“We Decided We Don’t Want Children. We Will Let Them Know Tonight”: Parental Humor on Social Media in a Time of Coronavirus Pandemic

Authors

  • Dafna Lemish Rutgers University
  • Nelly Elias Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel

Keywords:

children, coping, Coronavirus, COVID19, grandmothers, home, humor, Israel, image macros, mothers, parenting, school, social mediachildren, COVID-19, social media

Abstract

 A thematic analysis of humor circulating on Israeli social networks during the COVID-19 lockdown reveals challenges that parents faced. Parents (mostly mothers) expressed the hardships of surviving quarantine while taking care of their children. Their humor presents them as helpless, depressed, and even suicidal when they discover that none of their coping mechanisms help them. Grandmothers escaped from caring for their grandchildren, and the relationships with remote schooling are contradictory, at best. Overall, this article highlights the unique role that humor plays as an outlet for parents’ anxieties and distress during the pandemic.  

Author Biographies

Dafna Lemish, Rutgers University

 Associate Dean of Programs and Distinguished Professor of Journalism and Media Studies at the School of Communicaiton & Information at Rutgers University. dafna.lemish@rutgers.edu Phone: ++001-848-932-7528 

Nelly Elias, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel

 Nelly Elias  is an Associate Professor at the Department of Communication Studies, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.  enelly@bgu.ac.il Phone: +972-8-6477168 

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Published

2020-09-29

Issue

Vol. 14 (2020)

Section

Articles

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