Essentially Nonessential “A Memoire of a Mother Working During the COVID 19 Pandemic”
Essentially Nonessential “A Memoire of a Mother Working During the COVID 19 Pandemic” I was on the Bx 19 bus with tears streaming down my eyes as I watched charter buses filled with hospital workers unload on the side of Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx. The death toll was well into the thousands and here I was, on a deserted bus heading to work, to serve one of the most vulnerable populations. I was afraid, wondering would I become infected with the virus and transmit it to my young children who were at home learning remotely. I had not even been an hour into my eight-hour shift before I got a text message informing me that my child was absent from remote learning followed by a call from a teacher that was sitting in the comfort of her home. There was total disregard for the fact that I was in my office during the mist of a pandemic and life as I had known it had to be readjusted at the drop of a hat. I went to work with multiple alarms set on my phone, praying that I would be able to call to remind my children of their log in times while servicing my clients and collaborating with their referral sources. I was micromanaging remote learning while doing my best to earn a living to support my children and pay bills. By the time September rolled around synchronous sessions were incorporated into remote learning. After a few missed sessions, a school staff member threatened my daughter with children’s services. This is every parent’s worst nightmare. Not once did the thought cross the school’s mind that the child’s parent is at work and that is why the child is not being monitored. Feelings of frustration overwhelmed me. Between working a fast-paced job and dealing with bureaucracy from the Department of Education I began to feel overwhelmed. The school’s only reason for worrying about attendance was for the purpose of funding. It had nothing to do with the best interest of the child. Childcare was also scarce. Most nonworking parents that I knew had their own children and did not want to be bothered watching anyone else’s. False unemployment claims made the need for childcare as a side hustle obsolete. Working remotely was not an option for me at this point. My organization expected all staff in office unless they had an underlying health condition. This is not just my story. This is the story of many working parents throughout the country. The government has epically failed working parents with limited childcare resources. They managed to cover food insecurity and unemployment but failed to consider childcare options for working parents that include remote learning assistance. Working parents took all the losses during the pandemic. We were essentially nonessential.
Written by: Regina AnnetteAa