3 Things You Should Have Learned About Your Kids In 2020

For many, 2020 has been a rollercoaster ride. It symbolized job interruptions, education nightmares, public restrictions, sickness, financial horrors, and more. But for families with kids who were forced to stay home when they normally wouldn’t, it should have been an amazing chance to bond and make up for lost time. From a mom of 7 who has been homeschooling on and off since 2003 and running her own business at home since 2005, here are three things I feel parents should have learned from their kids in 2020.

Your Children Need You, Not Outside Caregivers

This is not to discredit the wonderful work that good caregivers provide. It also is not to say that any parents are any better or worse than any others for doing or not doing things. However, if being quarantined with your kids in 2020 taught you anything, one thing it should have done is show you how much those kids need YOU. Their parent/s. The world has gotten so fast-paced and full of expectations for many people that the kids often get the short end of the stick, when it comes to attention.

If you’re not one like me who has been blessed to be working at home well before all this, your kids were probably cared for by someone else if you worked. It has become the norm to stick your kid in a daycare, school, sports, clubs, camps, anything to get them out of the way so people can work. Then, when they do what’s called “acting out” people wonder why. They’re trying to get your attention desperately. Your children need YOU.

Society Pre-COVID-19 Was Overstimulating

We live in a fast-paced world where so many people forget to slow down, even when it comes to these kids. They often get pulled right in too, from play dates, to school, to homework, afterschool jobs, looking after siblings, household chores, what clothes to wear, which items they have to buy, and so much more. They barely have time to think, let alone play. Then we wonder why kids have less and less imagination as time goes on. 2020 should have taught you that if your child is living the life of most kids these days, they were most likely overstimulated as a result.

When do they have time to play or just relax and breathe in between everything they need to get done on top of school? They no longer have time to just be kids. They’re too busy starting work early to keep up with this society and all of its expenses and trends. Many of them end up having to help make money for the household or raise their siblings because job wages, along with the availability of jobs is just not keeping up with the standards we are expected to live by. Some parents get trapped and have no other choice but to pull their kids right into the trap too in a desperate attempt to eventually make it out.

Childhood suicide rates keep climbing. Now, a side note here is that some kids who were used to the traditional school environment did have higher suicide rates. But everyone is different and as we start getting more and more used to this stay at home life, a lot of kids are opening up and letting it be known that they prefer the more relaxed study environment, the extra time with family members, and so on. Even many families who were having issues before are having breakthroughs and healing together.

JUST STOP IT!

This is the number one thing you should have learned about your kids in 2020. They want and need you to just stop it. All of it. The keeping up with the Joneses, the expectations on their lives that you want to live vicariously through, the pressure on them to make up for what you cannot do, the family drama, the society drama, the politics, the shoving them into the madness that has us all stressed but yet we keep repeating it. All of it. JUST STOP IT!

Spend time with your kids. Show them you care. Do some art or another creative activity together, even if none of you are creative. Slow down. Stop. Breathe. Enjoy your kids. They only grow up once. Stop the madness.

When I first started homeschooling my oldest kids way back in 2003, many times they were really schooling me. We learned together through all the ups and downs and that is still the case now with the younger ones. Those experiences are ones we will never forget and though these moments may each seem small to you at the time, the fact that we spent so much time together mattered.

Get that back with your kids. Stop the bull and just live. You don’t get another chance once they grow up and those years go faster than you think. Stop. Breathe. Live. Your kids need you.

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