Blue moon

Thank you for your responses to Evan's Covid-19 philosophy. I think his intention was to comfort and reassure me, but I'm reduced to tears by the notion that he feels a responsibility to comfort me, when it is the responsibility of the adults in his life to comfort him.

Today the instructions for his online kindergarten and Bella's online fourth grade arrived, and they are voluminous and complicated. His family is expected to monitor his and Bella's online time for a full school day, about 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Each child will receive a computer and some other supplies, including the supplies to build a "cubicle" that will give each child a little study space at home. I just skim-read the pages and felt overwhelmed by the rules, the apps, and the computer facility demanded of the children and their parents. 

I don't see how this is going to work for a family with several children living in a crowded apartment, a family with one parent whose work is the sole source of income, a family whose first language is neither English nor Spanish, a family dealing with mental illness, addiction, and the financial and emotional stress of this whole disaster. 

The children have not seen others their age since last March, and now the real lockdown begins. Outside, the streets fill with gangs of armed extremists that clash by night. How will this child's generation remember this part of their childhood? How will it mark them?