Back to school: what is it like to live with 5 children in school 'bubbles' and a baby at home

Emilia vexler

03/06/2021 17:19

• Clarín.com

• Society

Updated 03/06/2021 17:19

Mariela Faber has nothing to do with the

crayon brand

.

But he opens the door of his house or the door of the car and his children appear like these "pencils".

One after another.

In degraded.

Mariela has six children.

At 41, she lives in the City, is married to a digital marketing entrepreneur, and is making ends meet.

Although with more children than the average of Argentine families, their history is representative of what thousands of them live these days:

the new "maximized" normality of the return to face-to-face classes.

After a year of virtuality, the family illustrates what it is like to live with five children in different school bubbles, the "suffered" educational protocol against the coronavirus. 

The Fabers leave class the same way they enter: at different times and sometimes days.

Photo Juan Manuel Foglia

Ezequiel is 13 and is in 1st year of high school;

Mauricio, 11, to 6th grade;

Celeste, 8, to 3rd grade;

Felicitas, 5, goes to 1st grade;

Trinidad has 3 and is in room 4. In addition, there is a baby at home, Guadalupe, in a "home bubble": for care, without grandparents nearby "until they are vaccinated."

She shows it on Instagram from 

@ mami.full.time

, where she describes herself as "a crazy mom of six, dedicated

full time

to what I'm passionate about: being a mom."

Also on TikTok, a wink to get into the favorite social network of tweens.

And he lives it -among tuppers with names and piles of overalls and masks- in one day with 

Clarín

.

She is an accountant.

Although now, he says, "from children's stories."

She decided to quit her profession and be a homemaker before she knew she was going to have so many children.

Or knowing that he was not "having a babysitter."

Not a maid.

Not that one year of Covid-19 would keep the "mini Faber" away from her three grandparents and from school (and her from that of all that help).

Nor that all this was going to happen in the middle of a move (which will end next week), from Villa General Miter to a larger house in Caballito.

Like many Argentine families, grandparents, until they receive the vaccine, cannot help parents with the disparate schedules of their children's school bubbles.

Photo Juan Manuel Foglia

The uncertainty and, sometimes, anguish, is also representative of the upbringing in Argentina in these last 365 days.

But in these weeks, punctually, due

to hygiene schemes in schools

.

"I get up at 6 AM. I put talcum powder on 10 sneakers. 6.15 I prepare food. 6.30 I start with breakfast. 7 I put on the loud music and they get up for breakfast. 7.25 I comb the three girls. They change and go out with my husband. 7.45 I do all the things at home and daily purchases and, depending on the day, I will look for the one from high school and garden. We have lunch, their nap and I will look for the rest, "he starts.

That "according to the day" is key.

"To the rest", too.

The big problem that mothers and fathers who began to overcome the school bubbles mark is

having at least two children who attend in person

, four hours, on different days and times.

Most of the schools in the City and the province of Buenos Aires designed

staggered face-to-face schemes

, where the different bubbles of students enter and leave at different times.

For Mariela and her husband, Andrés, 45, that happens

five times a week.

With five of his six children.

The family has

a schedule machete

.

"But I already know," clarifies the mother.

There are two machetes.

One for "entry" to classes and one for "exit". 

15.55 by Serrano 341. 16.05 front garden.

16.10 Gurruchaga.

16.15 Gurruchaga.

This is how it reads, written by hand, the output.

The oldest of the mini Faber goes to Ecos High School and has bimodal: one face-to-face day and one virtual day.

But it does not coincide with his brothers and sisters, who attend the Scholem Aleichem. 

"I work, but at home," says Mariela on her Instagram account.

In the stories, she also shows her relief when Friday comes around and doesn't have to "pilot" her through school bubbles.

Photo Juan Manuel Foglia

"And the rest do not coincide with each other, that they attend face-to-face full-time daily. Kindergarten and elementary school are in the same school. But the garden building is in a different block, opposite the elementary school. In addition, there are several elementary schools. tickets and each of my children out of a different. So turn down the block from 15.55 leaving one until 1615 leaving the last. it 's

a total mess organize and to do other things.

If it was not love of house would surely need outside help

", details.

Because of care, they greatly limited contact with grandparents.

But many Argentine families, despite their fears, must resort to having them take care of taking and bringing the children during office hours impossible for their fathers and mothers.

While talking to

Clarín

, the carpenter installs the furniture in the kitchen of the new house.

And the boys have a snack on a table, also new, which is protected with a transparent vinyl tablecloth and which is almost unused.

"You meet them were in open places and mine go to other you meet. They don't go to sleep at other houses at the moment," she describes.

Andrés barely leans out of the chair for the family photo.

He is not shy.

He is not hiding from the photographer of this newspaper.

Sitting, he is covered by the number of children.

It is a family that Marie Kondo would put in baskets.

The Faber house is also entered in batches.

We will always have to look for a "mini Faber" who leaves classes at a different time than the rest.

Photo Juan Manuel Foglia

Mariela is also almost "covered" by two of her children.

"The smallest always with me, never leave my children with anyone", marks.

A decision that in this story, in this Argentine family, could be made.

At the other extreme, there are the complaints in the schools so that

the schedules between siblings are better coordinated

and, mainly, that the schedule is not reduced.

She sees it on the networks and in the school WhatsApp groups.

"They constantly tell me 'I don't know how you do it! With 2, I'm exhausted'. Or 'I admire you.' Honestly, at school I did not raise complaints because it is my decision to have the number of children I have. From virtual classes he is in charge of doing everything by himself and the second oldest waits for me at the exit because he knows that I do not arrive on time looking for the sisters at different times and different doors, "he says.

The "mini Fabers" don't go to any club either.

"With flunked pandemic extracurricular activities because I think a lot away from home. But the girls started with swimming lessons.

We are all happy with the return to school in a way for me is more hectic but happy see.

They They are bothered by wearing the chinstrap for so many hours and a little by the heat of school, but they allow them to take off their smock when it's too long. "

None of the Fabers had coronavirus and there were no infections among their acquaintances.

They seem to be in their own bubble.

But be careful.

And that they went on vacation to Pinamar for ten days.

How do you take care of five children who returned to school in a pandemic?

Does the couple go to school with a liter alcohol gel and dozens of chinstraps?

Similar.

She sums it up: "Gel alcohol in every backpack and in my purse. And yes, chinstraps, thousands. And thousands of spare parts. Also, they arrive and I wash them all along with their clothes and overalls."

There you have to take into account - these parents have to take into account - the schedule.

The "entry" machete.

No one can come to school in a wet coat.

Or without food.

Or at the wrong time.

And you don't have to "wash to wash" the mini Faber's overalls that you don't have to go to school the next day.

ACE