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Parents Had A Grand Old Time Cracking Jokes About Kids, Schools, & The Solar Eclipse
Twitter had a good laugh about how schools reacted to the eclipse and the chaos of parenting during one.
Monday, April 8 marked the first total eclipse visible across the U.S. since 2017 and also happens to be the last until 2045. This natural phenomenon — which occurs when the moon passes between the sun and earth, blocking the sun’s light — was visible to everyone in the contiguous 48 states. But while most places only got to see a partial eclipse between about 12:20 p.m. and 4:40 p.m., depending on where they are, the lucky folks in the path of totality enjoyed the full, total eclipse, which made it look like dawn or dusk in the middle of the day. For many places, the height of the eclipse coincided with school hours, prompting a number of questions, concerns, and jokes across social media.
Some parents are shocked that schools dismissed students early or declared a day off.
Not wanting to risk being responsible for so many kids who are, reasonably, tempted to look at the sun during this time, many schools called half days, scheduled activities around the eclipse to keep kids inside for the duration of the event, or even cancelled school all together. While some parents welcomed these precautions, others were less than enthusiastic.
Others jokingly realized that while it may not make sense for them, we have to cater to kids of varying degrees of impulse control and common sense...
Others had a pretty apt comparison for this sort of precautionary dismissal...
Teachers were the first to point out that, perhaps, calling school is a better move than expecting them to single-handedly saving their entire class’ retinas.
For those who were in school, parents were figuring out how to keep their kids safe (in the funniest way).
Of course, there was an unsurprising last-minute scramble to get appropriate eclipse eyewear and, as we all know, those scrambles often fall on parents.
And, as we also know, children are pure, ridiculous chaos...
Other children, it seems, were determined to casually ruin their vision...
Sometimes, a good, low-key traumatizing cautionary tale is just what your chid requires to keep their vision 20/20 for as long as possible.
Most are just sort of reveling in the wackiness of parenting during an eclipse.
Truly, reacting ridiculously to big communal events is where social media has always shined and the 2024 eclipse is no exception. From understanding children are never not unhinged...
... to those who know that these events bring out the unhingedness in folks of all ages...
... to recognizing how unhinged we can get when we worry about our kids...
...truly, a good time was had by all. Hopefully we all wake up with the use of both our eyes tomorrow morning!
