08/05/2024
Can we chat a moment about school orientations, events, activities, open houses, awards ceremonies, IEP and 504 meetings, conferences, the times school starts and ends etc??
Logistically, how many working parents can show up for their kids?
How many are expected to take time off from their jobs or get a sitter, pay for extra childcare because of the short windows they have for these or odd hours when most would be at work too?
What about single parents or caregivers or the siblings schedules that all clash or are at the same time? Many parents have multiple kids at multiple schools.
How many just miss these special, significant moments to be there with and for their child or their kids canāt see a parentās face in the crowd?
Or the parents who care for the infant and toddler siblings and the schools that wonāt allow them to be brought in?
Last year, a school became well known for telling moms that they couldnāt attend their childrenās elementary graduations at the door because the little ones werenāt allowed in.
We are living in a world where many need two incomes or at least one parent is working multiple jobs.
We are living in hard financial times where one parent stays home with children because they canāt afford daycare.
We are living in a different time where many canāt just drop their kids off at grandmaās or a neighborās house.
Iām truly surprised this isnāt discussed more often.
I remember everything being at night when I was a kid.
But just with my older kids, I have two orientations, two separate mornings in the next two weeks.
Itās very difficult for me to attend those with my ten year old.
They are crowded, loud, overwhelming and filled with moments of sitting and listening to administrators speaking and waiting in lines.
Some of the hardest things for him.
For a few years, I could do an IEP/504 meeting over a video call but then they went back to in person last year and I didnāt have a caregiver for my youngest autistic son and I definitely couldnāt bring him.
I requested we do it over the computer again and they said they couldnāt.
Iām sure Iām not the only parent out there that needs that flexibility.
It just made me think about how many parents just canāt go for many reasons.