A parent’s nightmare during the lockdown? Let the internet connection drop while the children are doing distance learning! TO Bolzano, an area in deep red, schools have been closed again since Monday. The family De Bonis-Rinaldi has seven children and knows all the difficulties of Dad: from the use of PCs in turn to connection problems, from the cohabitation of siblings of different ages and needs to the lack of interaction with classmates and teachers.
In the De Bonis-Rinaldi home there is not a single moment of calm and silence, impossible with seven children between 16 years and 3 months, but there is still an atmosphere of serenity. Mama Chiara breastfeeds little Nicolò. On the sofa Isabel (11) scans a task with her cell phone, while Jonathan (13), a very nice boy with Down syndrome, plays with a fabric snake. In the kitchen the twins Pietro and Agnese (7 years old) follow a lesson on the laptop.
“Initially the children did not arrive and we started adopting, with all the related difficulties”, says Igor. Douglas is the eldest and is from Bolivia, Sara (14) from Kosovo and Jonathan from Bolzano, the last four are “belly”, jokes dad Igor, who works in a boarding school for the disabled.
“Since we don’t have fiber, we use cell phones as routers”, says De Bonis. The three PCs of the family are used in turn, the others make do with mobile phones. Douglas, who is attending the scientific, is alone in a room, the others are divided between kitchen and living room. Igor has no doubts: “Learning behind a school desk cannot be compensated for by distance learning. Let alone for a boy with Down syndrome, for whom physical contact is everything. Even if he has a few hours of assistance a day, but without companions there can be no integration “.
Chiara, once the compulsory maternity leave, will soon return to work full time in a judicial office. “Grandparents – he points out – obviously need to be protected due to the pandemic, but in this way a very important resource for the management of children is lost”. Chiara launches an appeal to politicians: “The family, whether it has a single parent, a child or seven, is the nucleus of society. If we do not support families, we will not have happy, capable and competent adults”, she is convinced. The worst time of the day? Chiara and Igor have no doubts: “When the internet connection goes out and panic”. And the last thought of the day? “May the pandemic disappear tomorrow and return to a normal life”.
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