DE AR R E ADER
BTS mindset reset Gah! How can it possibly already be time to start the back-to-school hustle!? I don’t know about you, but despite these beguiling days of summer, a queasy apprehension about this year’s return to school lurks beneath the surface for me. And, weirdly, it has nothing to do with the pandemic. Interestingly, a recent New York Times poll revealed that fewer than 1 percent of the Americans surveyed identified the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as the country’s most important problem — this in the midst of a conspicuous new surge of cases due to the BA.5 variant. I have two reactions to this surprising (and not!) datapoint. The first hmm: Our collective “meh” response to this latest wave of the pandemic may reflect a perhaps naive, but dare I say healthy, generalized adaptation of Americans to This Pandemic Life — what my colleague Jess calls our growing “COVID-ability.” Despite the particularly contagious characteristic of BA.5, it’s possible that the small flicker of concern about it (as recorded in the survey) reveals this herd adaptability — which is neither delusional or cavalier, nor the byproduct of mass denial — at work. We’re smarter and we’re not so easy to scare as we were. Hence, this 1 percent score on the fear-o-meter, which plunges COVID-19, rightly or wrongly, into bottom contention with some of our nation’s lesser, yet perennially persistent, concerns: clowns and embarrassing Zoom gaffes. The second hmm: We live in a culture of fear, so it’s more impossible than ever to crown a winner in any contest for “America’s most important problem.” So many aspects of our lives seem under threat, back up for Thunderdome-style debate, steeped in struggle, devastated by tragedy. All of this begs the question: How can a parent blithely shop for graph paper with visions of Uvalde death-dancing in their head, or summon sentimental associations with “going back to school” when our schools are no longer reliably safe havens for our kids? Well, of course we must purchase the graph paper. But the far more important mission in front of us this time every year is to galvanize our own calm and purposeful back-to-school mindset so that we can model the kind of optimism and coping skills our kids will need to confidently move forward themselves. To that end, our August issue is stacked with encouraging pointers for rocking the transition (p. 30), brushing up on our social-emotional calisthenics (p. 34), helping our children — and ourselves! — manage anxiety (p. 37), setting a “get active” agenda that will recharge our kids’ mental health (p. 14) and more. As for the fun-o-meter, we’ve got you more than covered this August with our indispensable Play List (p. 22) and an ultimate bucket list of 25 free and totally fabulous PNW adventures (p. 25). What are you waiting for? Get out there! — Patty Lindley, managing editor
4 / PA R E N T M A P. C O M
AUGUST 2022, VOL. 19, NO. 8
My personal parenting theme song is ...
PUBLISHER
Alayne Sulkin EDITORIAL MANAGING EDITOR Patty Lindley OUT + ABOUT EDITOR Nancy Chaney
“In My Life” by The Beatles
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“Ice Pack” by Recess Monkey (a reminder not to be too overprotective)
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“Break My Stride” by Matthew Wilder
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“My Way” by Frank Sinatra
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