I love this thread, and I am really, really resentful of people who make it seem like parents should have it all together and be nothing but grateful right now, esp when we're feeling not just our own emotions about *waves arms around at everything* but our kids' as well. https://twitter.com/raychraych/status/1253075900716859392

Most of the time I cry, it's over my kid's confusion and missing his grandparents' and inability to connect with the teachers he loves well over Zoom and the fact that he has no other kids to play with. That's before you get to how *I* feel over what *I* miss. So yes, it's a lot.

I'm sorry it's hard for you to see people frustrated with what parenting has become. I'm sorry you read that as hatred for our kids when for most of us it's just a storm of impossible emotions boiling over that actually comes from love of them.

I'm sorry you think "Just Zoom/FaceTime" is a solution and you think it's OK to peddle that on an Internet as a cure-all when for many of our kids, especially toddlers Zoom/FaceTime is a fucking nightmare of feelings that makes them act out even worse than solitude does.

I'm really sorry for all the people out there who think all kids feel and act and respond the same way if they just have this one path of guidance, and who think it's appropriate to peddle that on the Internet with no experience of what it's like to do this, to FEEL THIS.

Now to the people I'm non-sarcastically sorry to - Parents, I'm sorry the Internet became the world's largest parenting forum you didn't sign on for, judging your every move when no one knows what the right moves are and everyone thinks what works for them should work for you.

Lemme tell you, you do not have to listen to a single damn person who says "You signed on for this." No you didn't. You had your child(ren) with the some very fair, basic assumptions about your life like "They will have a school to go to"!

And if you're someone who isn't living this experience but thinks it's somehow in your lane to peddle this nonsense, stop and think about what gives you the right and whether you're actually being an asshole. (If you come up with "no," think some more.)