The Infinite Wishes Of The Better Parent

The Infinite Wishes of The Better Parent

Here’s one (privileged) American mother’s experience as a "pandemic parent". It’s a group of people I feel the need to write about because I’m one of them.

But I ask myself, “should I talk about this privileged position?”. Because there are many parents who lived through much worse situations. "It's not a competition, per se”…right? Because if it were a competition, there were single mothers and fathers who would “win”; families plunged into extreme poverty who had it much worse during covid, parents who cared for their children as well as their elderly parents, parents surviving war and/or being a refugee in the time of Covid, parents in nasty divorces, parents who lived with floods, earthquakes and fires during Covid, parents who cared for children with disabilities, parents of a child with a severe illness, parents who lived with an alcoholic/drug-addicted and/or violent partner, parents who lost loved ones to Covid, or to another illness or accident during the pandemic.

The list, of course, could go on, where other parents “win" in terms of the depth of their hardship and misery during the pandemic, way harder shit to live through than the trials and tribulations of this lady here in the video shaking a snow globe.

And yet… I feel a strong urge to write about this woman, who isn’t necessarily me, but in a familiar-enough situation with a lot of feelings I can relate to (PS please remember this is fiction, where I draw on my life, other people’s lives, dreams, fantasy etc.).

Anyway beyond all of the above, it’s hard to be a parent, yes indeed.

And a parent during Covid, yes Siree.

And even beyond the pandemic, and beyond parenting, it’s hard to be a human with memories and heartaches and our own complicated set of parents, trying to navigate the present without the baggage of the past.

PS "The pandemic “shecession” is fading as more women return to jobs across the country, aided by new workplace flexibility that could lock in future increases in female employment."
More from The PEW Charitable Trusts here: https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2022/05/03/as-women-return-to-jobs-remote-work-could-lock-in-gains