I’m gonna be honest with you, I didn’t think that my son’s learning from home while I work from home would be as difficult as it is. And truth be told, it’s ridiculously easy with my 15-year-old. It’s the 11-year-old that is making me reconsider day drinking. This is going to be a whiny post but I’ll ask for your patience because I need some myself right now. I’m going to contrast how the last 2 days have gone with both sons.
For a frame of reference, I will give you a high-level view of the schedule I’ve implemented. For the 11-year-old I’ve broken these times up in 30-45 minute segments with specific subjects. For the 15-year-old, I trust he will do the work he needs to get done.
- 10-11:30 School Work
- 11:30-12:30 Lunch and Break
- 12:30-1:30
The 15-Year-Old
He gets up by his alarm at 8:30 and is out the door for his morning jog by 8:45. Then for the next 45 minutes, he’s working out or practicing his soccer. After his workout, he’ll go into the kitchen and make himself a healthy smoothie, maybe some eggs. By 10, he’s at his desk, working on assignments and studying. He usually finishes early so he’ll continue teaching himself coding via YouTube or Lynda classes. Mid-day, he’ll go for his second workout which includes running a mile then a variety of soccer drills.
The 11-Year-Old
At 9:15 I wake him up. He protests the time and says he’s not getting out of bed. I remind him to make his bed and brush his teeth, both tasks that will be forgotten in 2 minutes. From 9:15-10 he whines about having to do school work and maybe will remember to grab breakfast. At 10 am, he begrudgingly sits down in my craft room (now a one-room schoolhouse/home office) and logs on to Google classroom.
Within 20 minutes, he has either gotten up to “get a drink” “go to the bathroom” or “forgot something upstairs”. For the next 15 minutes, he slowly twists his body back and forth on the office chair while grazing over his reading assignment. He stares out the window and checks the school schedule ten times as if doing that will make the time go by faster.
At 11 am, he joins his class via Zoom. Because it’s not 100% set up, he spends the next 20 minutes bullshitting with his friends. When I question this and if he should just get off and do his classwork, he challenges me to tell his teacher I’m wanting him off. Not to be the ass hole, I don’t push it. Because of the Zoom class, he had the audacity to ask me the following:
“Does that knock off my time for Science?”
“What is this prison?” I ask. “Time off for good behavior? It doesn’t work like that sir.”
At 11:30 (lunch break) he decides he’s not hungry and will be playing video games. At 12:30, when school is back in session, he decides he’s starving and needs something to eat. By now, I want to pull my God damn hair out because remember folks, I’m fortunate enough to still be a food buyer.
At The End of the Day
I already know the answer to this question but why are these ass holes making it so difficult for us? Don’t they understand that like a prison bitch, if they would just submit to school, they could get all of this over a lot quicker? But no….we have to whine and say how stupid something is and have a bad attitude.
I get that we aren’t homeschooling our kids. Trust me, some teachers have made this very clear on social media. But what we are being tasked with is keeping our children on track so they don’t fall behind. When they can’t figure out where an assignment is, we have to stop our job and search until we find it. They have questions on things we haven’t done in 30 years and now suddenly we have to learn it on the spot and fast. When they whine about missing their friends and actually wanting to go back to school, you have to console them, pretending you know what it’s like since you’ve never experienced this in your life. So yeah, we aren’t homeschooling them but we’re ensuring school is happening in the home.
Sorry, today was rough and I needed to rant. I hope you find solace in my whining.
I’m glad that I’m not the only being abused by their children during this virtual schooling experience
And for what it’s worth, it’s comforting to get comments like this so I know it’s not just me or that I’m doing something wrong. I want to ask his teacher, is this what you deal with on a daily basis? But then I think it’s the quarantine that’s getting to him. Stay strong my friend!
Yep, the only difference is my high schooler is fighting me more than my middle schooler. It’s absolutely what I’m dealing with day in and day out
Wow! The complete opposite of me. The high schooler has been a dream. Well, looks like we have a month more of this shit b/c they just extended the stay at home order till May 1st. I’m kicking and crying on the floor right now.
Yep, our schools are closed indefinitely here in South Florida, so we’re definitely in this for the long haul.
Those of us with grown up children are very grateful we never had to do this and your younger son is exactly how my younger son would have been. We couldn’t get him to do his homework, let alone home schooling. While refugee children with no English managed to pass all their exams with flying colours after two years in school, our son managed to leave school with few qualifications. But he has made his own way in life,very successfully self employed until this month when all self employed have lost there jobs!
Yes, you are very fortunate to have grown up kids. No one goes into parenthood thinking that at some point, they’ll be raising kids during a pandemic. It’s also anxiety-inducing wondering what long-term effect this will have on them. Are they going to grow up to be germaphobs? But then again, maybe that would be good for them?
On a different note, I’m glad your son became successfully self-employed and my wish is that once this trainwreck is over that he comes out of it even stronger and more successful! Stay safe!