Sunday is Mother’s Day, and this year, we have a whole new column to add to the reasons why we love our mothers.

The Quarantine Parent.

Over the past few weeks, moms and dads have learned a whole new level of parenting they never dreamed existed.

Not only are we handling a disrupted reality and looming bills, there’s also the uncertainty of whether or not we’ll have jobs when this is all over. For many, the parenting job is a solitary one and those parents are doing a super-human job.

Still, there is some venting moms need to do with other moms.

“Are there ever times you don’t like your child?”

“Can I just go to the bathroom without little fingers waving at me from underneath the closed door?”

At the park or playground, we do a lot of comparing. Why is our kid the only one trying to hang from the money bars without his pants on?

Why is our kid the only one eating sand, and why is our kid the only one afraid to go down the slide?

While you’re thinking you’re a failure, a life-saving mom will come sit by you and tell you her kid still picks his nose and eats what he finds.

Moms with elementary-aged children are finding out what their child does all day long. It’s not singing and finger painting. That’s just what you see in the Friday take-home folder.

The real lessons are hard.

Kids are using iPads to create digital posters and presentations. Most of us feel like magic markers and a 20-cent poster board from the corner drug store should be more than good enough for the life cycle of a butterfly.

This major detour wasn’t in the mom handbook that’s supposedly out there, but parents are getting with the program and finding out a few important facts.

One, their child is not the angel they thought. Their child fidgets, whines, refuses to work, wants frequent Popsicle breaks and has to go to the bathroom every 10 minutes.

For moms of teens, you still badger them to get his or her work done and they tell you they’re handling everything and to stop nagging them. Then you get an email from their teacher saying they haven’t logged on to their class in two weeks.

Thanks to technology and the steep learning curve we’re now on, you know how to check their grades. You know how to see if they’ve been on the computer and, for the first time in years, you can play the “got-cha” card and win.

In the midst of the computer storm, we’ve gotten some perks.

We’ve learned to appreciate our children. We’ve been given time to really get to know our offspring.

Our squirmy 8-year-old is that way because she doesn’t understand the lesson. You now have time to talk one on one with your little one to explain the Constitution the best way you can.

Your toddler is quite the gymnast as you’ve discovered when they maneuver their way through the living room that’s littered with toys, the cat, the dog, Legos, Barbie shoes and everyone’s slippers.

Your disinterested teenager is that way because he has trouble reading. You weren’t able to catch it because he managed to hide his struggle behind video games and false reassurances.

You’ve rediscovered the joys of sitting next to your son or daughter while cooking, playing in the back yard or just talking because there’s no soccer or baseball practice, no martial arts class, no dental appointments.

And best of all? They’ve watched their parents adjust to a new reality, learn to handle their fears by not giving into them and to believe the future has to be better.

This virus has been a curse to so many of us, but there’s usually a silver lining in every situation. Getting to know your kids in a leisurely way just might be the lining we’ve been looking for.

Happy Mother’s Day to all our moms out there. Of all the years, this is the one where you really deserve that big Mom trophy.

 

This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.