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