BY CHRIS STEELE
In light of the Coronavirus Pandemic that has hit the United States in recent weeks, many families have been forced to go into a self quarantine to prevent the spread of the deadly disease.
The Wadsworth City School District announced on March 12 that after the end of the week, they would cancel all classes for a four week period to coincide with Governor Mike Dewine’s decision to close down the education system for a brief period. The order was recently extended to May 1.
Senior Lilli Mills has said that she and her family have greatly experienced tension since going into a self quarantine since March 15.
“It’s been really annoying being stuck around the house,” said Mills. “ My parents keep changing their view on the virus and the lockdown everyday because some days they’ll give me a little more freedom but then they take it right back and put stricter sanctions on me. I’ll be sitting around the house just relaxing and then all of a sudden they will start trying to yell at me to go do something and they just sit around all day. They won’t let me see anyone but they make me go out to Target around a ton of people to get things. The littlest things we do set each other off.”
Another high school student, Zoe Looper, 10, has also begun to feel the tensions with her siblings and parents.
“We’ve been stuck together for the last 10 days,” said Looper. “We haven’t had any big arguments but we all just seem to get annoyed with each other. There seems to be a bit of a fight even when our parents ask my siblings or me to take out the dog. We try to do light hearted things to keep things fun like play cards and board games. It also helps when I can escape to my room for a while to just get away from everyone.
For many parents, their goal is to get their children to feel the most comfortable in these unprecedented times. For George Foore, a father taking care of four children ranging from age two to age thirteen, the goal is to be innovative in what the family setting looks like.
The main goal is to just keep the kids occupied and active while having fun. My wife and I are constantly looking up fun, new ways to do activities with them and spend fun family time together,” said Foore. “It’s so hard to keep every single kid happy during these chaotic times. Of course sometimes there are heated times between everyone in the family, but this is something no one saw coming so we’re just trying to do our best while coming up with things on the fly.”
With no clear end in sight, many families are trying to take desperate measures to try and keep the tension to a minimum between the members of their clan.
