In our follow-up episode on schools re-opening, we invited school nurse, Margarita Marasigan, who discusses the importance of getting the Covid-19 vaccine and other protective measures schools are taking to protect their students and families. This includes keeping your child home when they have any type of symptoms, even if it might not be Covid, and taking a community pledge to not put yourself in situations that may increase your exposure to the virus. For example, Margarita mentions that if a parent is invited to a wedding that is taking place in a state with a high rate of Covid, maybe that parent should politely decline, as the actions we do outside of school may put others in the school at risk. We also discuss why we dislike the "Perfect Attendance" award that schools often give and why it is important for sick days to be mandatory for every employee. Margarita reminds us that although the vaccine is still not available for children under 12, this is why it is so important for everyone else to get vaccinated, as it protects those who are not eligible for the vaccine.     

Our follow-up episode on schools reopening features parent and educator activist, Farah Despeignes of Bronx Parent Leaders, who is also a member of Community Education Coucil 8. We continue to discuss the push for the remote learning option and why the New York City Department of Education continues to be resistant to it, even with the looming Delta variant of the virus that has infected so many, not to mention that children under 12 can not be vaccinated yet. We have included some information about Bronx Parent Leaders and some of the work they and other organizations are doing to push for the remote learning option. 

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BXPLAG Petition: https://bit.ly/BXPLAG-S-R-S

Petition in Support of Bronx PLAG’s Demand for a Remote Option:

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Remote Option Phone Blast to Our Elected Officials  - Joining Forces with QRRC and PRESS NYC

New Normal in Parenting is a production of Stronger Families and Communities and Liberated Success, Inc.

To continue our discussion on mental health and the impact it has had on children and families, not to mention the anxiety many of us now feel with schools re-opening, we invited clinical psychologist, Matt Zakreski (Dr. Matt), to provide some guidance to parents and caregivers wanting to know how they can better support their children and themselves. We also discuss the impact that this has had on neurodivergent children and how this pandemic has been affecting them. Dr. Matt gives us some interesting advice we were not expecting regarding parents who still want the remote option, especially with the looming Delta variant very present right now. 

Dr. Matt illustrated a very important point. If you are at a dinner party, and the house sets on fire, do you continue to eat and carry on a conversation as if there is no fire? Unfortunately, too many people, including those in the education system, are acting that way. The reality is that we have been in fight-or-flight mode for the past 17 months, and we have to acknowledge that. Dr. Matt advises that rather than pretend that everything is fine, we need to own our feelings, similar to what Rebecca Anuru and Karmita Morgan-Randall mentioned in our last episode on mental health. Dr. Matt emphasizes that it is ok to be upset right now. We also continued the discussion about educators insisting that students turn on the camera during remote learning.  

*Please note that New Normal in Parenting is only a platform to discuss issues affecting parents during the pandemic. We neither endorse nor advise against any advice expert panelists share with us. 

This week our guests are Rebecca Anuru, Project Manager at Vibrant Emotional Health and Founder of Dream Keep Consulting and Karmita M-Randall. Both are representing the Coordinated Children's Services Initiative (CCSI), a coalition of mental health and other social service organizations working to improve systems throughout the City to work better for families. We discuss teletherapy, parental self-care, and liberation. We learn a new term called Collective Care, and we discuss why the systems designed to support families can often make it more difficult. For example, with all that is going on right now, why are some educators so insistent on having their students turn the camera on during remote learning? We discuss this and many other topics that affect the mental well-being of our children, particularly children who are under-served.

Rebecca Anuru contact: [email protected]; [email protected]

Instagram: @dreamkeepconsultingllc

Website: dreamkeepconsulting.com and my COVID info guide can be found at https://www.dreamkeepconsulting.com/covid-19

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Flora Huang and Ebony Tyler are two education/social service professionals who are also raising children during this pandemic. Ebony has two boys, 16 years old and 14 years old, as does Flora, a 5-year-old and a 15-year-old. Like many parents, they are dealing with the challenges of raising children during this very trying time, as being placed in quarantine has brought on a new set of challenges. Both have felt the frustrated feeling as if too many educators and service providers are acting as if we are still in a pre-pandemic environment, and they know that other parents are feeling the same pinch of being pulled at all ends to accommodate for everyone else, as they are, too.