Home schooling is no bed of roses

While families around the nation will be able to access free childcare from this week, there are thousands more who will endure another week of home schooling like we all officially did last week.

The amazing $1.6 billion lifeline thrown to the childcare industry by the Federal Government has given a sigh of relief to families who were facing the choice between working or staying at home with the children during Covid-19.

No one is begrudging this at all. At all.

But, there is no lifeline for parents whose children are already at school and not eligible for childcare.

There are almost 4 million school-aged children across Australia. Apart from children of essential workers, in most states, the vast majority of students are currently learning from home.

Well-meaning experts might say, ‘this way of online learning will be an adventure for your children and your family’, but they are seriously not living in the real world!

It doesn’t matter whether your child is at a private or state school, all parents want this to work.

But this new Covid-19 imposed era of home schooling is throwing up many challenges for parents as they try to work from home and simultaneously home school the kids.

Right now, there isn’t even a light at the end of the tunnel. We do not know when the kids will be returning to their classrooms. It could be months away.

Home schooling children as you try to work from home is not easy

Ask those parents who are now working from home for the first time as well as juggling online learning for one or more children exactly how it’s going?

The reality is that you cannot possibly be giving 100% to your work and 100% to your children at the same time.

Several friends have already made the decision to just do their work once the kids have gone to bed as they just cannot concentrate on their professional obligations and they cannot afford to make mistakes otherwise they will be fired.

No parent wants to admit to having felt exasperated, stressed out, overwhelmed and worried about how they will manage to cope in the weeks and months ahead.

Relationships are also being tested with spouses or partners working in such close proximity from their home.

Owning up that we are perhaps feeling irritated by our children or partners and maybe even having more arguments with them is not easy.

I don’t believe anyone who says they aren’t finding it tougher. This new Covid-19 reality is testing the most dedicated parents and family units around. That’s the truth. Normally we are in control and instead we are at the whim of a virus which is wreaking havoc across the world and re-organising lives.

Some kids’ schools have a full day of learning, requiring kids to log into ‘live’ lessons, have music lessons and all manner of things.

A friend of mine says that no one is acknowledging that one of her kids is only in Year 1 so pretty much needs her hand held through all of this brave new world of schooling.

She only half-jokingly says she is about to go mad as she juggles clients’ needs and childrens’ needs, forgetting any of her own. Let alone worrying about the lunches and the dinners.

We also know that not every household has access to a computer or can easily access online lessons. How are those parents feeling?

Parents are trying to see the funny side with every expert asking them to regularly check, “how is the child feeling?”.

Many are thinking, “Hang on a minute. I’m going from one child to another jumping from Maths to Music, Science to Social Studies, French to Chinese. How am I supposed to do all this? Ask me how I’m feeling, not the student!”

There is also a modicum of guilt involved in so many parents feeling like this.

Everyone knows that compared to people dying and becoming infected with Covid-19 daily, home schooling problems merely pale into insignificance.

But the reality is not a bed of roses and hearing that we are all in this together doesn’t solve the day to day realities that are there. Some parents will reach breaking point sooner than others. Where is the emotional and psychological support for these parents?

 ENDS

Karalee Katsambanis, Mother of 3, Journalist, Author, “Step Parenting with Purpose; Everything you wanted to know but were too afraid to ask.