“Just trying to find time to find a shower is not always easy,” says Brandy Clark a mother of four from Ashtabula county.

A two-and-a-half-month summer vacation turned into a five month break with her kids, and according to Clark these past few months have been difficult.

“We used to be able to take the kids to the park and the zoo but now we are just stuck at home all of the time,” Clark says.

She says some days she doesn’t even fight with her boys to get dressed, so they just spend the day in their pajamas. On top of the stress of the pandemic and being with her children 100% of the time, Clark has dealt with anxiety and depression her whole life.

“It got worse as I got older and had more kids,” she says. “I have suffered from postpartum depression and things like that.”

She says this pandemic has put a lot of stress on her and her family. Her husband works and she is a stay-at-home mom.

“The stigma is that I should be with my kids 24/7 and if I don’t want that, I don’t love them,” Clark says.

Being a teacher or home school mom is not something she ever expected to have to do.

“Never in a million years would I have expected to have been teaching my kids,” she says. “That is why I chose public school because I know my limits as a mother and teacher.”

Both of her school-aged children did all of their school work from home in the Spring. One of them will go to school for two days in the fall, while the other will do school completely online.

“How do I manage?” she asks.

Clark knows her anxiety about the kids and school is nowhere near the end.

“There were countless nights of crying,” she says.

A local social worker shared some tips for moms and other caregivers in Clark’s position.

“The first thing we gotta do is allow ourselves to not be okay,” Shannan Farmer a licensed social worker says.

She also stressed the importance of self-care and seeking help outside of the home.

“You need to reach out and tell someone, I am about to lose it and bite my kids heads off and I don’t want to scare them and make them cry, so I need to talk to somebody outside of my house.”