HOUSTON — After about two years navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, Meagan Clanahan, a Katy mother of two is, “marching into this year as calm and confident as possible."
Clanahan co-owns Houston Moms, an online community created to empower and support mothers. She and three other Houston Moms contributors candidly talked to KHOU 11 News about children returning to school this week after winter break.
"There’s very little we can control. But I can control how I behave and how I present it to my kids,” Clanahan said.
The return to class is happening at a time when COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are surging across the Greater Houston area. Omicron, a highly contagious variant of COVID-19, is now the dominant variant detected here.
“We’re going to be in for a bumpy ride, but we’re not unaccustomed to it,” Clanahan said.
What other mothers are saying
“And so, whether it’s preventative testing, or it's being really in tune with an off symptom that your kid might be exhibiting,” Kingwood mother Vicki Jackman said. “We have to learn how to live with this. And, kids need to be in school.”
When asked if any parents had a conversation with their student about COVID-19 concerns and the restart of school Houston ISD parent Kimberly Smith said, “I’ve had some conversations with my daughter that this is still part of our reality. We still have to be extra conscious of our personal hygiene and washing our hands and keeping space from people. But I also don’t want to instill fear in my daughter. I want her to go to school and be happy to see her friends.”
Spring Branch ISD parent Ese Disi said she’s using the lessons of the global pandemic to teach her children to trust themselves and their bodies along with how the choices her children make affect others.
“I teach them about how not everybody can take the vaccine, right? Not everyone can afford to take the time off. So it is our responsibility to take care of those people who can’t take care of themselves,” Disi said.
Of the COVID-19 conversation happening among parents, Smith said, “I think everybody’s kind of leaning on each other. Talking about things more openly.”
“When we went back to school the first time with COVID, everyone was so nervous,” Disi said. “And our kids sensed that in us, too. But this time, at least for me, there’s not a sense of this gloomy fear, doomsday, and that’s showing up how they’re excited to go back to school.”
Jackman said, “I think our kids have learned, quicker than we have, that they’re going to have to learn how to live with COVID.”
“I think two years ago this conversation would have been very different. And very dire,” Clanahan said. “And what I hear is that we’re all just ready to go.”