Covid Life: The Dreaded PIVOT

Alright friends. It’s been a minute since I’ve written, and by “a minute” I mean, I haven’t written anything worth anything since we left Haiti 4 and a half years ago. The writing process is therapeutic, and Lord help me, I need some therapy right now. So here we go. It’s officially time to process the dumpster fire that has been the Covid-19 experience in Ontario, Canada.

 

Today’s topic of discussion is the dreaded pivot. To be clear, “Pivot” is a fancy word used by politicians that means flip flopping back and forth between two completely different forms of education, both sides of which hold heavy and sometimes debilitating consequences. For the record, I am not here to say which side I think is the right one. I’m just here to tell you my story. 

So let's go back to the beginning. 

 

The world starts hearing about this thing called the Coronavirus. It feels very far away, and to be honest I didn’t pay too much attention. This Coronavirus begins spreading and wreaking havoc in multiple parts of the world, it's getting closer to home.

 

March is here; we’re planning for Zander’s first birthday party with the extended family, the kids are counting down the days till March break when all of a sudden this Coronavirus is all over the news and officially in Canada and BAM everything changes.

March 12, 2020: The government announced that schools would be closed the two weeks following March break. 

 

Wait What?!?! Ok…two extra weeks of holiday, we can handle this. It’s like a mini vacation for the kids and I’m still on mat leave so it’s fine. We’ll just need to keep the cupboards fully stocked because man oh man do the kids eat a lot when they’re home all the time. 

But then another shock.

 

March 16, 2020: Border to the US is closed, which effectively ended the soccer season for all three boys as they were playing in the US last year. The kids are devastated. They’d been going to the states multiple times a week for months now and then NOTHING?!? Little did we know this was only the beginning. 

 

March 16 – April 5th, 2020: The Extended March Break - everyone is watching the news 24/7 wondering what's coming. We learn new words like; unprecedented, Covid-19, Coronavirus, social distancing, etc.  

 

April 6, 2020: Schools open online. What the heck is online school anyway!?  No one seems to have a clue what’s going on. We get the boys each their own ChromeBook and hope for the best. Jubilee’s in Kindergarten at this point and after a few excessively frustrating days of trying to open files that don’t open and log into websites the teachers didn’t give us login information for we drop out. It’ll only be for a couple weeks anyway…little did we know.

 

May 19, 2020: The government announced that schools would be shut down for in-person learning through the end of June. Oh shoot. The boys seem to be staying up later and later, eating a heck of a lot more than they did when they were out of the house for a large part of the day, and sleeping in regularly. I start making them come to the kitchen table to “go to school” but soon this becomes difficult with nap times and Jubilee’s energy bouncing all over. I let them “go to school” downstairs and occasionally I find someone sleeping at noon instead of attending class. We’re all in this together, so I give them as much grace as I can afford. For their sanity and my own. The school year ends and we collectively release a sigh of relief. So glad that THAT'S over. Little did we know.

 

Summer was fairly normal, but with masks and hand sanitizer. We have a weekly cousin party with the extended family - the highlight of our summer. We found a Canadian soccer club for the boys to play on in Burlington but there are no games and the team has to be broken up into smaller groups to practice.

 

I was scheduled to return to my position at the library in September, but received a temporary layoff from the library late August. I know I could be called back at any time so I began searching for a daycare for Zander. My baby is growing up!

 

September 8: New school year begins. Jubilee starts Grade 1 in French Immersion. Joseph is in Grade 8. Olivier is in Grade 10. Joshua is in grade 11. Zander starts full time daycare. Wearing masks to school is weird at first, but the kids adjust pretty quickly.

 

October 19, 2020: I am called back to work at the library. YAY! I was really nervous as I have been off for so long, but it was GLORIOUS to be back. Two breaks a day and an entire hour to myself for lunch? It’s almost like going on vacation after so long at home with 5 kids.

November: Second wave begins…the real fun is about to start.

 

December 21-January 3: Christmas break. Jubilee's Day Camp is closed for the break due to Covid and I have to request leave from the library from Dec 22 - Jan 3. 

 

December 26th: Lockdown begins. Our extended family does not get together for Christmas. We met in a parking lot to exchange gifts with my sister and her family. Everyone wears masks and we feel guilty for "breaking the rules". It's freezing so we don't last long. We wave goodbye and drive back home. 

 

Christmas break was extended by one week. My leave from the library is therefore extended as well. 

 

January 2, 2021: Education Minister Stephen Lecce writes a letter to parents, which is sent out to us through the school boards, informing us that schools will be open to in-person learning beginning January 11, 2021. Parents everywhere inform their children they’ll be back in school soon, and let their employers know they can return to work January 11, 2021. 

 

January 7, 2021: Ontario Premier, Doug Ford announces that schools will reopen online only until Jan 25th. Parents everywhere inform their children they actually won’t be back in school in person, answering the question, “Why did you say we were yesterday and now you’re saying we’re not now?!? Which one is it?!”  Once they recover from their children’s disappointed faces, parents then need to inform their employers they were wrong, and they actually will not be able to return to work, and request an extension to their leave.

January 11th, 2021: Schools reopen online. At this point we, again, have no idea what’s happening week to week. At the end of each week I anxiously await an announcement on schools reopening or not. Sometimes there are announcements and sometimes there aren’t. Mostly we just have to guess each week if we can return to work the following Monday or not. One Friday as I wait for an announcement, which turns out to just be an announcement that there will be an announcement coming about school (I’m not even kidding) I email Stephen Lecce’s office requesting clearer information be given and earlier in the week as I never know if I should be extending my leave from work or not, and a little information would be REALLY HELPFUL! FOR MY LIFE!!!!!!! I never received a response or any acknowledgement to any of my emails.

 

February 8th, 2021: Kids return to school for in person learning, I am able to return to my regular hours at the library. At this point I’m a little frazzled but I'll do my best.

 

February 11th, 2021: We are informed March break is postponed until April 12. I am very thankful for the advance warning, so the kids can mentally adjust to making it through until April instead of March.

 

February 27, 2021: I go in for surgery and am off work for 8 weeks. It’s terrible timing, sort of. Although in the long run helpful as you will soon see.

 

March 24, 2021: Jubilee had a direct exposure with a Covid case in her class and the entire class moves online for two weeks. Jubilee is required to isolate for 14 days.  Thankfully I am already off work during this time recovering from surgery, so no additional leave from work is required.

 

Rumours swirl that Spring break may be cancelled, parents and teachers everywhere are in desperate need of a BREAK and the rumours cause mass confusion and anxiety across the board. 

April 1, 2021: Education minister Stephen Lecce announced that Spring break will go on as scheduled and following the break schools will remain open as they are "critical for mental health and learning." and tweeted that, "Students deserve to be in class."

 

April 11, 2021: Education Minister, Stephen Lecce sends yet another letter to parents assuring them schools are safe for students and will indeed remain open following spring break. Parents everywhere experience deja vue and increased anxiety remembering the last letter Lecce released which was full of falsehoods. I do not mention this to my teenagers, although they read about it online and start asking me if they’ll really be going back. I do not know how to answer their many questions.

 

April 12, 2021: Education Minister, Stephen Lecce announces that kids will actually return to online learning following Spring break, despite his letter released 24 hours earlier stating the opposite. Premiere Doug Ford says schools are closed, "indefinitely". Parents everywhere wonder what exactly he means, because indefinitely is a really long time. Once again, my children begin asking me questions I do not know the answer to. They’re frustrated. I’m frustrated. Jubilee is crying. It’s all a giant mess.

 

April 20, 2021: We are informed Zander had a direct exposure with a Covid Case at daycare on April 15th and we are again in isolation, this time until April 28th. I am thankfully still on leave from my surgery during this time so no additional leave is required.

April 26, 2021: I am scheduled to return to work, but have to go back on leave as schools are still closed. We officially pull Zander out of daycare. We’re all still asking ourselves what indefinitely means….Doug Ford writes letters to medical people. We wait for announcements about upcoming announcements regarding schools.

 

June 2, 2021: Premiere Doug Ford announces that Schools will not reopen this school year. My leave from the library is extended through the end of June. 

 

And this is where the "Pivot" story ends...for now. There isn’t much left in me to give at this point. Everytime the boys don’t log on on time my cell phone rings, then the house phone rings then my phone beeps from an email, sometimes the school will call again for good measure to find out why one of the kids are not online…even though I can hear their teacher talking as I’m speaking on the phone. It’s fine though. We’re fine. Everything is fine.

In conclusion; If parents look worn out, overwhelmed, stressed and maybe on the verge of a breakdown this is why. It’s been a lot.

I never want to hear the word “pivot” again. Not even on a Friends re-run.