The following is written by EdCal Editor Michelle Carl. I am not a teacher.   I am a parent. That means there are more than a few Mondays when I am happy to return my two boys, ages 7 and 5, to you wonderful educators who are charged with shaping their young minds.  Then one day, there was no building to take them to. No teachers to greet them at the gate. No friends to run with on the blacktop.  The shutdown of California schools due to the coronavirus has been a challenge no one could have ever imagined. Educators have had to rethink their classwork using digital tools that they’ve seldom, if ever, needed to use. Parents have suddenly felt the weight of all of our roles all at once, all day long. We’ve also adopted a new role — teacher.  “Working full time, trying to teach full time, and be a full-time parent — it is the test of a parent’s patience and multitasking abilities we never saw coming,” one mom of a first grader told me.  The COVID-19 school closure has also deepened my appreciation of the work educators do and the importance of sharing this heavy load of raising good, smart kids with other people — people who know how to do Common Core math.  In the coming weeks, I would like to share my experiences, along with those of my fellow parents, in a special series I’m calling The Parent Perspective. I wanted to document what parents are doing and feeling from their side of the internet connection. I realize many administrators are also parents, navigating distance learning from both ends — I’d encourage these parents to share their experiences, too.  My first impressions of this unprecedented time have been mixed. Getting to see my children learn and grow in real time has been a precious, unsolicited gift. I’ve felt very supported by teachers and have been trying to express how much I appreciate them, now that I’m in their shoes. But it has also been exhausting. I’ve had to learn to “let go” and try not to impose my own high standards on my children. And there has been a lot of whining. So much whining. While being a teacher-mom has been challenging, I feel fortunate to not have to deal with the stressors many other families with school-age children are facing right now, like unemployment, hunger or having a parent who is an essential worker.  So for as long as the building is closed, school will keep happening at home. I look forward to sharing how we parents have been handling things. One thing’s for sure — we can’t wait for you to get back to what you do best: educating our kids! Stay tuned for The Parent Perspective in the next issue of EdCal. Have an experience to share? E-mail .