I see we have reached the mandatory two (2) weeks of parents on lockdown being allowed to talk about how stressed out they are before someone accuses them of "hating their children" again.

#1: Parenting under lockdown *is not normal parenting.* There are no escape hatches. The kids cannot go to grandma's, they cannot go to a friend's house or school; the things you do to keep them happy on home days, like taking them to a playground or the mall, aren't available.

#2: Most of us *aren't just parents.* Even assuming a best-case scenario -- more than one adult present, all of whom still have jobs and can work from home -- the work of parenting is at constant odds with earning the income your kids need to stay alive. It is frustrating.

#3: Kids mirror the stress level of the environment around them. They're likely to act up now. I had to answer some work e-mails while my husband was on a call and my daughter started knocking over her bookcases and throwing stuff, just because she was lonely and stressed out.

You could be a loving and enthusiastic and Good parent, with wonderful Good children, and still struggle with parenting through this situation. This isn't hard because parents are bad at their jobs or because they hate being parents. It's hard because it's a natural disaster.

I for one cannot drink my stress away, or go out with friends, or stress-shop, or get a babysitter and go see a movie, so what I have, as a release valve, is talking online with other parents about how stressful it is. If you don't relate, scroll past it. Jesus.