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I Don’t Want My Daughter to Go Back to School

It’s not for the obvious reason, though.

Vanessa Torre
4 min readAug 13, 2020
Photo by Vlada Karpovich via Pexels

She’s been a high school junior for exactly a week now. She glosses over this fact when she cheerfully reports to me this morning that she is currently getting straight A’s. It’s one of the more amusing parts of our day together. There will be many more.

School for her is a spot to the right of me at our dining room table. She’s wrapped up in a blanket that looks like a tortilla. Air Pods, Zoom calls, breakout rooms for group work, and awkward class discussions about The Crucible. This is not what she expected her junior year to look like.

Truthfully, I love it. I don’t want it to go away. I’m in no hurry for schools to re-open. It has nothing to do with the fact that there’s a virus still spreading rapidly.

I know there is an army of parents out there trying desperately to get their work done while their 6-year-old navigates online school. It’s time-consuming and frustrating. I can’t even imagine what that must be like. The 5–8 years were not my strong suit.

There are just as many parents who have to find creative solutions to find care for their child who is too young to mind themselves. Parents whose jobs don’t afford them the luxury of being able to work from home.

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Vanessa Torre
Vanessa Torre

Written by Vanessa Torre

Top 10 feminist writer. Writing, coaching, and relentlessly hyping women in midilfe. linktr.ee/Vanessaltorre Email: vanessa@vanessatorre.com

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