Dear Super Hero

Dear caregivers, also known to us as Super Heroes,

Soooooo, it's been a few months since your new involuntary title. No, you didn't get a raise or even appreciation from us at first, for the step up you needed to take with such short notice.

It was the year 2020 when schools, cities, provinces, and countries were shut down due to a virus some people called COVID. A pandemic that changed the world forever.

We've heard that being a parent in this day in age was hard enough but then you were asked to be it all, stay positive, paint rainbows on the window and cheer on the "essential workers" at the same time as try to carry on as if things would be back to "normal" any minute.

Without even knowing how or what to do when it came to schooling us, children, you did it the best you could so we wrote this letter to you... our super hero caregivers...

Dear Caregivers, You ARE our heroes!

The call for help wasn't as loud as depicted in the movies, but somehow you heard it and you showed up... with loose leaf paper and pencils, laptop and workbooks that we don't recall ever completing, but still, you showed up to step in and become a homeschooler. You were principal, administration, custodial, and teacher all at once and we thank you for the amazing things we saw you do.

You started planning how to put us kids first while still pleasing your bosses, society, and the government. We thought you would take longer than you did to figure it out, hoping for days filled with electronic time but recess became a thing, grocery and meal planning was on the schedule and thank you cards filled our desks.

You praised the grocery store clerks and the alcohol supply because you didn't think you could do it without them. But here you are, finally finding your groove, after much online research, cries with friends, fights with family, and sleepless nights due to nightmares of you messing us up more than this pandemic would.

When you finally let go of what was, and made your own new normal, you realized how much you didn't see or understand before. We heard your grunts of frustration for not being more present in our learning because somehow you figured you would be able to pull this off more smoothly.

Lots of deep breaths and more sugar later, you forgave yourself because you realized you were conditioned that way and although wishing you had made better choices, decided could only make a better one in this now moment. Instead of continuing to cry about how you could have done better, you stepped up instead and chose a better feeling thought, just like you've always told us to do.

Without guilt, you declared, "EFF home school, welcome to life school!"

Once you began to find your footing and release ridiculous expectations, you asked us to show up in a certain way too. To participate more in our learning. What you didn't always realize is that we learned more from how you HANDLED it all, then from our years of Math and English in school.

Although school subjects are still important to us, we think, more important is the way you showed up for us, adjusting to the times instead of holding on to what was. Being authentic, solution-based thinkers and unafraid to admit that you didn't have it all figured out, took the pressure off of us to always know the answers too. It was through this that we finally understood the repeated statement, "together we are stronger."

YOU, our hero caregivers, showed us more in a few months than we have ever remembered learning our entire academic career. We've had great teachers and met awesome friends over the years, but the pressure of tests, competing against each other and feeling dumb made the great stuff not so great some days.

Thank you for reevaluating "social norms," "society expectations," and "family values." Thank you for showing us to not go with the flow but to discern it, research it, and come to a conclusion about how to think and feel instead of what to think and feel.

Thank you for being brave enough, scared enough, and humble enough to let us lead in our learning TOGETHER. We couldn't have done this without you, and change can't happen without US ALL...so for that, and for the ability to PLAY and LEARN in life, we are forever grateful.

To our loving caregivers who don't know just how amazing YOU truly are... YOU'RE OUR HERO's!

Love,

The Next Generation