Either parenting has gotten exponentially harder in the last two-plus years, or I've developed in that same time Olympic-level complaining skills.

I'm willing to accept the latter possibility if everyone else accepts the former.

I'm also willing to accept that it's gotten harder to be anything in this country: a neighbor, a co-worker, a person who keeps their cool in the checkout line at the grocery store.

Parents don't have a monopoly on stress.

But lately, it seems as if those in power, elected officials who can actually do something about formula shortages and school shootings and COVID-19 shutdowns, remain willfully ignorant about the way parents have been repeatedly hit by a bus for two years straight.

In the beginning of COVID-19's quarantine era, there was a lot of talk about heroic teachers and doctors — and, God love them, they did and do magnificent work — but little understanding of the way parents had picked up entire second professions (imagine what it was like to be a doctor or a teacher and a parent).

In addition to what was already untenable — the ever-increasing demands to provide the perfect financial, emotional, spiritual, nutritional and material upbringing — parents had to home-school, as well.

Then, perhaps not so mysteriously, many became enraged over continued school shutdowns. Parents screamed at school board meetings, marched on suburban streets and fumed on Facebook.

And though their rage was misplaced and weaponized by callous conservative activists, it was also profoundly understandable.

Because during the pandemic, working parents — working anybodies, actually — have gotten almost no real help.

There were no emergency parental leave measures, no help with the developing child-care crisis — no solutions for day cares without qualified workers, no solutions to the suddenly skyrocketing wages for babysitters and nannies. There were no guaranteed emergency child-care days and no right to work remotely.

Stimulus and unemployment checks were insignificant in every way. Many couldn't return to inflexible work environments, and those who did made impossible, daily choices about whether to prioritize their sanity, their finances or their children.

We got through however we could, long-term consequences be damned.

Everyone — not just, but especially, parents — mistreated their bodies and lived under pressure, and now, as society is reopening, there's no help transitioning.

Did you let your health go to pot because you were afraid of going to the doctor or because it was impossible to get an appointment? Would health care clinics, free checkups or streamlined insurance claim procedures help?

Too bad. Hope you enjoy the same exorbitant health care bills and bureaucratic insurance hassles as before the pandemic!

Did you gain weight or rely too much on gambling, alcohol or drugs? Would subsidized gym memberships, meditation classes or rehabilitation programs be nice?

Well, sure they would, but so would free unicorn rides, and you're not getting those either!

Were you lonely, isolated? Are you longing to visit family and friends but can't afford the rising costs of flights, gasoline or hotels? Maybe coupons or discounts sound good.

That's unfortunate, because as a citizen of the United States of America, it's your responsibility to understand that the health and happiness of large corporations is far more important than your own.

And now, NOW, parents are grappling with the very real danger that their children may be assassinated at school by a teenager able to legally purchase military-grade weaponry.

"We have to act," the president said, and as little as it was, it was more than many other craven politicians, frantically running away from news cameras.

Meanwhile, parents wait. Wait for help, wait for hope. Wait for words to magically transform into deeds.

It's increasingly clear that if parents want anything done, just like with the laundry, our only choice is to do it ourselves.

And, as is often true with the laundry at my house, I just don't know if I have the energy.

To learn more about Georgia Garvey, visit GeorgiaGarvey.com.

Photo credit: wilhei at Pixabay