Let them breathe !!

Summer time is back .This word ‘summer’ has different meanings for different people.

While for most of us, it means scorching heat waves, sunny and exhausted long days and so on.

But for one , a very important section, this word bring lots and lots of joy. For them it means ice cream , cold drink, milk shakes; it means outings , Nani ka Ghar; it means swimming , cycling ; it means hours of play without mom asking them every now and them to revise their lessons.

Yes, the kids. The kids have their best of their childhood memories at this part of the year. Isn’t it ? What’s your favourite childhood memory ? Preparing for final exams ? Spending days in cold shivering days inside a blanket OR your summer vacations?

But .. But this summer is different. For reasons we all know. This time is different. We all are coping against this time in our own ways. While we adults are trying to adjust with increased loads of household chores, the new way of working from home without the routine tea time and lunch time gup-shup at office and on top of it, the uncertainty of the longevity of all this.

Amidst all this, again this very important section of the society adjusted the best of all.

How could I miss saying it before? The very beginning of summer used to bring new smiles to their faces. The smell of new books, the design of new bags, the colour of new water bottles all these things used to makes their eyes shine! The joy of entering into the new ‘senior’ class room with your friends is a feeling that cannot be described in words.

They missed it all .. this time.

They had all these new words ‘online class’ , ‘zoom’ , ‘meeting ids’ added to their vocabulary and to their life all of a sudden. They, like all of us, never imagined their classes this way. Their school this way. Their life this way. But they all adapted it so well.

Some of them have already taken their online PTMs and online assessments !!

Just imagine !!

We used to ask our kids to make their bag, sharpen their pencils and keep eraser, sharpener ready before the assessment days and now we ask them to check if the phone or laptop is charged, to keep the passwords handy !! We all have adapted already !!

This most important section of our society, the most protected, yet the most vulnerable section of our society, is doing so well !!

Of course a great deal of credit goes to the teachers for making this online academic process work. Without them none of this would have been possible.

But at the same time, don’t we think that it’s already enough and we can allow our kids to have a sigh of relief.

This summer is different and we can’t make it same for our kids. We can’t let them play outdoors, we can’t take them to swimming pool, we can’t take them for an outing, movie, restaurant.

Fine!

But we can atleast give them their breathing space. We can just let them relax at home without worrying of connecting to the class . Without looking out for meeting ids and passwords , without worrying of whether their classroom-cum-gadgets are charged or not, sparing them the chaos of teacher’s broken voice over exploited internet bandwidth.

This year is definitely very hard for them as with all of us. Let us not make it harder.

There is no academic emergency. Let’s not drain them further. Let them breathe.

I, with due respect, request all schools to consider giving a break to kids and to themselves.

Pic courtesy: Dreamtime.com

Copyright : Parminder Kaur Sharma 2020

#parenting #community #children #society #familytime #worklifebalance #vacation #relationship #dailypost #lessons