Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. What do you hear? The sound of your breathing? Birds chirping in the backyard? Or are you hearing something like this:
“No, I want to be done.” A child starts whining.
“Sit up and pay attention.” Sound of chair scraping floor.
“Get up from under that table.” More scraping sounds.
“I’m bored.” Sound of feet running away.
“Ok, let’s try just one more exercise.” Exasperation creeps into the adult voice.
“I don’t want to.” Sounds of plastic toys crashing into each other.
“There’s only five minutes left, please try one more time.” The adult voice sounds close to panic.
“But, Mom, I don’t like this.” Whining voice reaches buzz-saw pitch.
“If you finish your work, we can go swimming.” Adult voice sounds defeated.
“Fine, I’ll do it.” Child pouts.
Zoom meeting.
Since March of 2020, there are very few events that strike terror into the hearts of even the bravest souls as ‘Zoom meeting’. COVID-19 has drastically altered the landscape of society, including the ways in which we communicate with each other. Zoom and Google Meet and Skype and You-Name-It gatherings have become ubiquitous. Thankfully, in many cases, a new etiquette and social contract have become the norm as this form of communication has blossomed. Over the past five months (and yes, it’s been five months now) most people, and most industries have come to terms with remote meetings, and have tried to create a new, streamlined culture to accommodate these changes.
And now, heading into September, many businesses are finally open to in-person working again, and the fear of the Zoom meeting is fading into the past. And while great strides have been made in safety guidelines and practices, there are still some industries that haven’t been able to return to in-person service. The one that impacts my family the most, and many of the families that read this is therapy services.
Timothy on a Zoom meeting in May.
We depend on the weekly therapies that our children get, because we want to see them increase their skills, and not lose them through disuse. Unfortunately, at least in our case, all therapies have gone virtual, and so now our weekly hours of therapy are spent sitting in front of a screen.
This is not a complaint about the quality of therapy that the boys get, because our therapists are doing a tremendous job. They have adapted without hesitation to this new mode of communicating and find new ways to motivate the boys on a weekly basis.
The problem is our boys. At five and six years old, they are not conditioned to sit at rapt attention in front of a screen (and I’m glad they aren’t). I wrote an earlier piece (The ‘H Word) dealing with the choice to homeschool our children, and a major factor there was that we don’t want the boys glued to a screen in lieu of having an actual, professional (Heather was a teacher for 8 years) teacher work with them on an continuous, individual basis. So now, when we are forced to make them sit in front of a screen for therapy, they struggle to focus on the matter at hand. This almost always leads to conversations like the one at the beginning of this piece. Every single week, we spend a few hours wrangling our boys through therapy, knowing it’s all for the good, but wishing that somehow, some way, we could find a breakthrough that would allow our boys to love remote therapy.
I recognize how blessed we are to have therapies for the kids that can be done virtually, because without them, I worry that we would be missing opportunities for the boys. I know that for many families, therapies have been reduced, or have been dropped altogether. To those of you out there whose therapies are lacking due to COVID-19, you have my deepest sympathy, and my utmost respect. To those of you who know someone whose family has been impacted by the lack of therapies, please offer whatever support you can. It is a terribly hard road to walk when therapies are disrupted, and so we need to be as kind and supportive of each other as we can during this remarkably challenging time.
As the proud father of three children, as well as an MFA graduate and published author, John spends most of his time trying to balance the demands of being a writer and a parent all at once. Most of the time, it’s an uphill battle. As the parent of a child with special needs, John tries to use his talent for writing to bring inspiration and hope to his readers.
For more information about John Will you can visit his website at the Writing Dad, Here and Facebook page Here.
Cover Photo: Tania Yakunova