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Pediatrician’s Viral Back-to-School Advice To Parents is What We All Need Right Now

  • 2  Minute Read
Pediatrician
Dr. Hope Seidel

If you’re like most pandemic parents (ahem, like ME!!), you’re probably some level of worried about sending your kids back to school right now. Personally, I have 23 days left until my kids go back and I am sweating it HARD.

That’s why these words I heard today from North Carolina pediatrician Dr. Hope Seidel really hit me where it counted, in a good way. Like, a “healing balm for my soul” way (and I never talk like that, trust me!) But they’re just too good.

In a post on her Facebook page, Dr. Seidel acknowledged that what we are going through concerning back-to-school choices is not only hard, it is uniquely different for each of us.


And she’s right. My kids’ needs are different from yours, and we may make completely different decisions about schooling . . . and they’d both be the right ones.

Seidel says,

“The decision that you make about school is the right decision. That’s it. There is no wrong decision…All of the decisions have a loss of what was and all have positive options. How you choose to think about the decision you make is what will make it right.”

I love the way her back-to-school advice is more parental than medical: we are getting all the medical stuff we need (and can stand!) from the CDC and the AAP. I found it refreshing that she was speaking to as us parents, not as patients. This both calmed and empowered me as I listened to her talk.

RELATED: There Are No ‘Right’ Decisions About School This Year So Please Just Be Kind

Bottom line? You know what your child needs, and if you have an option that fits those needs, take it, no matter what everyone else is doing. Don’t have that option? Advocate for it! You are the expert on your child, and your voice matters. 

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Articles by Jenny Rapson

Jenny Rapson

Jenny Rapson is a follower of Christ, a wife and mom of three from Ohio and a freelance writer and editor. You can find her at her blog, Mommin' It Up, or follow her on Twitter.

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