Comment by BbzzbB | Hacker News Reader

Comment by BbzzbB | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

It's a fair point you bring up, but why should only people with kids be able to comment on this (which is unrelated to your main point to boot)? Sure, I can't have the same perspective as a parent, but if there is an experience familiar to everyone from minimally developed countries, it's school: we've all been to it. Even if we don't have kids ourselves we're exposed to family's and friends' kids, and we can extrapolate from our own experience what it might've been like to spend over a whole year being "in school" from our bedrooms and then another without natural human contact.

My nephew was surprised (and extatic) that the ladies in daycare are smiling once they took their masks off, it's obviously unhealthy to not be exposed to facial expressions while learning to be a social primate.

It's hard to explain just how brutal and inhuman the lockdown experience was for those of us with kids. At least, those of us who refused to follow the "new normal" of allowing our kids' lives to be ever-increasingly ruled by phones and tablets.

The times I have spoken up in the past have not gone well for me (and almost entirely, it was speaking to people without kids who tell me that "lockdowns aren't so bad" after they've been out cycling all day). There were all of the obvious retorts, like "well, shows how much you don't care about KILLING EVERYONE", as well as ideas like "well, they're your kids, you look after them". That's a bit hard when you and everyone you know are under house arrest.

In fact, it was the experience of living through lockdowns with a 1 year old and a pregnant wife that so strongly coloured my opinions on the overall benefits of them - judging by their effects on the next generation, we have screwed up really badly.

I know several teachers, and they all say that the culture of learning has been disrupted, and those who teach in disadvantaged areas, say that kids will never recover. By "a culture of learning", I mean that it is generally accepted that all kid go to school and at least attempt to get some qualifications. We don't know what we've got till it's gone.

Agree. Just made the point it’s different to judge from hearsay.

Of course you are able to relate, but it’s not the same. I can relate to somebody with cancer, but as long I don’t have the experience myself it’s “only extrapolate”.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com