'I'm Only One Human Being': Parents Brace for a Go-It-Alone School Year

[Nevilledog]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/19/upshot/coronavirus-home-school-parents.html

Parents across America are facing the pandemic school year feeling overwhelmed, anxious and abandoned. With few good options for support, the vast majority have resigned themselves to going it alone, a new survey for The New York Times has found.

Just one in seven parents said their children would be returning to school full time this fall, and for most children, remote school requires hands-on help from an adult at home. Yet four in five parents said they would have no in-person help educating and caring for them, whether from relatives, neighbors, nannies or tutors, according to the survey, administered by Morning Consult. And more than half of parents will be taking on this second, unpaid job at the same time they’re holding down paid work.

Raising children has always been a community endeavor, and suddenly the village that parents relied on is gone. It’s taking a toll on parents’ careers, families’ well-being and children’s education.

In families where both wage earners need to work outside the home, parents have obvious logistical challenges because they cannot be in two places at once. Three-fourths of these parents say they will be overseeing their children’s education, and nearly half will be handling primary child care, according to the survey, answered by a nationally representative group of 1,081 parents from Aug. 4 to 8.

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[SWBTATTReg]

1. When housewives started participating in the workforce more and more, issues such as ...

having children, being able to care for such children in a two job relationship, relying more and more on other relationships to help support this particular family unit (such as grandparents etc.) became more and more important.

But I think grandparents and others previously relied on to help care for such children, is becoming less and less likely, as grandparents and others are getting kind of fed up at being dumped on, and are more and more telling their kids that they are not "unpaid for babysitters" and that sure, they will help, but in a very limited way, such as this, one day's worth of babysitting, etc.

I don't blame them (the grandparents, others who are rebelling), I had a few friends (w/ grandkids) that got tired of all of a sudden their free time disappeared and they were unable to travel as much as they wanted, etc., due to other obligations (not theirs) being imposed on them, such as baby sitting, etc.

Thus, some of them (my friends) started putting very tight restrictions on what they would do for their grand kids w/ regards to things such as baby sitting, expecting to pick up certain expenses all of the time, etc.

[marybourg]

2. I think it has a lot to do with grands and neighbors

opting out due to the pandemic

[SWBTATTReg]

3. Makes sense too!