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Episode 36: Back To School in COVID Times
98 Plays3 years ago
Fara and Grant host a wide-ranging conversation about the many things to think about as kids are returning to school as COVID continues to linger, ranging from complex emotional considerations, to social factors, to the political context, and beyond.
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Transcript
Introduction to Hosts & Mission
00:00:05
Speaker
there's gonna be a really steep learning curve and just being back out in the world. Hi, thanks for listening to Doorknob Comments. I'm Farrah White. And I'm Grant Brenner. We are psychiatrists on a mission to educate and advocate for mental health and overall wellbeing.
Understanding 'Doorknob Comments'
00:00:21
Speaker
In addition to the obvious, we focus on the subtle, often unspoken dimensions of human experience, the so-called Doorknob Comments people often make just as they are leaving their therapist's office.
00:00:31
Speaker
We seek to dispel misconceptions while offering useful perspectives through open and honest conversation. We hope you enjoy our podcast. Please feel free to reach out to us with questions, comments, and requests.
Impact of School Return on Families
00:00:45
Speaker
Today, we are going to touch on a topic that is probably a lot of people's minds here on the East Coast. I think everyone is just preparing to go
00:00:54
Speaker
back to school or all the kids are going back to school. And we wanted to talk a little bit about what it means for parents and for families.
Parental Anxiety About School Return
00:01:02
Speaker
Well, I feel like there's some anxiety around going back to school. And in some ways it feels very normal to me, speaking from within my own family, we're buying notebooks, we're getting pencils and erasers and thinking about the classes and everything. Our school has the option to be in person or to stay at home.
00:01:27
Speaker
But I think there's a lot more anxiety, especially for people where the schools aren't as flexible, you know, certainly if there's anxiety about illnesses and, you know, throw into the mix, variants of coronavirus, Delta being just one there's other ones that are maybe circulating.
00:01:47
Speaker
And, you know, that vaccinations not only are somewhat controversial, but also aren't available for younger kids yet. Not a typical school year in some ways. Oh, plus everyone hoped it would all be over by now. Yeah. And it's not. So I think there's the disappointment that we're still dealing with this as time goes on, but also a lot of the uncertainty about what it's going to be like for kids and going back and wearing masks and
00:02:16
Speaker
I'm trying to navigate that. What is the impact on the social experience and what is the mental impact and what is the impact on education?
Pandemic Experiences Affecting Development
00:02:26
Speaker
You know, one of the one of the things that really stands out is that people have had such different experiences like through the pandemic. Some kids have been in pods and probably been, you know, somehow if they have a parent who can stay home with them or parents who can hire a teacher or somehow oversee
00:02:47
Speaker
the academic piece, the social and emotional piece. I think kids are coming in from much different places and people have had varying levels of being COVID
Role of Schools in Student Adjustment
00:03:01
Speaker
safe. What do you think schools could do in order to help ease reentry? I think one big thing is to just get them reoriented to the school day to
00:03:17
Speaker
what their schedule is going to look like without jumping into things like they might have in past years and giving the kids plenty of time to process at their level what this means.
00:03:32
Speaker
Do you think schools should have a forum for those discussions or actively manage one of the things that kids may be coming from very different experiences? Some kids may have been relatively lucky and had a parent at home, others.
00:03:53
Speaker
struggling with, you know, two parents working full time remote, some kids coming from families where there's significant illness, others not, you know, it raises a question in my mind as to what is the role of the school.
Pandemic as a Chronic Disaster
00:04:08
Speaker
for helping with these social and emotional things when there is a disaster, for example. In a broad sense, I think the pandemic is a disaster, not in the same way that an earthquake or a hurricane is, which is generally short in the duration, even if the aftermath lasts a long time. This is just a chronic disaster. I think one thing that they can do is just take it a little bit easier
00:04:38
Speaker
maybe more permissive when it comes to understanding that these are kids that have been, you know, not necessarily in the classroom and might have been in the comfort of their own home and so might have developed certain habits.
Socializing Post-Pandemic
00:04:52
Speaker
because they weren't around their peers. Have you seen or heard from people that kids are adapted to being away from school? I imagine it is a significant difference whether you're an only child or whether you have siblings around the same age or a pod of friends you've seen, how isolated a kid has been.
00:05:20
Speaker
and whether they've missed out on developmental opportunities. I've heard of it and seen a lot of it really up close where when we're at home, and I even know this for myself, we might not be on the same schedule. We might not wake up, eat breakfast, get out the door, and be prepared with everything we need for the day. For accustomed to something that's a lot
00:05:49
Speaker
sort of less rigid, there's going to be a really steep learning curve and just being back out in the world, being around people all the time.
Teacher Anxieties in Pandemic Schooling
00:05:59
Speaker
One thing that I heard with people who started to socialize again as things opened up is that it felt like a different, like it took more energy.
00:06:09
Speaker
to socialize and to be around people. Right, like the socializing muscle has atrophied a little bit where it's like, you know, you get out of breath easier socially. For people, you know, I know there was data during the pandemic that more extroverted people had more difficulty with social isolation. I wonder if the reverse is true.
00:06:30
Speaker
whether more introverted people might have more difficulty becoming more social again, and whether that sort of social fatigue susceptibility is not not not as bad for extroverts who may really be jonesing to get back with their kids.
00:06:47
Speaker
You know, the flip side is that some people may have a little trouble regulating themselves because they're so stoked to be back around other people. And, you know, kids sometimes have trouble behaving perfectly calmly all the time anyway. Right. So there's going to be a lot of stimulation. The poor teachers. Yeah. And and for the teachers to probably, I think, have to manage their own feelings, right, that they're
00:07:15
Speaker
especially elementary school and are up to age 12, these kids are not vaccinated, little kids get sick anyway. So I would imagine for teachers, there's a lot of anxiety as well. And that this is kind of unchartered territory for everyone, unchartered. Unchartered or uncharted? We have to charter it, I agree. Which means sort of to be planful, you know, if you charter a plane, is what my association is.
00:07:44
Speaker
Because you have to stop thinking on me today. I just love words. I love words and what words mean. Dr. Freud was of a strong opinion that people's word choices might be reflective of underlying meanings. I don't hold as much conviction that those things are significant. But I usually go with my own associations. So what are your associations about this?
00:08:14
Speaker
Well, like I said, that there is something that is unchartered. Even though the term that comes to mind for me is uncharted, the fear is that it's unchartered in the sense that the powers that be, school authorities and so on, may not be as planful or as prepared.
00:08:35
Speaker
And I think the anxiety that we feel very often is increased when authority figures don't seem to be fully competent or aware.
Parental Anxiety and School Trust
00:08:49
Speaker
With our school, we have felt very good about the way the leadership has handled the pandemic. As far as I can tell, and I have some background in risk communication and disaster management,
00:09:00
Speaker
They've done a very good job at communicating and being planful and in careful. I've heard plenty of stories where it seems like the school leadership is really not trained or equipped to address issues as they come up and so that would be unchartered.
00:09:17
Speaker
My other association is more political. It makes me think of what's happening in terms of the United States withdrawal from Afghanistan. And that similar anxiety that people who are leaders, you know, we hope that they know what's going on and so therefore can plan, predict and be responsive. But very often that isn't how life works.
00:09:43
Speaker
life can be much more chaotic than we want. So in terms of tying it back to returning to school, I think we all will try to prepare as much as we can, but also understand that it's uncharted territory. I think there's a lot to think about what this means for holidays, family get togethers. I think one thing we can do to make that a little bit easier is to maybe
00:10:14
Speaker
be on the same page, get frequent testing, and be on the same page as relatives or friends and really have that conversation so that we don't make plans and then find out, oh, actually someone's not comfortable.
Family Safety Discussions and COVID-19
00:10:28
Speaker
Well, that sounds awkward, though. I thought, you know, a lot of times people can have those conversations, but when you bring it up, it can turn into like an argument. Well, particularly if if people don't have the same stance toward masks or vaccines. Right. But the person who is the most cautious is the rate limiting step. Right.
00:10:50
Speaker
In an ideal world, I agree, but I don't know that all families are functioning at that high a level that there's a level, a sort of compassion and regard for the other person. What I've heard is yes, that is often the case that families manage these conflicts effectively, but well, you know, maybe it's a function of what we do for a living, but I usually hear when things are problematic and
00:11:17
Speaker
families devolve into conflict over a political issue. But I guess what I'm saying is one of the things we can do with these types of conversations is to kind of strike while the iron is cold, right? Like no one's going to be that worked up about Thanksgiving right now. And they might be able to say, A, I can't make a plan or B, you know, I'd feel comfortable if everyone is masked and vaccinated, want to be outside or whatever.
00:11:44
Speaker
I agree that advanced attention makes more sense. And I think it's really important for families to separate the getting together and any issues. And it's good to separate them in space and time so that by the time people are getting together, any problems have either been resolved or there's been some kind of mutual agreement
00:12:10
Speaker
to behave such that people can enjoy their company and then maybe pick up the conflict afterward. Maybe. There's always another
Family Reunions and Social Connections
00:12:22
Speaker
conflict coming down the line, but I guess I look at it like it's such that we're still dealing with this. Nobody would have been able to anticipate it, but this is sort of a fact of life right now that getting comfortable talking about it
00:12:37
Speaker
might just eliminate one point of conflict. Right. Of course, as therapists, we are always saying that if it's possible, it's better to put things out there in a diplomatic and constructive way.
00:12:55
Speaker
podcast we spoke with Hana Weiss and we talked about, and this is reminding me of that conversation, of when we'll meet in person for therapy and some therapists are meeting in person already, some are sort of mixing it up in a hybrid model, some are staying completely virtual,
00:13:16
Speaker
But there's something so important about reunions. That's what I'm thinking about. The reunion of getting together with family. I've heard many stories. Oh, I haven't seen my parents in two years. My kids haven't seen their grandparents in two years. But I haven't seen my friends in person in a year or two. It's been obviously a very strange time. And even for a while, like if you went outside, it was like a wasteland.
00:13:42
Speaker
Which is strange in a city like Manhattan, which is often crowded. But then when people are together, it's also a little scary because you could get sick. I think people have to manage their own risk tolerance. How do you think parents should talk about it with children? One thing that I think is really important
Children's COVID-19 Concerns
00:14:08
Speaker
is
00:14:09
Speaker
So kids have obviously heard a lot about what they need to do to stay safe. They, I think, can sense that going back to school puts, you know, not only themselves at risk, but their families at risk. And that they may be really nervous about being vectors. And that if they do end up getting COVID, it's not because they did anything wrong.
00:14:38
Speaker
And so to maybe have that conversation that, yes, of course, they're going to wash their hands and they're going to wear their masks, but, you know, it's not going to be any fault of theirs. And that mom and dad, dad and dad are making their best decision, you know, making an adult decision to send the kid to school.
00:14:59
Speaker
And so to take ownership of that. You're saying if a kid is worried that they'll get other people sick and being a vector, you know, being a carrier of an illness. Well, what if a kid isn't practicing proper convention and someone gets sick and they did something quote unquote wrong? Maybe, but I don't think we can really hold seven year olds to the same standards.
00:15:26
Speaker
The kid is not going to intentionally. I'm not suggesting that it's intentional, but oftentimes people feel guilty because they made a mistake, like everyone's only human, though sometimes you don't know. I think that the causality isn't there and that the message should be, we all do our best to stay safe.
00:15:52
Speaker
And this is a family decision that they're going back to school and not to put that kind of pressure on kids because they're also getting tested pretty regularly, probably at school and.
00:16:04
Speaker
You know, the parents may be vaccinated and may not be tested. Yeah. And kids tend to sort of slobber younger, younger kids aren't always perfectly hygienic. Right. But I think not place all of that on their shoulders is probably better for their emotional state so that they're not like.
00:16:27
Speaker
anxiety the whole day. Yeah, of course, I agree. But there's a risk that it could that it could have that effect. You know, for parents, it can be a delicate message to say, hey, you have to be really safe. There's a potentially very dangerous virus that you could you could accidentally transmit to someone along with
00:16:52
Speaker
And it's not your fault if something happens and please try to be as careful as possible. Of course, we also give up our children to the school and more so, and I think you were mentioning this in our pre-call that in a lot of cases, parents can't go into the school anymore.
Loss of Control and Social Experience
00:17:14
Speaker
So there's a very different experience where you hand your kids over to the school and then you're counting on the school
00:17:22
Speaker
in a way that maybe we didn't before the pandemic. Loss of a sense of control, being able to walk into your kid's classroom in the morning, drop them off, chat with other parents, and just kind of have eyes on what's happening. You're right, we are really placing a lot more trust.
00:17:41
Speaker
I agree there's a loss of a sense of control, but there's also a loss of that social experience, perhaps with other parents. Though maybe you chat with them outside the gate, it doesn't feel the same. And it feels exclusionary as well. Even if we know that it's the best decision, it doesn't feel good not to be allowed into the school. Right.
00:18:02
Speaker
Plus, you know, visiting the school can be nice. Like you think about going to school as a kid yourself. It's definitely an adjustment to be like shut out at the gate. And maybe it's in some ways it's not bad. Well, I guess it is the safest thing for the kids. And I think that's the point.
00:18:21
Speaker
Well, it's not always good to have parents kind of too much sort of mixed up at the beginning of school and sort of asking the teachers things when the teachers don't have time or asking for special treatment or using the teacher's time. And it spares teachers from being in the position of having to say, no, I can't talk now or being late for class because they're being chatted up by someone.
00:18:51
Speaker
That hasn't been my experience so much. I think most teachers are pretty good at setting limits.
00:18:57
Speaker
with me at least. That's interesting. I mean, I'm usually deferential, you know, because I'm cognizant that they're busy and stuff. But I definitely see other parents will insinuate themselves. And, you know, I understand, you know, the squeaky wheel gets the oil. And if your child has a need, and it's hard to get any airtime, then the best thing is just to talk to the person face to face. Yeah, and I think that probably the biggest thing that that achieves is really managing
00:19:27
Speaker
Not necessarily securing any advantage or getting your need met for your child, but it's a way to manage the parents' own anxiety. Without that reassurance, I think parents are also dealing with a lot of difficult feelings around this. Around which aspect? Just going back to school and the passage of time and the things that
00:19:57
Speaker
you know, we might've missed or kids might've missed special moments that I think with kids, people always say, oh, just enjoy every minute, right? Because it does go by so fast at the time that, you know, we really were not able to make the memories that we might've wanted to make, see that school play or- Yeah, the party in the morning on the holidays where everyone brings food in.
00:20:24
Speaker
Right. Or, you know, a school fair. Well, it's a little bit parallel to working from home and not having those interactions with coworkers, both kind of the social glue and the relationships that get built through those friendly interactions, as well as the efficiency that comes from being able to just pop in and ask a question.
Virtual Social Interactions
00:20:45
Speaker
I've heard of people actually,
00:20:47
Speaker
A friend of mine was saying how she set up like a zoom room for water cooler chats and that kind of stuff. I don't think I don't know that it's the same, but I don't know if it works great, though I definitely know there's a lot of kind of accommodations like that.
00:21:03
Speaker
And some schools do things like that, you know, they're posting more pictures on social media to create a sense of presence the way that summer camps sometimes do. I think with on the on the tech side, you know, it's not organic or natural. I found myself wondering if something like club room would work better for like a drop in.
00:21:22
Speaker
But it's very hard to read club room is a popular app, which is like an audio chat room that anyone has just a club room yeah club house room is Macy's.
00:21:34
Speaker
It sounds like a product placement, but it's not. Yeah, Club House. Yeah. Yeah. Are you going to pick on me the whole time like this? I heard I heard Club House is. Yeah.
Challenges of Hybrid School Models
00:21:48
Speaker
Is is being challenged, though, by a lot of the other big social media. Oh, really? Just replicating the same type of. Yeah. Yeah. It's a cool idea.
00:21:57
Speaker
I don't know if it's on Android yet. It wasn't on Android for a while, and I don't have an iPhone, strangely. Yeah, to the point is that ultimately, it should be good for kids to be back together, even if it's a little weird that only three of them can sit at a lunchroom table, and they have to restrict their movements because they're afraid of making someone ill, especially if you have someone at home who
00:22:24
Speaker
maybe has a medical illness or is in a vulnerable population. Some kids are very aware of that. Yeah. Or a newborn at home or an elderly or immunocompromised family member at home. I think it's much tougher if there's no choice, if you basically have to go in person. You think it's tougher if there's no choice? I think it's tougher if you're worried about getting sick and you have no alternative. True. Then you feel out of control. Yeah. Yeah, true.
00:22:54
Speaker
One thing that was interesting to me is like a lot of these hybrid models that we had last year seem to be not as, it seems like they're forcing people to decide, okay, well, you're either remote or you're in person and they're not as flexible. Yeah. Our school let you decide, you know, back and forth, but this year, so far they're saying, just pick one and stick with it. Right. Right. Which is like, pick the wrong one.
00:23:24
Speaker
But nobody really knows how the year's going to go. Well, obviously, I mean, they say that, but there's some flexibility. If you pick in person and some new variant of the virus is going around, they're not going to make people go in.
00:23:44
Speaker
But there's so many things are just unknown. When will vaccines be available for younger kids? Will the Delta virus get under control? But I think typically there has been low transmission in schools anyway. That's one thing I think to keep in mind that there is risk everywhere, like within the school and outside of it, but that what we would imagine and what we feared
Transmission and Trust Issues in Schools
00:24:14
Speaker
I guess at the beginning of this, which is that like, oh, kids, we're going to be the main source of
00:24:20
Speaker
spreading this thing turned out not to be true. It seemed okay, yeah, and on some ways transmission rates were very low. But of course, you know, you have that sort of little thought in your head that, well, this variant is more transmissible. So, you know, we're not really sure. And there is a lot of mistrust of expertise because of disinformation, failure of authority figures, dare I say. Anything that you can think of in terms of tips to
00:24:47
Speaker
help increase comfort level or resilience or just in general about various stages of development.
Adaptive Parenting and Security
00:24:58
Speaker
I think you covered an important one, but I think you're bringing up something which is at developmentally appropriate levels. I would say that the National Child Traumatic Stress Network has good resources for how to work with kids in a developmentally specific way. And my tip for a parent would be to educate oneself and to seek out that information.
00:25:24
Speaker
and to be psychologically savvy. But in general, kids need parents to be secure. And so it's very important to be aware of one's own anxieties and other feelings and how they may influence parenting behaviors. I think
00:25:49
Speaker
you know, parents can do a lot to learn about different types of parenting styles and try to adopt more adaptive ways of parenting. From my limited understanding, sort of most optimal parenting style is called authoritative parenting, as contrasted with authoritarian
00:26:09
Speaker
or permissive. And I come back to this idea over and over again, because it ties in so much with attachment style and having secure attachment. And the authoritative style is to be firm, but warm and supportive. Give behavioral guidelines that are very clear, like what you expect to happen.
Gardening as Metaphor for Parenting
00:26:33
Speaker
and stay away from too much psychologizing, too much trying to tell kids how they feel, too much trying to get in their heads. The idea to me is almost like gardening, where you set the conditions so your garden can flourish, but you don't mess with the plant all the time, because that's not good for it. I'm thinking of the book, Being There,
00:27:03
Speaker
or the movie people may be familiar with from the 70s being there. Have you ever heard of that? The book is by, I have not learned how to pronounce his first name yet, but Jersey Kaczynski. And the movie is sort of a classic.
00:27:21
Speaker
and Peter Sellers, the classic comic and serious actor, he plays a simple man who has been raised by a wealthy benefactor in a very cloistered
00:27:37
Speaker
home and most of his experience is cut off from other children growing up so it sort of resonates with discussing school and most of his experience in life is gardening and so his benefactor passes away without leaving any real accommodations for him to be taken care of and he wanders outside of the walled garden and he gets in the company of very wealthy people
00:28:04
Speaker
And he starts talking about gardening because that's all he knows. But they assume that he's speaking in metaphors and they think that he has great economic wisdom. And he ends up being on like talk shows and consulting to the president on economic matters.
00:28:23
Speaker
And maybe it also ties in with the anxiety about going back to school and needing to rely on schools to ensure the safety of our children and that control that you talk about all the time, that intense need to always try to be in control. Some people have. I don't know what that's like, but yeah, I've heard other people have to deal with that.
Modeling Stress Management for Children
00:28:53
Speaker
Um, I think one thing to touch on is that when we are feeling anxious or overwhelmed ourselves, we're in a position where we have to model for our kids that some stress is okay. Good emotion regulation. Right. Not all stress is bad. If we, you know, feel, uh, like there's just too much going on or
00:29:19
Speaker
we feel like we can't handle it, then we need to show our kids that might feel that way, but really we're going to get through this and we're going to be okay and we're going to get through the year. Do you think it's a good idea to pretend everything is normal when it's not? You don't have to pretend it's normal. You can say, oh, I'm having a really tough day. No, but I'm asking, do you think parents ought to act like everything is fine when things are clearly not fine? Even the most talented actors can't do that anyway. Kids are
00:29:49
Speaker
really tough to fool. They can feel things even as much as we try to protect them. It's probably a good idea to share in a developmentally appropriate way what's going on for the parent, but not so much so that it's overwhelming for the kid, where it makes it so that the kid has to attend to the parent's emotional needs. No, but just for the parents to say, this is tough, but I got it. That we all have our challenges,
00:30:18
Speaker
And they help each other and support each other and in navigating. Right. And there may be actually more that kids need to do and think about. And that I think is like one of the most tragic parts of this is that childhood, but so.
00:30:35
Speaker
Theoretically beautiful about it is that it can be a really carefree time. Yeah, and so I'm I'm sad for kids who are burdened by this scourge the virus, but.
00:30:50
Speaker
Well, I wonder if that's also a generational difference though you know every generation grows up with its own sort of threats. But I think among millennial and Generation Z it's it's understood that rates of anxiety are higher.
00:31:06
Speaker
That's often associated with growing up post-9-11 in a very different world that probably I'm imagining might have felt like it felt in the 1950s during the Cold War. There's some sense of high threat for people born in the later part of the 19th century, the 70s, 80s, early to mid-90s. Things during when you were a kid would have been a lot calmer.
00:31:35
Speaker
sort of prosperity and a sense that America was on the ball and, you know, there weren't as many threats on the global stage. Nowadays, the level of uncertainty and sort of existential background anxieties is higher in general,
Generational Threats and Anxiety
00:31:51
Speaker
right? Yeah. And then, you know, we're really we're focusing on going back to school in a pandemic and there's a lot more things going on.
00:31:59
Speaker
So I think it's a very different thing for a parent to say, yeah, this is a difficult time, but I got it. Yeah. Because as you said, kids are astute and they'll be like, well, some kids will be very reassured by that. But some kids may say, what do you mean you got it? How can you keep me from catching COVID? And then you'd say, well, I mean, relatively speaking, I've got it. There's a lot of things I can't control. Right. But it's that whole idea of the look for the helpers.
00:32:28
Speaker
A book just fell. A book just fell. Prove McKeel's life is ordinary, that is, this is a children's book, but from what I've seen of children's books, past, present, and probably future, and fairy tales, and you name it, they tend to deal with really scary stuff.
00:32:48
Speaker
Yeah, and usually reflective of what's happening in the world so we started watching Chronicles of Narnia again or you can you can read it too it's also a book, and it's set during World War Two, and the kids are sent to the countryside, their fathers in the military.
00:33:04
Speaker
fighting against the Nazis. And they're sent to the countryside to avoid the dangers, I guess maybe in London, which is being bombed all the time. And they go into this fantasy world, which the same thing is happening. This white witch, this, you know, ice queen has taken over Narnia and it's, you know, always winter, never Christmas. And, you know, like you said, the holidays are coming up.
00:33:33
Speaker
Yeah, well, I guess cross that bridge when we come to it. Well, I think there's so many things that it's hard to cover all of them.
Pandemic and Bullying Dynamics
00:33:40
Speaker
You know, you and I had put together sort of a rough outline of things we could talk about. One we didn't talk about so much was, you know, the unfortunately ever present issue of bullying and cyber bullying.
00:33:55
Speaker
which I think is complicated, at least from what I've seen in the last year or two, among other things by the physical proximity. So physical bullying, closing the space can really increase the anxiety of transmitting COVID. For sure, but hopefully schools take that kind of thing very seriously. And I know
00:34:15
Speaker
that at colleges, it is considered a conduct infraction. Schools do, but schools also will tell you they can't control everything the kids do, and that there are blind spots where kids can do things away from the eyes of adults. And then it becomes, he said, she said, or she said, she said, he said, he said, they said, they said issue. And schools can only do so much.
00:34:40
Speaker
what I would imagine is that kids may also adapt how they bully so that maybe there's more verbal. But if you realize that another kid is going to be really, really nervous if you get too close to them, you could use that to bully them too. Right. Well, I think you can just, of course, the schools can't manage everything, but that there is, I would say, a much different expectation about giving people personal space and staying away and anyone who
00:35:09
Speaker
doesn't respect that, that there should be serious consequences. That maybe that kid is not ready to be in person if they can't.
00:35:17
Speaker
you know, manage their own body. Yeah, I agree. But schools don't always know what's going on or how to deal with it. I think by and large, I think a lot of people are looking forward to going back to school, even though there's so much uncertainty and so many ways things could go sideways.
Listener Engagement and Social Media
00:35:39
Speaker
Since school hasn't started yet in these parts, I'm curious to see what it's actually going to feel like.
00:35:47
Speaker
Yeah, maybe we'll come back to this in a couple months. Yeah. And I'd love to hear from listeners about what their experiences are like sending their kids back to school or going back to school. Yeah, absolutely. They're online on social media, Instagram. Anything else going on from that front?
00:36:06
Speaker
I think we're on TikTok now too. And well, you know, it's a whole other story for another day, but definitely came to mind when we were talking about millennials and Gen Z's also growing up online so much and how that changes being in person. And maybe that's another complicating factor. What I've seen is that a lot of kids really have maintained social contact through the pandemic.
00:36:34
Speaker
by being very connected online and, you know, hopefully they can also be connected in person. Thank you so much for listening. Thanks for talking. Always a pleasure. Take care.
00:36:52
Speaker
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