Let Your Kids Skip a Day at the Virtual School
The weeks of the longest and most hellish school year in our children’s childhood have passed. You may be used to a pleasant little routine, no matter what “teaching” looks like in your home. If so, great! If, instead, the mood in your home is more like total and utter unhappiness, it might be time for everyone – or at least the kids – to have a “cheat day.”
In the past, we have encouraged everyone, including children, to have regular mental health days. We take days off from work and school for our physical health; our mental health deserves the same care and attention. We thought that way back in 2019 , even before we knew what it was like to be psychologically tested day after day in a pandemic style. If this were true, then it should be true now.
But in the midst of the chaos that reigns and operates at home on a full-time basis, it’s easy to forget that sometimes everyone needs to not go through another Zoom class. Sometimes we just need a break. Like many of us, Clint Edwards is a working from home parent who fosters distance learning for his two children. He writes this for Scary Mommy :
Stress levels were very high, along with overeating, and the other day I literally had to find my emotional center by locking myself in the bathroom and telling my reflection, “You graduated from college. You got married, bought a house, you can help with math in sixth grade! “
The children were crying. From time to time I get a fog of rage and have eaten an alarming amount of Graham crackers. However, the other day my 11-year-old daughter suggested, “Can we take a day off, eat toast and watch SpongeBob ?”
It’s such a simple request: get out of the godforsaken virtual classroom, toast some bread and watch a bunch of garbage TV shows. However, it is so easy to dismiss it as a real possibility: how can a day off help when everyone is already so behind? We need more time to do everything, not less.
This is partly true. But it is also true that our brains and the brains of our children need a break from time to time. It’s hard to feel motivated to study solitary online (and be patient with the endless technical challenges) when every day is our own real-life version of Groundhog Day .
So Edwards agreed . He and his children stocked up on toast (plus crackers, juice boxes, and popsicles) and camped in the living room. He has hosted several educational shows among films such as SpongeBob, Dennis the Menace, and Avengers: Infinity War, but doing the same is entirely up to you. Edwards couldn’t take a full day’s work, but he could reply to emails more efficiently with Squidward and Mr. Krabs in the background, rather than the sounds of procrastination for children.
There seems to be a lot out of our control right now (because it is), but allowing yourself and your kids to have a “cheat day” from time to time is one way to regain some energy and improve their mental health. You can schedule them to turn off for the whole day once a month, or announce that all school business ends at noon Friday, no matter what happens and that they start their weekend early.
Strategically timed breaks will give them a reason to look forward to and hopefully make them feel a little more rested and prepared for whatever the next day, week, or month will bring us.