Here in Pasadena, the public schools are starting the year with distance learning. The way things are in Los Angeles County, Nathan and I both feel it is unlikely that our daughter Pippa will ever get to attend school in person for the 2020-2021 school year. (Her brother Julian is still in preschool which gets to stay open with its daycare license. Fingers crossed there!)

We did distance learning in the spring and it was a shit show. Our school district says it is switching systems and distance learning in the fall will be very different, so I am trying to keep an open mind… but I also bought an ass shit ton of second grade workbooks on Amazon in case distance learning does not work for Pippa again.

I can teach Pippa just about anything she needs to learn in second grade, but we see a lot of benefits in traditional school: socialization, time away from home, and exposure to different teaching styles. Distance learning loses all of these benefits and creates all sorts of misery.

And the pandemic is creating enough misery without the help of distance learning!

As I try to navigate the 2020-21 school year, I am going to remember my values:

• Being healthy – that includes mental health!
• Paying attention and being curious
• Honoring my intuition
• Doing my best – whatever that means at any given time
• Believing in abundance, not scarcity
• Surrendering to reality. This does not mean being passive. It means accepting what I can’t change and then making the best of the distance learning situation.
• Paying attention to my feelings! My feelings are a call to action. I am learning this. Last spring, my feelings told me: this is bullshit. Yet I kept forcing my kids to do it. If my feelings tell me that distance learning does not work for Pippa, I will make necessary changes.
• Stop judging others – because when judge how other parents are handling distance learning, that means I’m judging myself even more harshly.
• Authenticity
• Being conscious and intentional (hence this podcast episode!)
• Flexibility
• Courage

I also want to pay attention to my mothering and parenting values. Maybe I need a Personal Motherhood Bill of Rights! Some things I know that I value about mothering include:

• Not comparing my kids to other kids
• Not comparing my parenting to other parents’ parenting
• Getting outside and into nature
• Joy
• Curiosity
• Letting my kids follow their passions

Bottom line: both my kids love school and love learning. I will not let distance learning ruin that for them!