When Eclectic Music started doing music lessons on Zoom, it was a bit of an adjustment for everyone.

Now, more than two years later, lots of teachers and students love the Zoom lessons and will never go back to doing them in person. But at the start, lots of us felt like we had to recreate the feeling of being in the same room as our student.

And that — on top of the ongoing stress and uncertainty of the pandemic — was freaking exhausting.

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My favorite Wordle days are the ones when my first guess yields five gray boxes.

Then I have to come up with another word that uses none of the letters of the first, sending me in a totally different direction than usual. No E’s, no A’s.

Most of the time, this will result in more total guesses before I can find the correct word. But that’s okay! I have six guesses in all, and that’s enough.

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A couple of years ago, my sister signed my parents up for Storyworth, which is a service that invites the people you choose to answer questions about their lives and share them with a select group of others. I have been routinely moved by the things my parents have revealed about themselves in their essays.

As part of her Storyworth contributions, my mom, Jennie McCann, wrote an essay about raising children. It’s shared here with her permission. I think it perfectly captures the challenge of loving an adolescent who is changing before your very eyes.

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I’ve seen it happen countless times. An eight-year-old walks up to his mom with a crumpled piece of paper. Mid-conversation, she tucks the trash into her purse or pocket without conscious awareness.

I ask you: At what age should a child be expected to find a trash can on his own? Twelve? Twenty-five?

As a teacher, I’ve observed that many parents (and in fact, many teachers) do things for children and adolescents that the kids could be doing for themselves.

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Here are some uncomfortable truths:

Kids notice when their lives change due to divorce and breakups.

They notice when their teacher is dismissive or bored.

They notice when their parents wish they would do different extracurricular activities.

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