It’s times like these that bring out the Mama Bear
Back when COVID-19 was just beginning to sneak over from China, Adam and I listened to a TED Talk given by global health expert Alanna Shaikh. After explaining the behavior and evolution of viruses she warned that quarantines and travel restrictions would not stop outbreaks. She described humans as social animals that naturally resist efforts to hold them into place or separate them. The line “Nobody puts Baby in a corner” came to mind.
Like any other animal, humans understandably dislike being caged or muzzled or led astray. We have all been witness to this reality over the past six months. The resistance has been fierce.
Now school has begun. I am grateful to have my children enrolled in a local homeschooling charter with devoted and dynamic K-8 and hybrid high school programs. Over the years, I had grown accustomed to defending the social cynicism geared toward homeschooling, however I now feel obligated to acknowledge the privilege I carry with its independence. No matter the ebb or flow of this pandemic, my family benefits from the liberty we have been given to discover and explore the many avenues of academia on our own.
My younger children do of course miss the social encounters of their weekly enrichment class meetings, and my high schooler misses her bi-weekly inperson instruction and passing periods with her friends. The loss of sports is a big bummer too. Yet we are only confined to the stretches of the communal state mandates, not chained to digital devices like the vast majority of the students in California’s public school system.
With all the testimonies
I’ve been hearing about overwhelmed, under-supported and exhausted students spending hours a day on screens, wearing special glasses to protect their eyes and brains from the excessive exposure, it’s no wonder more and more “Mama Bears” are rising up, getting involved and taking action than ever before. The cage is getting smaller and the shackles are getting tighter.
Even though my kids are not directly subject to what is being referred to as “dystopian” education, my Mama Bear mode has also been engaged.
I recently finished one of the most inspiring books of my motherhood titled “Protecting the Gift,” written by renown security specialist Gavin DeBecker. It begins by outlining a mother’s animalistic instinct, triggered at birth, to protect her offspring, and continues on to explore the many ways she can, and should, do just that. Violence prediction and prevention is DeBecker’s forte. His book gave me a great sense of peace and purpose.
It also triggered the memory of a night a few months after our first child was born.
I had been keeping a secret from my husband since the moment I gave birth, a revelation that frightened me. I didn’t know how to express it, but had to confess, the weight was too much to bear on my own. I needed help, so after settling into bed, I rolled over to Adam and softly whispered, “I feel like if anyone ever tried to hurt our baby, I would have no problem … ending them.”
“That’s scary.” was his reply. “I know.” I said. He held me close.
As sobering as that moment was, I’ve learned to appreciate the proclivity I have inherited to protect my young, to further the human race, and I guide it appropriately. From microscopic germs on someone’s hands, to the big boy on the playground at the park who put my little guy in a headlock. From the grown woman publicly shaming my teenage daughter’s assertion of truth, to my refusal to let our 7-year-old be desensitized into assuming anyone who approaches her wearing a mask is safe. I will stop at nothing to protect my babies, same as any other Mama Bear.
Now school has begun and mama bears are beginning to growl, some louder than others, because they can, and should. They don’t like seeing their cubs being caged or muzzled or led astray, and it looks as though they are doing something about it.
You know why we are taught to never tease, torment or taunt a bear cub out in nature, why nobody puts Baby in a corner? Mama Bear, that’s why.