It is half past nine in the morning and my fourth attempt to start home office as a single mother of two sons (10 and 14 years old) is just beginning. We got up very early, my elementary school child and I, to do most of the things in front of the home office Home schooling to do. At 1 p.m. the latest submission of all pages to be edited is in math, German and English. I can't complain, other mothers also have to deal with religion, art or society, do handicrafts or invent poems about the curfew. So my morning consisted of circular and puzzle tasks, the personal description of a football player, food from cucumber to strawberry ice cream and the diary for German. The children should, of course, do this completely on their own, but those who follow Facebook for example these days read about mothers with impending threats Nervous breakdowns, screaming frenzy, startled depression that slumbered for years and was now ringing awake. That doesn't seem to be working properly with that Working alone. As the saying goes online: If home school is extended, the mothers will develop the vaccine in front of the researchers – I assume they should be on their feet by then.
After the first few days, I found that as soon as I sit at my computer and my attention is completely there, my child has about three times as many questions as when I sit right next to it – and only answer my job emails secretly on the phone. When our first two hours of school were done today, so the first hook of the day for completed tasks could be set in the head, the teacher's next WhatsApp came in class chat, which unfortunately runs on my cell phone because the child in fourth grade does not yet have one own device: At ten there will be a surprise for everyone! Maybe tomorrow completely Corona free, a day without tasks? I look forward to ten o'clock with the son. Until then, the whole class had registered online: Everyone is happy – only 23x tinkering. The same number of friends write – funny films, sayings, horror information are currently booming on WhatsApp. Later…
The next prank comes at ten o'clock: a meditation exercise for at home. My son grabs a pillow while listening to the sent voice message, because you can't interrupt the whole thing – it's boring enough for the kids anyway. The gong sounds, a breathing exercise starts. Finally calm, I breathe again. They could drag it out for another half an hour or four hours … But: Gong! The idyll is already killed again.
After sending the younger child to his room, hopefully relaxed, now to play, I am back at the computer. Two minutes later the door opens again, my 14-year-old comes in with a booklet. After all, it does everything on its own. "If I have this surface, mom," he says and shows me a structure made up of an angle and a semicircle, how can I get the length of the semicircle outer surface again? "Heaven: Isn't there a film on YouTube for this? On the other hand, it's nice that the adolescent is talking to me again. So: Sit down, child, I have time! The mail pops up on the computer for the next Skype conference. Okay, quickly back to the intermediate level: how about the area formulas and the root calculation?
Hello, computer, let's try again! I send an email to an expert I would like to interview. Answer: Only back in April. That would be the point in itself to expand the research. But the younger child is back: "What can I eat?" – "The fridge is full, the fruit bowl too, you can also bake bread rolls," I call out louder than necessary. Jeez, why am I constantly carrying full shopping bags home when the children are still pretending to be low tide on all the shelves? Why do I venture too often into the supermarket to see the fools pushing their car past me at a distance of about 5 cm? Oh yes, I know it again: Because all three of us hang out at home all the time and the boys feel that they eat twice as much. Doesn't matter, according to home office, what the working time depends on the circumstances Accompaniment for children and slower WiFi anyway, after the next school lesson in the afternoon I can go shopping again before I start cooking. The advantage at the end of such a day: you fall asleep at 9:00 p.m. – and you no longer have time to worry about the latest news. This is better, because tomorrow a new day starts with sheets to be filled out.
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