#FactOfTheDay: Despite suggestions that life has returned to “normal,” in June 2022 one-third of parents and caregivers in California (33%) reported feelings of nervousness or stress always or most of the time in the previous month—up from 29% in July 2021.
Learn more: https://www.kidsdata.org/blog/?p=10522

#Pandemic #COVID19 #ReturnToNormal #NewNormal #Children #Families #Safety #MentalHealth #Stress #Parenting

"Broken Sociality" by Nate Holdron on Peste magazine:

"Social loneliness blurs into another facet of broken sociality, what I think of as political loneliness. This is the sense of a gulf in values or in understanding of some very important aspects of the world. Knowing that the return to normal means even more dying and life-altering suffering is terrible. Knowing that many people seem not to realize this, that people in officially respected positions seem to find this acceptable, that fellow travelers on the left don’t treat this as a priority, that all feels isolating to a degree I find hard to overstate. What’s happening, I think, is that there’s no consensus on the reality we’re living in: ideologically, the pandemic continues for some of us and is over for others, while, of course, it hasn’t *actually* ended; it feels like living in a different world from other people, but still interacting. In some cases, this means old relationships feel different, and not for the better."

Article at https://www.pestemag.com/lost-to-follow-up/broken-sociality

#Loneliness #Covid #Pandemic #CovidIsNotOver #WearAMask #BringBackMasks #ReturnToNormal #Relationships #Friendship

I wonder if the push to #returntowork and #returntonormal despite the on-going #COVID19 #pandemic is because it's a threat to capitalist realism, the idea that we can't imagine an alternative to #capitalism. Because in March 2020, people suddenly imagined alternatives: #medicare4all, #paidsickleave, #universalbasicincome, #defundpolice, #BlackLivesMatter, and #worklifebalance. We glimpsed a more nurturing and just world, acted in #solidarity, and now we're told to forget