Pandemic parenting falls on moms
Since schools shut down from the coronavirus, parents have become teachers and oftentimes it is the moms who carry most of the burden.
In many cases stay-athome moms are taking on most of the responsibilities for teaching the kids while the men lock themselves in an office or spare bedroom to try to work. For parents where both mom and dad are working, it seems like women end up making sure all the work gets turned into the school. At least that seems to be the case among many of the women I connect with.
Dr. Uzochi Erlingsson recently handed in her resignation to Harvard Medical School where she was an instructor and worked in strategy and development. She couldn’t juggle it all, “I quit my job,” she told me.
“It has been hard for me to teach and manage my kids. …
It will be a tough decision for lots of women! I believe a lot of the gain made in closing the gender gap will be set back. And I think we will see more women who may end up leaving the workforce,” she added.
Something has to give. It is nearly impossible for two parents to work full time and complete all the school work that is required. Unfortunately, lots of kids spend hours on iPads as a form of “childcare” so parents can work.
That is what my kids are doing right now as I write this column. The amount of screen time for kids is terrible considering all their learning is also online.
I have pulled back substantially from my work to care for my kids. Many families will have to have this tough conversation of who should quit their job to care for their children since school may not even return in the fall and a lot of summer camps have canceled already.
In general, men earn more than women so from a financial standpoint more women will probably make that choice to leave their jobs. Decades of progress for women in the workforce will be erased.
Erlingsson says she will not send her two kids back to school until they have a proven vaccine. “My worry with school is I can’t control it and I can’t expect school to either. We don’t know what the parents and families of the other kids are doing,” she said.
That is the main problem with school and camp — I know we as a family have taken this virus very seriously, but don’t know about everybody else.
Protecting the next generation is being taken so seriously that Johns Hopkins University called for a national mandate Friday to prioritize and fund research about children and COVID19.
We need to do all we can to protect the youngest generation who will need to pick up the pieces of this pandemic and make this a better world for men — and women — in the years to come.