It's no secret that a lot of parents were looking forward to their kids going back to school this year. After all, we are only human. We can only take but so much, and being stranded at home with our kids for months unexpectedly was about as much as most could bear.
You could tell by the enthusiastic way back-to-school shopping was getting done in June and July that parents everywhere were excited to get their kids back out into the world. Our own worlds are more complicated, with some looking for new jobs, some holding on to the ones they've had as they continue remote work, and some returning to offices and places of business themselves.
What a lot of parents didn't expect was how much they would miss their kids. Here are some parents who opened up about what they miss now that their kids are back in school.
'My kids forced me to take breaks.'
"My kids have been back in school for three weeks. I think I'm getting a lot more work done, but I also realized I feel really burned out at the end of the day. This week, I figured out why," a mom of two from Connecticut shared.
"Without my kids here interrupting me, coming over to my desk to talk, or making mysterious noises I can't help but get up and check out, I'm not leaving my desk when I should be. My kids forced me to take breaks, so I miss the way they forced me to slow down a little."
'We love to laugh together.'
"I'm raising three little clowns but I swear I mean it in the best way," a Massachusetts mom joked.
"My kids have kept their silliness, even as they're getting older. We love to laugh together. With them at school again, the house is kind of quiet and not as funny."
'I'm already tired of worrying.'
"I was already nervous about my kid's health before COVID. The first few years in school are germ-ridden and I was always nervous about what was coming home," a New Jersey mom shared.
"My little one is back in school and taking measures to stay safe, but I'm already tired of worrying. The people in our area don't share my views and cases have popped up at my kid's school, but thankfully not in their class."
Some parents just hate that they can't check in with their kids at a point of the day.
"Reaching the point where I think it'd be cool to be able to text my kids while they're at school because I miss them in small moments during the day and have things to tell them," one mom tweeted.
'I feel like my 3 best friends are all transferring schools at the same time.'
"Now I go back to eating lunch alone again!" one mom shared on Facebook.
"I feel like my 3 best friends are all transferring schools at the same time!"
'I could wake up just before he started school and I [started] work in order to cook breakfast.'
A mom with a long commute explained that she didn't have time to do the little things with her kids until she was working from home.
"There was no room to spend any significant time together," she lamented.
"When we were doing distance learning, I could wake up just before he started school and I [started] work in order to cook breakfast. We could talk to each other as we got ready for the day."
'I've had my last days with little kids.'
"This year, my kids are in 6th and 8th grade. We're a few weeks in and my kids already seem so much older than the ones who were home with me this last year and a half," one New Jersey mom noted.
"Staying home was stressful, but now that they're in school I realize I've had my last days with little kids. It's a little bittersweet."
