So many parents have gotten used to their children being around the house all day as they were kept home from school due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Now, as nature begins to heal, several schools across the country are back in session with various mask mandates and safety precautions in place. Sarah Michelle Gellar opened up to HollywoodLife in an EXCLUSIVE interview about her kids returning to the classroom and the multitude of emotions she felt when they were on their way!
“It was mixed emotions! I was definitely happy for them. I was excited for them. I was nervous. I know that our school has taken every precaution, but, you know, it’s still obviously trying times. And I also missed them!” she gushed. “It was the quiet! In the first hour, I felt like Tom Cruise in Risky Business, just running around the house and listening to the silence. And then about an hour later I thought, ‘Oh, okay, they can come home now.'” Ahead of the big day, Sarah Michelle shared a rare image of her son Rocky, 9, and daughter Charlotte, 11, with the caption “The day I thought would never come,” as she sent them off to school.
Still, Sarah Michelle admitted that after “seeing the looks on their faces and being amongst their peers,” she knew that being in school was “the best thing for them.” “I know how hard it is to stare at these screens and to not connect to people. That’s the beauty of being humans — human interaction and connection,” she said.
The Cruel Intentions star shared some back to school advice for other moms to take into consideration this year, while discussing her partnership with Lysol. “I think that number one is communication. We really have to talk to our children and understand that we’re not nagging them about washing their hands that this is why we’re doing it… in a way it is clear and concise,” Sarah Michelle explained. “I think that part of the problem now is we’re hit with so much constant information. I talked about mask-wearing and why we do it. And yes, sometimes it gets hard and it’s frustrating, but these are the reasons why we do it.”
To help continue the conversation, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Lysol have joined forces for the brand’s Disinfecting Wipes “Buy One, Donate One” program. Through September 26, whenever a pack of Lysol® Disinfecting Wipes is purchased, another pack will automatically be donated to an under-resourced school through Kids In Need Foundation. Through the program, aimed to help curb the spread of illness-causing germs in schools this back-to-school season, a total of up to 16 million packs of Lysol Disinfecting Wipes will be donated to Title I schools across the country.
“I am so proud to continue my partnership with Lysol because they’ve taken this up to a whole new level. If 2020 has showed us anything, it is that we have to be a community and we have to protect each other,” Sarah Michelle explained. “It’s not just about protecting my children, it’s about protecting your children, about protecting your friend’s children, about really as a community being there.” To learn more about what Lysol is doing to promote healthy habits in schools and help reduce the spread of preventable illness this back-to-school season, visit lysol.com/here.