Here we are in November and today is my son's first day at school. Of course he's been going remotely since March of this year, but this is the first day since March 13th that he's actually physically been in the high school. The day is only 5 hours long (arriving a half an hour prior to the actual start of class) with only 4 classes per day. It is the first day since March that the teachers (in the high school) will actually be teaching to students in a classroom. (Until last week the high school teachers had been teaching from home. Last week they were in the classroom, but there were no students.)
If you are of a certain age (like me), you'll remember The Partridge Family. If you remember the show, you'll remember the bus. (If even you don't know the show, maybe you know the bus...it was pretty unforgetting.) And you probably know where I am going with this. Written on the back of the bus was...well, I'm not going to tell you...I'm going to show you...
Who could forget the "Careful Nervous Mother Driving" on the back. (I purposely avoided any punctuation there...it was hard not to put in a comma!) Today, I AM that nervous mother. But I'm not driving. So I have no control over this bus. And I DO like control. (I was going to write that I am a control freak, but I'm not sure if I want to admit that yet...)
This whole pandemic is out of our control. It's put our lives completely out of control. We all do our best with what we have been handed. I hope that I have chosen and acted wisely.
I could have kept my son home but...well, we haven't been living in a plastic bubble. (Another dated reference. Who remembers that tv movie?) While I have been cautious and so has my husband; I have a teenaged son. I urge caution. I pray that he's doing the "right" things. (And who knows exactly what they are!) However, he does go out with a small group of friends. They are outside, but I KNOW that they are not as socially distant as they should be. I make him take a mask, but I KNOW that he's not always wearing it. And he has a girlfriend. (He's had several since this pandemic began.) So how do you think my social distancing plan is going?
Going back to school? Is that any more "dangerous" than what is already going on in our lives? Who knows?!?
What I do know is that I will be a nervous mother. (Was I EVER a calm mother? That's a question I shouldn't ask!) I will continue to be a nervous mother. How can any one of us NOT be a nervous mother when the numbers of infection continue to rise? I don't think any of us will be able to "relax" until this is all over. And who knows when that will be? (Even as Pfizer announces good news on the vaccination front.)
I guess I'm "doomed" to be a nervous mother. But I'm NOT doomed to let the nerves rule my life. I'll be nervous. We'll all be nervous. But I'm going to live my life and have my family live with care and caution with a little prayer thrown in too. Life has to be lived; not recklessly, but it does need to be lived.
And until this pandemic is in our collective rearview mirror, you can stick a "Caution Nervous Mother Driving" sticker on my backside!
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