I’m probably the rare parent who will read this and is somewhat sympathetic. I think the answer, though, during the pandemic is to give non-parents some flexibility too. The risk if you don’t is they feel like they do NOTHING but work. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/05/technology/parents-time-off-backlash.html

Obviously, dealing with your kid’s distance learning or attempts to watch Frozen for the millionth time instead of doing homework are not down time or relaxing or anything that parents WANT to be dealing with.

But it is also a fact that during the pandemic, people w/o families have taken on way more work, not just or even principally to cover for parents, but because THERE IS SO LITTLE ELSE TO DO.

It’s incredibly stressful parenting through this period but it also provides some differentiated tasks in one’s day that non-parents don’t have. The overall point is, people need to be really good about policing how much they’re working during this period...

... and not let 40 hours drift into 60 just because nothing else is going on. I’m a big fan of everyone pitching in extra where we can to make a business better but people need to carve out non-work time to do... whatever...

...(and heres something non-parenting related that’s stressful: HAVING A PANDEMIC PET!). The point is, no one is enjoying life right now, don’t treat parenting like it’s walk in the park but also recognize you, non-parent may not be doing a good job of setting work boundaries.