Structural Changes

It may come as a shock to you, but I haven't helped Aaron or Jada with their homework for many years now.  It may seem incongruous that I could so elevate the importance of education in our children's lives and yet be so uninvolved in the actual process of education.  But I believe it is important for kids to own their own appreciation for education, as well as their own discipline to do the work involved in that.  Of course I am available if asked, and I've been asked, but even then I hang back and give them lots of room to flail around until they get it, such that you could hardly say that I helped them as much as I gave them room to help themselves.

The last eight weeks have been the same approach.  It helps that they're old enough to figure out the tech and remember their schedules.  But it has been a transition.  School usually means a certain rhythm to the week, which combined with their extra-curriculars means they have to stay on top of things in order to fit it all in.  Going to school, getting home from school, getting to practices, fitting homework in...all of this has external cues to keep them on track (or else hear it from me).

Now, of course, it's roll out of bed - way later than they're used to waking up, mind you - and the distance between meals, classrooms, and study space has shrunk down to one location.  And that significant reduction in structure has been an adjustment for them, without much cajoling from their largely hands-off parents.

To be sure, these are highly unusual times.  But, what is college but a complete free-for-all schedule-wise, in which no one is breathing down your neck if you decide to blow off that poli sci paper to play video games or go to that concert?  It's all part of the prep, is to have freedom now, while you're under your parents' roof, so you can learn how to handle yourself for when you're out in the world.  But who was to know that this season would afford such an extreme version of that experience?