This is a difficult season to be in for everyone, but as far as coronavirus goes, not much has given me anxiety. What gives me anxiety is socializing with other people and that has been mostly off the table for a while so it’s a win-win. Our family has been pretty good at rolling with the punches. The kids were disappointed when things were canceled but easily distracted with other things we planned for them around the house, like new kittens, building a clubhouse, and trekking all over the farm like we’re exploring a new state park. Kids are resilient. So far, so good, but now that school is in session and cooler weather is here, I have a new anxiety. Do I send my kid to school today with his stuffy nose or not? At the beginning of the year, like most parents whose rural school district opened up, we received the checklist of symptoms to monitor with children and the plea to stay home if they develop these symptoms. I was relieved to see this checklist. It’s basically a list of things that we should always look for in our kids to keep them from spreading illness, but sometimes it’s not taken seriously. Limited sick days for parents and school funding based on attendance can cause some serious chaos during the cold and flu season. Now the checklist does the work for us. Cough - keep them home. No sense of smell - keep them home. Fever - for those people in the back - KEEP THEM HOME! As a school employee told me recently, absences and attendance policies are out the window this year. No need to concern ourselves with it. But I’ve learned something that I didn’t think of at the beginning of the year. It’s just not that easy. I forgot about my children having a consistent runny nose as soon as the weather gets cooler, how a fun climb up the round bales causes watery eyes and a sore throat, and how as soon as the wood stove is fired up, everyone in the house has sinus problems. Also, I was one of those bad employees once upon a time who went to school sick. I needed to save my sick days for maternity leave or when my children were sick, not when I was running a fever and coughing myself into a stupor. Yes! I did that and most of my colleagues did too! As a culture, that’s encouraged too. We’re seen as dedicated employees if we’re willing to drag our snot noses into work when we should be sleeping it off at home watching Judge Judy. Last week my oldest, who seems to be the most susceptible to hay bales, came down with a sore throat on Friday morning, so he stayed at home. I was subbing that day, and I was a little unnerved about what I should do. It was easy to keep him at home with my husband, but I found myself thinking, “What if I’m asymptomatic and I’m going into a classroom to see over a hundred kids total today?” That’s where my anxiety hits overload. My son had been climbing up hay bales the night before, so I made the executive decision to go to work and leave him with my husband. He felt better the rest of the day and got to hang with his dad for a fun father-son day. They even went to Dairy Queen. Win-win. But what if it had been more? UGH! I’m the overcautious one. I substitute in the school my kids attend, so I’m definitely going to be extra careful. Like I’ve told others, I don’t want to be Patient Zero and I most certainly don’t want my kids to be either. I’m not going to lie, I most certainly want to keep everyone safe, but I also don’t want the blame for closing down school if we don’t follow direction and spread COVID. I have two kids in different classrooms and I usually sub in a special’s room, so I see many classes. That would be a lot of quarantining, so we’re being extra, extra careful. So yes, I would feel mortified if I was the cause of parents having to go virtual with their kids again when I know personally what a nightmare that can be with your own children. If we could quarantine with someone else’s children, I wouldn’t feel so bad. Other people’s children listen. Not your own children, definitely not. Sadly, that’s not how this works and we all would most definitely be stuck with our own kids. Thankfully, my son only missed a Friday and had the whole weekend to recover, which he didn’t need since it passed quickly and must have been a reaction to the hay bales. Can you imagine my chagrin at the end of the weekend, the night before school, I found him and his brother again playing in the hay barn? And then within minutes, hearing him start to cough again? Geez! The anxiety starts up again. I gave him some Benadryl and we’re back at school, but this year is going to be a tricky one. My advice for everyone heading into this fall season with similar anxieties would be to have a plan to change plans and for everyone else to have a bit of compassion for changed plans. As a very wise school employee told me, “Attendance is out the window!” and we all should use that as our motto this year. Get the book Desperate Farmwives!
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AuthorThis is my therapeutic release for all the things that annoy me about living on a farm. If I can make it humorous, I can survive it. |