It’s Only Mid-Week!

 It’s been a hectic week. Oh, and we’re just halfway through it still. But I like what I see now.

My eldest got his first job offer. It’s not a final thing yet, but being the first in the family, it was reason enough to celebrate. He still has three-fourths of his final semester left before he graduates, but it was still reason enough to celebrate. He may not even take it up, but getting even something remotely close to a job offer under the present circumstances gave us reason to celebrate. 

I got my first dose of THE vaccine. I waited all day for the side-effects to kick in, but none did. I did wake up the next morning with a throbbing head and low-grade fever, but it was our weekly screen-free day, and I gave myself an actual screen-free day, and did not bother with pending grades or checking of assignments. The effects passed quickly, and by the evening, I was back to normal.

The other kids in the family started their new school year (They follow a spring-to-spring calendar). The middle one is at an age where he’s independent and hardly needs me for anything, except forwarding WhatsApp messages to him because I insist on being on the teacher’s group and not him. The youngest needed help. Till last school year, her online classes were mostly asynchronous, with synchronous classes only in the evenings, and so I was always able to operate devices for her. But now, her classes start in the mid-mornings. On Day 1, her brother had some Google Device Policy issues and was unable to log into his classes, so he helped her log in and navigate. Day 2 was my screen-free day, and I helped her, rather taught her her independence. I iMessaged her meeting links to her iPad, with the time written separately, so she could clearly see which meeting to join at what time. I also walked her through the process of checking her new schedule between classes and to keep things needed for class ready. We cast her classes on to the big TV screen so she’s not looking into a small screen up close. So now, this very dependent youngest-in-the-family third grader is able to open iMessage, log into her Zoom meetings, keep her own things ready and complete her work all by herself. For someone who’s always had older siblings looking after her and treating her like a little baby, that’s a big step. 

And today was day 3, when everything was finally in place. A few glitches, of course, but then, what’s life without those? All in all, it’s comforting to get back into a routine after a month of holidays for the kids.