Your Parenting Challenges & Weekend Events
First, big thanks for all the great reviews you've put up, especially when you're all so busy. See http://yana.com/classes or in the app.
Over the last week and more, I've talked to many of you about your parenting experience. Thank you so much for doing that! Turns out we share a lot of the same pains:
Coverage / pickup / backup care - Many of us work and it's tough to balance that with family life. And even those who stay home or work part-time often have to balance kids' different schedules.
You told me about how you need to leave "on the dot at 5" every day just to make it to your child on time, fighting through the rush-hour traffic. Or "just need someone to watch for 5-10 minutes" while you run over from your other kid's class. Also the stress of having to figure out backup care on one of the many holidays we have.
Don't know what's going on in school - A number of you mentioned how in preschool you got detailed updates about your kid's day, but now that they are in school, you only get "It's fine. I don't remember" from your kids, and how "15 minutes with the teachers in a semester is just not enough." How you can't count on your kid to bring back homework or handouts from teachers.
And when a parent shares about what they heard from their kids, often the other parent is very thankful as "I hear nothing from my kid." And when there are problems getting along, even though that's hard to talk about, you also want to know.
Helping each other more - I've also heard from you that you wish parents can help each other more, "like in a small town". Your frustration that since "you're a mom, and i'm a mom" and we all get how everyone's just "treading water just to stay afloat, " why not find a way to make our lives a bit easier.
But asking is hard. It hit me when I seriously considered leaving my two kids home alone just so I could run back to the pool to pick up the swimsuits we left.
Love to help - Yet many of you also mentioned you'd actually love to help, if given the opportunity. Maybe a few parents can "watch a bunch of our kids in the park playing. And give other parents a break." And I gotta tell you I'm very thankful to Jaclyn for giving us a ride.
Let me know if you have any thoughts or feedback on this. And next week I'll talk more about some of the great ideas you've shared on building more of that connection.
Family-friendly Events
Sarah wants to share that her family loved the Moana movie. She also recommends James and the Giant Peach at the A.R.T to open Dec. 17th.
https://americanrepertorytheater.org/events/show/james-and-giant-peach
Also, they haven't opened the cool ice-skating path at the Boston City Hall yet due to the warm weather, but rest of the holiday market opens today.
http://patch.com/massachusetts/boston/boston-winter-opens-friday-city-hall-plaza
If you have a cool find you want to share with other parents, let me know. Thanks!
Becca
http://yana.com