What Happened to Snow Days?

It’s been frigid and icy around here, and I’m not talking about my mood.

We had a blast of arctic weather that made our neighborhood impassable yesterday. Cars were blocking entrances and various streets from people who were just trying to get to work.

Impassable = “Virtual School Day”

But what happened to Snow Days?

Remember the joy of waking up, seeing boat loads of snow on the ground and watching the slow crawl at the bottom of the television news to see if your school had closed? The delight that filled your kid heart when you finally saw it was nearly equaled only by Christmas anticipation or checking under your pillow to see if the Tooth Fairy had come.

My parents were teachers, so often we knew even before the news. The joy of having an entire day stretch out before us with nothing to do except drink hot chocolate and play board games or make forts was so pure and big.

Now, schools have Virtual School, which just means I’m schooling at home again. We did this for several years and since sending kids back into the public school system this year, I kinda figured I was done with that.

For our family—one where both the mama and the dad are home working and going to school—virtual school is no problem. Even my kids knew what to do so we just handled our business and moved into the joy part.

But what about those whose parents who have to go to work anyway or have a single parent or perhaps don’t have access to a computer?

I get why schools switch to virtual, I really do. But just like everything else it seems, some get left out. And left out often means left behind.

I’m not sure what the answer is.

I just know that some days I long for the simpler times I grew up in. I long for that for my kids, that they could grow slow, take their time figuring it all out in the safe place of home.

I pray for my kids and yours to have a world that allows them space to be kids, be bored, be creative. Those things are slowly getting smushed out of too many places. So it’s up to us to preserve them.

What would you like to preserve from your childhood for your kids?