‘It's sometimes too much. At the same time, you're grateful.’ LA families on months together at home

Being a parent can be one of the world's most challenging and unforgiving jobs. But with the addition of the coronavirus pandemic, working from home, remote learning, and all the other ways our lives have been upended this year, parenting has become much tougher. There are no guidebooks for raising kids through a pandemic.

At the start of the pandemic in spring, KCRW heard from local moms and dads about how they were managing. Eight months later, with the holidays and new year coming up, KCRW checks back in with them.

On supervising her son’s remote learning, Nicole Lannoy Lawson says, “We did get a Ring camera in his room, so we could peek in ... and talk to him through the camera mic to keep in on task.”

On introducing his son to new people, Matt Jourdian says, “My nanny takes him to the park, and they have a little pod of three or four people that run around and play in the sand … all outside and kids wear masks to the best of their abilities.”

On her relationship with her husband, Carla Nunez says, “It's tough because in my logical brain, I know that my husband's out working. And then at the same time, my stress brain sometimes holds resentment that he's out working and not here helping. Sometimes we've had small arguments about it, but ultimately we're all trying to just make it through and trying not to have all these conflicts and arguments.”