Back to School?

***This is a potentially controversial post. While I don’t need everyone to agree, I do ask for respectful dialogue***

You may not know this about me, but I’m pretty good at making decisions. Quick decisions. If I can’t decide, or if I’m delayed or humming and hawing about something, it’s usually because I’m not confident in my decision. 

As a parent, as a mother, I’ve had to make many, countless decisions to date: breastfeeding, daycare, schooling, parenting styles, and, of course, like all parents, we’ve made mistakes and learned along the way. 

Over the last few weeks, parents in Ontario have been asked to choose whether to send their kids to in-person schooling or have them participate in online learning. Parents are being challenged every day with new messages, conflicting information, the lack of preparation from both school boards and educators. And the terms keep changing.  (To clarify: this has nothing to do with teachers. Teachers don’t even know their class assignments yet in many school boards and school starts in a week; it’s ridiculously unfair and wishful thinking to expect any of this to go smoothly.)

This *choice* is not really a choice for a working parent or an entrepreneur; our household checks both boxes. And I don’t buy statements like “we will do everything to keep kids safe”. No, you won’t. You haven’t. 

There are still too many unanswered questions. 

So this is where I’m at. I believe in my heart that no parent will willfully put their child in danger, risk them getting sick, or passing this virus onto someone else. And of course, I know that for everyone’s mental heath, returning to some sort of normalcy and routine is prudent. 

And yet I’m angry that I’m being forced to make a decision without being fully prepared or researched. If I do send my kids to school, don’t think I’m happy about it. And if my kids study online, it’s not because I think they’ll be better off. It’s a blind decision where we make a choice and hope for the best.

All this to say: this is far from an easy decision; based on the various discussions I’ve had with fellow parents, we will all aim to do what’s best for our family and our own situations. 

Let’s hope the next decision is an easier one.