What better time than now to reestablish my parenting blog while in the midst of a pandemic – something that I had never thought about happening – not in my lifetime. Plus, what a time it is for us all – let alone mothers who must parent through a pandemic – not to mention those of us who are doing it as single parents – mom or dad. By single parents I mean those of us who are solely responsible for the day to day care of our children, despite the other parent making (or not) contributions (financial or otherwise) to some of needs of the children.
But wait, did I just say PANDEMIC?!!
I am truly still operating in some disbelief that this happening. While I have seen documentaries and have read about the Spanish flu, a pandemic was never something that I thought about happening, so I still cannot believe that this is real – that is our new normal, but it is. For us parents, it is even more frightening to think of the many impacts as seen on TV and in the news as well as for those parents who are impacted first hand, while navigating that and trying to protect those in our care. Who would have thought? Who could have thought?! To think it or not, the pandemic is here and will be for a while. For how much longer? No one truly knows. But it is here!!
When the pandemic hit in March 2020, we were all scrambling for items such as toilet paper, water, food and other non-perishables. In addition, we were also struggling keeping ourselves safe and locked away while trying understand what was happening. It was frightening for us adults and for our children too. Now that we are fast approaching a year since it first hit and have seen its many effects, our concerns have evolved from stock-piling toilet paper to include other major concerns such as, education, health care, child care, mental health care, nutrition, finances, housing, job security, recreation (to name a few). Even though these concerns would have existed before, they are now compounded by our current dilemma, making these things even more difficult to attain for many.
What are we to do, as parents – as single parents. How do we help ourselves so that we can help our children to cope? How do we make use of the village that we may have established, when our village is clueless too? Parents are afraid and confused, and so are our children. What do we do? How do we cope? Where do we turn?
So, my intention, from here on, is to discuss everything pandemic, from a parenting perspective – a single parenting perspective – as well as from a teenager’s perspective (my daughter) and try to provide possible solutions/recommendations/tips, etc. on how to navigate the elements involved while parenting through a pandemic!!
PARENTING, ADVOCACY AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN 