line to the last day of school on June 19... A recent New York Times op-ed piece, “In the COVID-19 Economy, You Can Have a Kid or a Job. You Can’t Have Both,” went viral for the truths it speaks to so many parents out there. Deb Perelman writes: We are not burned out because life is hard this year. We are burned out because we are being rolled over by the wheels of an economy that has bafflingly declared working parents inessential. But last week, Rolling Stone pointed out it isn’t really everyone that “can’t have both.” It’s specifically mothers... Its article, “Coronavirus Is Killing the Working Mother,” makes an interesting point: Although much valuable discussion has been devoted to how COVID-19 has exposed the disparities in class, gender, and income, the parenting issue intersects with all three of those things, yet receives relatively little attention. Let me also clarify that I’m extremely fortunate that my company is so flexible... I’m lucky I kept my job during the pandemic, and that it’s something I can do from home. But the work still has to get done... And so does school. And life. There’s only 24 hours in a day.
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American Consequences
43
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