As a father I have been wrong. I recognize that I have not done well in the coronavirus crisis; I assume that I have allowed my children to be criminalized Those who have accused - without proof - of being one of the main sources of the pandemic and I have not defended them as I would have done.
Children cannot raise their voices, they do not have the capacity to complain or defend themselves against all the attacks and injuries they have received during these months of pandemic. That is why the responsibility of their parents is to be there, fight for their interests and make it clear that we will not accept that our children continue to be ignored in all the management of this enormous problem that COVID-19 has implied in our lives.
The coronavirus: a before and after in our lives
Looking back, all of society has overcome very difficult situations where our lifestyle has been pushed to the limit. Everyday situations such as taking the children to school, going to work or going out to dinner with friends that we hardly attached any value to today seem like a very difficult dream to achieve again. The virus has affected everyone, young people, adults, ... but especially the elderly who have been the most affected by COVID-19 and our children who have been the great ones forgotten by the measures taken by governments.
The only really effective measure to stop the pandemic has been confinement. coup of Decree Law and state of alarm The mobility of 47 million people has been limited because it was necessary to avoid a greater number of deaths, but it has not been taken into account how this limitation affected the different groups. It is not the same to be confined at home for so long when you are 30 or 40 years old than when you are a child of 4-5 years and you need to develop your body, breathe fresh air and have a little sun.
And while it is true that, as I said, confinement was necessary, it is also true that during this phase there have been exceptions that have allowed, for example, to go out to buy tobacco from a tobacconist or take a dog for a walk. And I wonder, is it not the same or more reasonable that they attend to the children's minimum needs in the same way that those of pet owners were taken into account? Is it more necessary to walk an animal than to allow a parent to take a short walk down the street with their child? Because we bear in mind that there are many families that live many people in small flats or that directly have almost no windows. I don't even want to imagine how a family of 4-5 people had to go through confinement in a 40-meter flat with almost no natural light.
The children ... to the bar
A few months have passed since the origin of the problem but from what I can see around me, the administrations continue to act in the same way with respect to our children, they are still the great forgotten. Today we can see how there are open bars, companies are working again, the country is preparing to reactivate in the new normal while the parks are still closed and there is not no firm plan on the table to know what is going to be done with the schools Looking forward to next year. Children in schools are NOT a risk! but there is no problem if they meet in a bar ... it seems a joke if it were not because it does not have the slightest bit of grace!
At the moment we only have hints of what the schools will be like in the next year; They are talking about whether to force masks to wear at all ages, if not for younger students, if 4-year-olds are going to be able to have some contact with their friends, if they are going to be able to play together or not, if they are going to learn to work as a team with their friends or if we are going to impose rules of that monstrous and cruel school that some professionals are already beginning to criticize.
New outbreaks of the pandemic?
At this time it seems that the only thing that is clear is that the administrations trust that we will not have outbreaks of the coronavirus. The plan is very similar to what we had in January; in January we all watched the news of what was happening in China and our plan as a country was to trust that this would not reach us.
Now we see the news day after day that speak of new outbreaks in Beijing and Germany and we risk everything to the same plan…. to that in Spain we hope that it does not happen. Are we really going to make the same mistake? It is necessary that as a country we have a clear plan and established with the lines of action before the outbreaks, since the obvious thing is to think that they are going to occur.
Will the schools close next year?
Nobody can know what will happen next year but what I am clear about is that at the slightest regrowth the first measures to be taken will be those related to the freedoms and rights of children; They will once again be the great forgotten because they have neither voice nor vote. You just have to see the clues that the decisions that are currently being made around the world are giving us. What is a regrowth in a slaughterhouse in Germany? well we close all schools as a security measure. If we make a reduction to the absurd then the logic says that if there were an outbreak in a school they should have closed the slaughterhouses in Germany as a preventive measure.
Online classes and parents' work
The distance education solution may be a feasible and even recommended option for students from a certain age but it is totally unfeasible for the smallest of the house. Does anyone really believe that a 4-5 year old child can be in front of a screen without the constant supervision of his parents? Of course not, that's totally impossible.
The reality is that online classes are a task that has fallen entirely on the backs of the parents who have seen during these months how they have had to multiply to be able to be parents, teachers and workers at the same time. It has been a chaotic situation that has been carried out with many hours of dedication and effort because it was necessary to do so (as have other groups much more affected and who are our heroes such as health workers, law enforcement agencies, etc.) but in the medium term parents need a plan.
It is not possible that in the face of a possible closure of the classrooms in the next academic year, parents will have to find themselves again in the situation of having to work and take care of your children at the same time when in some cases it is totally impossible. Or is it that the plan is that one of the couple has to leave their job to focus on taking care of their children? Because it is already alerting with several studies about the effect this is having at work, especially of women who are the ones who usually have the greatest burden in housework and caring for the family.
Children and the virus ... what was the origin?
Since the beginning of the pandemic children were identified as a vector of contagion, as one of the sources of risk that had to be avoided and against which we had to fight. But was it based on any verified data? Or was it just one of those phrases that is repeated little by little until there comes a point where everyone assumes it is true?
Because the truth is that there is no rigorous study that supports the greater contagion capacity of children, at the same time that there are more and more voices that affirm that this is not true, that a child does not transmit the coronavirus more than an adult.
Furthermore, I remember that when the children were allowed to leave for the first time during the confinement, there were many people who warned that this measure was going to produce a significant outbreak of cases. But the truth is that it has not been like that, I do not know of any cases of outbreaks that are related to children while if there are many cases related to recklessness of adults such as the one starring the Prince of Belgium at an illegal party and after which he tested positive.
And if that is so why is it being allowed to keep children in semi-insulation while at the same time we see day by day the uncontrols produced by adults breaking the rules in terraces, bars and beaches? Or for example the case of Paris where thousands of people have celebrated the music festival this weekend without using masks or following any type of recommendation and without the police acting to prevent it.
And what do we do in this situation?
I believe that our responsibility as parents is to defend the interests of our children and ensure that rules and laws are developed that take into account the special needs of children:
- Children they need the contact: isolating an adult is not the same as isolating a young child who is in a phase of their life where they need to play, socialize with their friends, learn to work as a team, learn to develop their body and skills, learn to interact with other people, ... in short to develop as a human being. Therefore, measures must be taken to allow contact between children.
- We cannot accept the schools of horrors: school is a place where your child not only learns to read or add, but also develops as a person. That is why we need humanized classrooms where children are not isolated, where a teacher does not have to scolding a student for giving a classmate a hug. We cannot allow our children to see school as a horrible place where they do not want to be.
- We need open parks: At the most critical moment of the pandemic it was acceptable for the parks to be closed as an urgent measure, but we cannot allow their opening to be delayed for months without just cause. If it is thought that a park can be a source of contagion, it will be necessary to take cleaning measures on a regular basis or some other type of solution as has been done with means of transport or entertainment venues for adults; But what we cannot do is accept that they are closed indefinitely and without an alternative plan.
Bubble groups, solution for school and for life
Of all the ideas that I am hearing to try to alleviate the problem in children, without a doubt the one I like the most is that of create bubble groups where the necessary contact is allowed between the members of the group so that children can play and socialize normally. With this solution we achieve that children can interact with other children at the same time that we limit the risks in case of contagion since the circle of minors who have contact with our children is very limited.
At first it is a solution that is being proposed for schools, but personally it seems to me that it is an equally valid and beneficial idea for take her out of the schools. In this way, parents would organize themselves into small groups of 4-5 children, allowing their children full contact with each other while maintaining a more rigorous control with the rest. In an ideal situation the correct thing is that the group of friends of the child is the same inside as outside the school, but this surely is not possible in all the cases.
This is just a proposal but I am sure that there are many other good ideas to apply and achieve harmonization of safety measures and the needs of children as much as possible.
Viruses vs children? It ain't black or white
What we do have to be very clear about is that if as parents we do not pressure and give visibility to our children's problems, nobody is going to do it for them. We have to be responsible, the virus is a global problem and everyone has to do their part to prevent new outbreaks. That is the main objective that we have to have as a society, but we also have to demand that we leave no one behind, that the solution to the pandemic cannot go beyond the mental health of children.
My son is one more victim of the coronavirus, let's stop treating them as the culprits.