My biggest lockdown mistake? Relying on TikTok as a co-parent? | Emma Brockes

I hoped the app would buy me some much-needed peace in lockdown. Then it turned my five-year-olds into proto-teens

There are upsides to single parenting during a pandemic, chiefly the avoidance of another adult’s dark moods. Even at its craziest, since New York locked down in March – when my kids are still running around at 11pm, because I am too tired or up against it to put them down; when the dishwasher, never once, manages to unstack itself; on the arrival of mice in my apartment because apparently I can’t and won’t pick up crumbs – it has often struck me that short of illness, the only way this scenario could be worse was if I had to manage one more person’s needs. And then there is the downside: the effects of leaning on TikTok as co-parent.

For the first two weeks of lockdown, we did what we were supposed to. I blew through a large deadline and engaged conscientiously with my kids’ remote schooling every morning. We did the worksheets. We made a word wall. I bought a whiteboard. In between learning activities, I scheduled “centre time”, which included building things, colouring and, yes, piano. It was fun, and novel, and everyone did what they were told.

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from Children | The Guardian https://ift.tt/38HlJFO