As I sat alongside my kindergartener during yet another exhausting attempt to guide her through online classes, complete with a barrage of YouTube videos, Google Docs, video calls, and various school apps, I felt my patience—and sanity—beginning to unravel. Just as I declared, “I’ve had enough! We’ll try again later!” my eldest stepped in to save the day.
This was just one of countless instances this past year when he eagerly came to the rescue, helping his younger siblings tackle their online schoolwork. He has an uncanny ability to sense when I’m reaching my limit. More than once, he’s played the role of the hero, and I couldn’t be more thankful.
As he guided her through video clips, helped her sound out words, and typed out phrases for her assignments, I realized that without him, I would have struggled to navigate a year filled with challenges, particularly those linked to e-learning. I consider myself fairly tech-savvy, but I can’t compete with the instinctive way my oldest son handles the various tech hurdles they encounter during the school day. He possesses a natural talent for dealing with technology—a skill honed since birth. For him, it’s second nature.
To me, much of today’s educational approach feels like an indecipherable code made up of emojis and strange symbols. Back in my third-grade days, we were learning cursive letters by spreading shaving cream on our desks and drawing them out with our fingers, while calculators were off-limits. In contrast, my son was learning coding, creating PowerPoint presentations, and recording podcasts at the same age. His math skills resemble the complex calculations of astronomers figuring out the speed of light, using scientific calculators that I didn’t even touch until high school. The shift in educational methods is profound, and I was not prepared to manage lesson plans at home day in and day out.
Enter my little savior. He beams with pride when helping his siblings, and importantly, he communicates lessons in a way that resonates with them, speaking their language. He recently learned these concepts himself, shortly after the educational system revamped how math, reading, and science are taught. He exhibits great patience, understanding the frustration of not being able to sound out a word, yet also has clever strategies to help his younger siblings overcome their hurdles.
Had my eldest not had the knowledge and experience with these lessons—and the programs that accompany them—my younger kids’ homeschooling journey would have been drastically different this past year, likely featuring many more meltdowns and expletives.
Older siblings like him deserve recognition for stepping up to the plate, acting as role models who exhibit kindness, patience, and support, while encouraging their younger siblings to learn and grow. They also serve as unsung heroes to parents juggling work, household chores, cooking, and countless other responsibilities—all while ensuring their children receive a decent education in an environment few could have predicted.
My oldest son is undoubtedly the unsung hero of our family’s chaotic pandemic experience. As soon as life returns to some semblance of normalcy, I plan to reward him with a pony—or more realistically, a new gaming console, since today’s kids prefer tech gadgets over pets. He truly deserves it—and so much more.
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