Perspectives in Parenting

I stroll with my two young sons almost everyday through our neighborhood. Since February, the cloudless sky can almost be too blue and too beautiful with the bright sun beaming down on us. I have to pull the round shades over them while they munch on Cheetos and guzzle Capri Suns. The tips of their legs are more tan than their thighs. The strolls are more for me than for them. It gives me a chance to have real peace. The two of them seem to give in to the gentle rumble of the double stroller and are still. Elsa belts ballads from my iPhone as I finally get a chance to answer emails or scroll through my Pinterest feed. At...

I’m a remote employee and have been working from home long before stay at home orders and working from home became the norm. Our kids are young – four and one – and attend daycare. Normally. Stay at home orders were issued, the kids started coughing, and people that worked with my husband began testing positive for COVID. We made the difficult decision to keep the kids home from daycare for at least three weeks to make sure we had not contracted the virus as we didn’t want to spread it to anyone else. We did not get sick but it ended up being five weeks before they went back to daycare. In that time, we accrued a lot...

I'm not the teacher I used to be. This sentiment not only rings true because of Covid-19, e-Learning, homeschooling, and all that has been 2020. Teaching is my passion. I love helping people. I love learning. I love sharing the joy I find in literature with my students. I even like teaching them how to write, despite how painstakingly difficult it can be at times. But... Since having my own child, it has completely changed the way I exist in my classroom. I struggle with my internal anguish over taking care of others' children all day rather than my own son. Being a mom has softened me in some ways. Yet, it has also made my patience wear thin much more quickly...

I grew up without a father. Statistics say one in three children is without a father in the American home. I have personally experienced the negative effects being fatherless has on children. Before my father left, I witnessed his substance abuse, incarcerations, crime, and physical abuse to those around him. I’ve seen poverty. I know what it’s like to struggle at a young age. There is an emotional impact on those of an absentee father that is known to have an impact on adulthood. There are the obvious obstacles adults have to overcome such as dealing with low self-esteem and emotional difficulties in adult relationships. But I never once thought having to learn the polarization of the mother and father...

As I reflect on the past four weeks of life, I am a huge ball of emotions. I find myself just as uneasy as I was on day one. I am completely sick to my stomach that we are starting our fifth week of quarantine. I am an absolute basket case thinking about the fact that my oldest will start kindergarten next year and he did not get the chance to finish his year of PreK 4. My hurt hearts for everyone who is hurting right now. There is still no normalcy, but we are beginning to make new normals. Awkward Distancing... I reflect on our community of Southern extroverts who find social distancing very awkward. No one knows what to...