Phoenix (AP) — Eight days after the school year, all five daughters of Ambersesac, aged 4 to 10, were COVID-19 positive.
Everyone got sick at once, and worried about the long-term effects of other parents in the school and even their mothers, they downplayed the virus and “broke something in me,” Sesak said. rice field.
“Anxiety and stress are a kind of bottle,” she said. “It just felt that way, I don’t know, I was defeated and made me feel very helpless.”
Like parents everywhere, Cessac has been dealing with pandemic stress for over 18 months.
I’m tired of worrying about the disease itself — exacerbated by the spread of the more infectious delta mutants, especially among those who refuse vaccination, which has caused a significant increase in infections in children.
Online schools have disrupted children’s education and parents’ work. Later this year’s return to face-to-face school resulted in increased exposure and community tension as parents fought over the appropriate protocol. The politicization of masks, vaccines and closures has tired many parents. It’s hard to decide what children can do and what they can’t do.
Amanda Zelechoski, a professor of psychology in northwestern Purdue University, who co-founded the website and non-profit pandemic parenting, said: “We’ve been in survival mode for a year and a half and it’s relentless.”
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The four eldest daughters of Sesac at a charter school in Austin, Texas, do not need a mask. Her children, too young to be vaccinated, told her they were among only a handful of children in the class wearing masks. But she sent them back to school as they recovered.
“It’s no better than anywhere else,” she said. “All moms, we feel stuck in this situation. There is nothing we can do.”
More than 5.5 million children in the United States test positive for COVID-19. In 20% of all child cases According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, it has been around since the beginning of this school year. Children have a low risk of serious illness and death, but at least 498 people have died.
The vaccine is available to children from May to 12 years, but vaccination rates lag behind adults. According to federal data, about half of 16 and 17 years old are vaccinated, and 43% of 12 to 15 years old are vaccinated. Two-thirds of adults in the United States are vaccinated.
And while vaccines for infants are expected by the end of the year, they remain more vulnerable. Many parents were wondering how to best protect them. “You still felt that your parents were having a hard time making decisions and that they were left behind or invisible because what was safe for my family and allowed other parts of society to move forward.” Said Zelechoski.
Over 1 million students He left a public school in the United States in 2020, which was characterized by an extensive range of distance classes. It’s not yet clear what happened this year, but the conflict over Mask’s obligations has led some parents to another way.
Single mom Sheila Kokki, who is still working on health issues after being infected with COVID-19 in February, gives teachers money to offer 10 and 14 year old classes at home 10 hours a week along with an online program. I’m paying. She also works at her home in Fernandina Beach, Florida, just north of Jacksonville.
“Last year it was okay. The whole world was crazy and we all had to adapt to this. Now it’s another kind of stress,” she said. “We are trying to manage this as a nation, or at least as a nation, but there are many who haven’t participated in it. We want our children to go to school more than anyone else.”
Other parents say they know that returning to school is best for their child and hope it’s okay.
In Fort Worth, Texas, a democratic political organization, Heatherbuen, who works for a local utility, protects children and even teachers to wear masks and wash their hands.
“It’s a lot of effort to maintain that,” she said.
She believes that seeing her father, an electrician, infected with COVID-19 helped scare him to stick to precautionary measures. Buen said he was relieved that the five children in the school were not ill and more students and staff appeared to be wearing masks than at the beginning of the school year.Still, the parents of the three districts, including her, Appealed, The school says it violates the students’ constitutional rights because they are not obliged to mask.
Proceedings, school board battles, and discord between family and friends are also sources of stress.
“Bashing on both sides, that was the hardest thing,” said Sarah Braswell, three in day care and nine in elementary school. She wasn’t ready to be vaccinated and wearing a mask in the town of Florida Panhandle was “a little pointless,” she said.
Childcare-finding it, paying for it, and worrying about the spread of the disease-was a great stress during the pandemic. There is a shortage of labor and it can be difficult to find a place. Infections, exposures, and even mild colds in day care mean that the child will go home for days or weeks, and parents will be repeatedly scrambled for child care.
Deanna Manbeck, director of her child’s little non-profit day care in Wilmington, Delaware, bears responsibility for about 20 families there. Teachers need masks, but they don’t need vaccines for fear of staff quitting.
“How can I tell my parents that we can no longer care for our children and have to find a new center beyond our optional mission? As a mom, I’m all I want my teachers to be vaccinated, but we are not in a position to require them, “she said.
Jeff Sheldon and his wife interview the nanny of two sons, a three-year-old and a baby, after daycare closures and routine childhood illnesses have kept children home for weeks at a time this summer. I started. He and his wife had a sick day and worked at home. Their mother also helped.
Regarding day care in Lincoln, Nebraska, he noted that his eldest son was thriving there, saying, “We cannot survive with the uncertainty that classes will close soon.”
Sheldon was able to work from home more than his wife in public school, but the pandemic especially emphasized the burden of women balancing childcare and work, leaving millions of women out of the workforce. rice field.
Taking a vacation was an easy consideration for Dr. Ankita Modi, a pediatrician in Charlotte, North Carolina. She was upset that the idea even crossed her head, she said, but she was so desperate. Masks are optional in her school district. No remote school option She says contact tracing is ineffective. Local health authorities agree Threatened legal action To the district before agreeing New procedure At the end of September.
Her youngest child, 11 years old, is not old enough to be vaccinated. The other two are. “You feel like you’re putting them at a really specific risk every day,” she said. “It’s really anxious as a parent. I don’t think anyone has slept well since school started.”
AP writer Brian Anderson contributed to the story from Raleigh, NC.
Copyright 2021 AP communication. all rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission.
The vaccine is here. The school is open.Some parents are still suffering | Nation
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