As we finished the final pages of this issue and were about to send them to the printer, the world changed. The country quickly came to terms with the new reality of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19.
Life as we knew it slowed practically to a stop as we all decided to do our part and stay home to try to flatten the curve and keep our hospitals and our amazing healthcare workers from becoming overwhelmed. Well, that is, everyone except the hoarders who decided it was every person for themselves and people who resisted the governor’s stay-at-home order, the rest of us be damned.
As a former newspaper editor, ripping up an issue comes with the territory when there is breaking news. This is the first time I’ve had to tear apart the magazine. It was a decision made even harder since this issue represents the launch of Chicago Parent’s bigger, bolder new look.
We simply couldn’t, in good conscience, put out information that you couldn’t trust as accurate since it was literally changing every day. That’s just not who we are or what you expect from us.
Then came another harder decision, a first in Chicago Parent’s history. We wouldn’t print the magazine because we didn’t want you out and about trying to find a copy.
Your health and safety is our top priority.
Instead, we decided to put the magazine right where you are now, in electronic form, available on all of your devices where you can read it from the safety of your living room, kitchen table or in the quiet place you go for a moment of “me” time away from the kids.
Online at ChicagoParent.com, our digital team has done a remarkable job sharing ideas to help you through these trying times, with many ways to keep little hands busy and little brains learning while saving your sanity one day at a time.
Our calendar, always full of fun events to help you plan your valuable family time together, now includes all the virtual events in Chicagoland for you and your kids to enjoy right at home. We are adding events as quickly as they come in so there is always something changing.
As part of all of our planned changes in the magazine, we’ve also freshened up our award-winning digital newsletters, with Pulse coming to you on Mondays and Saturdays, as well as a must-read, Let’s Go, on Thursdays to get you ready for the weekend. I can tell you these newsletters are truly sanity savers right now so please make sure you sign up to get them in your in-box. And don’t forget to tell your friends.
Certainly these are trying times for all of us. We’ve always been on this parenting journey together and together, we will get through this. Our commitment to helping you do that is never going to change.
Please stay well. All of you are in my daily thoughts.
We’re here for you always.
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This article originally published in Chicago Parent’s April 2020 issue. Read the rest of the issue here.