12 | JULY 9 • 2020
C
ady Vishniac’
s 8-year-
old daughter Luta was
about to start her Zoom
math class.
“She has these Zoom classes
that are the bane of my exis-
tence,
” said Vishniac, a divorced
single mom living in West
Bloomfield, on the phone to the
Jewish News.
“Paper! Paper! Paper!” Luta
chanted. “Look at me!”
“I see you, Luta. You’
re climb-
ing on the stairs in a way that
makes me nervous,
” Vishniac
said as she ran around trying to
find the computer.
Vishniac located the com-
puter and explained to Luta
that class would be with the
whole group today. Luta, who
has behavioral challenges, has
mostly been getting individual
instruction.
“I can’
t!” Luta shouted.
“You’
re getting the idea,
”
Vishniac said to JN.
This is what it’
s like to be a
single parent in quarantine.
AMPLIFIED CHALLENGES
When Gov. Gretchen Whitmer
issued her stay-at-home order
in March in response to the
COVID-19 pandemic, parents
found themselves in a seeming-
ly impossible situation. Vishniac
put it bluntly: “You can’
t make
a kid focus on school and work
40 hours a week at the same
time.
”
These challenges were ampli-
fied for other single parents
as well. At one point during
quarantine, Abby Segal, a sin-
gle mom in Bloomfield Hills,
went five days without taking
a shower. When she finally got
a second to sit her 4-year-old
daughter Aliyah down in front
of the computer and went to
take a shower, she heard Aliyah
open the back door and walk
outside into the yard.
“You don’
t have another set of
eyes,
” she said. “You don’
t have
coverage.
”
For divorced single parents,
the pandemic brought up
the added question of how to
co-parent during a stay-at-
home order. As Vishniac said,
“There’
s a degree of social dis-
tancing that I can’
t do. I can’
t do
it anyway because she’
s going
back and forth between my
house and my ex’
s house.
”
Erica Gray of Farmington
Hills has been divorced for
almost two years. When the
pandemic began, she didn’
t feel
comfortable having her 12- and
13-year-old daughters, Chloe
and Leah, split time between
her house and their dad’
s place.
Legally, though, she had to con-
tinue the custody arrangement
she had with her ex-husband.
Abby Segal and her
4-year-old daughter
Aliyah weather
the challenges of
single parenting
during a pendemic.
ALEXANDER CLEGG/JEWISH NEWS
MAYA GOLDMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Local Jewish single parents on homeschooling,
need for support and the uncertain future.
Local Jewish single parents on homeschooling
L
l J
i h i
l
t
h
h
li
During a Pandemic
Single
Parenting
Cady Vishniac
and Luta
“You can’t make
a kid focus on
school and
work 40 hours
a week at the
same time.”
— CADY VISHNIAC
COURTESY OF CADY VISHNIAC
Jews in the D
cover story