Social Distancing: What it means and how we can manage it in our day-to-day life - Part 3

What advice can we offer parents at this time?

This is a huge change. The advice varies depending on the age of the children, their individual needs, and how much restriction or change is going on in each family situation. There are really nice things about togetherness. Children might realize they can play outside or learn new skills. There might be a lot more independence-building happening now with children.

Children are pretty quick to pick up on anxiety and what’s going on. . If a parent is very anxious about this, they will certainly pick up on the anxiety. If a parent is making light of this, the child will pick up on that too. Teenagers are following what’s happening and are on social media themselves, so they’re seeing information come in. But, no matter how old is your child, a lot of how they make sense of the world comes from what’s being communicated at home.

"Acknowledge anxiety and be a model of managing anxiety in a way that is healthy and proactive".

When children observe that the adults in their life are trying their best, this is a positive lesson for them on how they can face their own challenges.

Our children, any age, are still learning from the world around them. For the smaller ones, playgrounds have closed. It’s a confusing message to communicate to a young child that playgrounds aren’t safe for them right now. We need to reassure them, that they aren’t doing anything wrong and they are not being punished. Washing our hands is always a priority, and the way we cannot spread it is to take precautions. One way to do that is to limit our distance to just the people in our home or in our safe inner circle and to remind them that everyone is abiding by these rules right now, and we will get through this together. In the meantime we might have to go a bit more out of our way to engage directly and facilitate virtual meet-ups. It also will depend on our geographical restrictions, but maybe they can also play outside while maintaining distance.