Christmas Plans 2020

I stopped by a store yesterday, Aug 29^th, it was filled with Halloween and Thanksgiving decorations for sale.

 I realized, that the year has passed in such a pandemic induced fog, that we essentially lost all the holidays since Valentine’s Day.  We may have done a few things at home with family, but the big celebrations were kaput along with annual seasonal activities like going to baseball games, football games, swimming at the municipal pools, Memorial Day trips to cemeteries, Family reunions and get togethers, summer concerts in the parks, Fourth of July fireworks, summer vacations  and so much more.   St Patrick’s Day, Mardi Gras, Easter, Cinco de Mayo, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, and Father’s Day were just tiny blips on the radar of our existence rather than events to bring the community out. The upcoming holidays, Halloween, Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years will probably follow suit.  The stores may have decorations to sell, but there won’t be the big events coming for the rest of this year that we were accustomed to before the pandemic. Or really, for that matter, small events.

Our children finished the 2019-2020 school year, ”online” instead of “in-person”  and now they are starting the 2020-2021 school year in flux – some are starting “in-person”, some “online”, some a hybrid.  I’ve heard teachers say that they were told to give all the kids whatever grade they had prior to going “online” at the end of last school year, since they could not control which children had good internet connections and computers and which did not, so the children who tried to keep up with their classes and faithfully did the assignments didn’t get any benefit from that, just as the children who played games on their computers and didn’t do any of the online assignments weren’t penalized for not paying attention and attempting to learn.  Many parents and teachers fear that while children may start this school year “in-person” it won’t be long before they are back to “online” as children, teachers and staff test positive for covid 19 and everyone has to quarantine as a result. 

Many parents are creating “classrooms” for their children in one section of their homes, while they create offices for themselves in another.  Trying to figure out how they will do the work necessary to stay employed and keep their bosses happy, while still supervising their children as they do their school work. One grade school child I hear about, who started school last week, got “disconnected” shortly after the class started and it was an hour before the teacher realized it.  How does a child learn and follow the lesson when he gets disconnected?  How many children will have their internet connection “freeze up” as they try to learn?

Other parents are trying desperately to find jobs so they can pay their rent or mortgage and put food on the table.  Set up a classroom in their home?  The kitchen table will have to do. They will be lucky if the school district will provide tablets or computers for their children and if they can somehow manage to get an internet connection.  Entire geographic areas that have poor to no internet signal are trying to figure out how they can help provide internet service to families for work and school and basic communications.

Parents stress over whether or not they will be able to help their children learn what they themselves may not know. Others try to figure out how they will take care of smaller children and babies while helping their older siblings, without someone getting the short end of the stick.

A few places (like the City of  Ballwin) are offering “study locations” for children.  Their disclaimer is that they aren’t teachers and aren’t there to help the kids with their lessons, they are merely providing a space (for a small fee) where kids can sit in a safe socially distanced  environment with internet access (using their own computer or tablet) and do their online classes.

The Greatest Generation, talk about the one room school houses they attended as children and try to reassure younger generations that schooling is possible with multiple levels in the same room, the older children often helping the younger ones.

As schools reopen, so do places of business.  People who have been working from home for months now, are going back into offices.  People who were laid off or furloughed are being brought back.  Others are finally getting hired by new companies.  But there is skepticism, how long will it last?  Will things shut down again?  Will I start that new job, just to end up back on unemployment?  Will I, by accepting the limited hours that they can offer me, make even less money than I’m making on unemployment, but if I turn down the job, I can’t continue to collect unemployment. My rent is due, my mortgage is due, the car payment is due.  And I need to put food on the table for my family. Those and many other thoughts run through the back of everyone’s minds as they grapple with what comes next.

Restaurants post signs: “You are required to wear a mask because we want to stay open”.  Businesses are finally given permission to refuse service to those not wearing masks, but at the same time, we have entire counties where wearing a mask isn’t required and the businesses have to contend with belligerent customers, who loudly, rudely and sometimes violently insist that they aren’t going to wear a mask and the rules don’t apply to them.  Other people do their best to follow the rules, even when those around them don’t.  

Sometimes we have to step back to try to understand why people are behaving as they are.  In some cases, it’s because their world is “out of control” and by their belligerent behavior they are trying desperately to gain some degree of being able to control the world around them.  In other cases, they are so stressed out over losing their job, not being able to pay their rent or mortgage and feed their children, that they are teetering on the brink and need something to scream about  to release some of the tension. As difficult as it is, sometimes diffusing the situation by agreeing with the person that the world isn’t fair, but right now, in order to do something we want to do (like enter a store or go to a restaurant), we have to follow the societal rules until the pandemic is behind us, just like wearing a seatbelt when we get in a car.

But it’s difficult.  Especially when you go between a county that doesn’t require masks and social distancing and one that does. As you have to interact with people who are being given one set of directions from community leaders that negates the instructions that the county next to it is giving out. Some stores offer free or minimal cost masks at their entrance to help ensure that people don’t have the excuse of “I forgot to bring my mask with me”, others tell people to leave, while others ignore the customers who are ignoring the rules.  Some employees may be wearing masks, but not properly, while telling customers to “mask up”.

Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming.  I expect we’ll be wearing masks still.  I expect that we’ll still be wearing masks a year from now, just as the Asian nations have done since SARS hit. I expect that we’ll still be socially distancing.  I don’t like that idea, in fact I hate it.  But I’m pessimistic enough or realistic enough depending on how you look at the whole picture to accept that and plan accordingly.

Dale Weir

Photo by Cris DiNoto on Unsplash