Benny, Christina Wilburn's three-year-old

Benny, Christina Wilburn's three-year-old. She comments, "This is what happens when I’m in a Zoom meeting."

Education and Applied Psychology in a Time of COVID-19

Today my heart was sad. My three year old son has become increasingly sad because he misses school, his teachers, and friends. Today during a Zoom meeting with his class the prompt was to show your favorite hat when you were called on. My son had been sitting quietly in his chair watching his teachers sing songs. When it was my son's turn to show his hat he suddenly didn't want to show his hat anymore; he walked to his bedroom. I put Zoom on mute and walked to see if he was okay. He was laying facedown on his pillow almost crying. I lay my hand to rest on his back and asked him if he wanted to talk about it. He said, "I feel sad, I want to go to school." I told him I know he does and wished he could go to school again too, but the bad germs are still around so he can't yet. He was feeling better so we walked back to the living room and he was able to say bye to his teachers and friends.

Later in the afternoon, while I was trying to work, he came up to me wanting a hug. I hugged him and he started crying hard. "I want to go to school. I want to go to Chiapo's house (Chiapo is his Grandma). I don't want to stay at home." My poor baby! It was all I could do not to cry too. I just held him and let him know that as soon as the bad germs go away we will definitely be visiting his grandma and be able to go to school again. I then continued trying to get things done for work to the repeated tune of, "Mommy, play with me!" in the background. *heart breaking*

Christina Wilburn is a mama of a 3yr old and the GGSE Academic Personnel Coordinator. She loves to skate, especially with the local roller derby team, the Brawlin’ Betties, but this quarantine has got her brawlin’ with her computer monitor (too much screen time) instead.