COVID-19 Parenting Tips: How to Comfort Children Amid The Coronavirus Crisis

The unfortunate coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak has brought life at a standstill. With schools closed, parents working from home and people being forbidden to meet others, parents are having a hard time balancing it all. It takes a village to raise a child and parenting during such times maybe all the more challenging. Here are some useful COVID-19 parenting tips to help you take care of your child and keep them organized during this lockdown period.

COVID-19 Parenting Tips: How to Talk to Kids About COVID-19 Outbreak

With everything that’s been happening in the world for over 3 months now, children are particularly more vulnerable to feeling confused, anxious, and scared. WHO recommends having an open conversation with the children as a piece of healthy parenting advice. By having a supportive conversation with your children about COVID-19, you can comfort their anxiety and help them cope well. 

 

As a part of essential COVID-19 parenting tips, here is some useful information on how to talk to kids about the coronavirus diseases:

Encourage kids to talk about it

The best approach is to ask open-ended questions to your child and listen to them with your full attention. This gives you an opportunity to gauge how much they already know. You can then determine how you should go ahead with the conversation. 

If you are talking to very young kids and they say that they haven’t heard anything about the novel coronavirus outbreak, it’s best to not raise the issue at all. You can keep helping them to follow the essential precautionary measures. 

However, if your child does know something about COVID-19, encourage them to share with you all that they know. Do not shun their fears away and demonstrate that they can freely talk to you about it whenever they want.

 

Address their concerns in a child-friendly way

Knowledge makes one feel empowered. While it’s true that coronavirus updates can be a little too much for the kids to digest, they still have the right to know about the COVID-19 outbreak. Using child-appropriate language, explain in brief what the novel coronavirus disease is. Notice their reactions as you talk and ensure that they don’t get anxious by this information.

If they have certain questions whose answers you do not know, refrain from making guesses. It’s okay to tell them what you don’t know as long as you assure them that you will try to find it out and share it with them. 

 

Make children feel safe 

With the advent of social media, it feels like the whole world is at our doorstep. Children may feel overwhelmed with all that they see on social media. It’s extremely important that parents reassure their kids about their safety. 

Tell them they are not likely to catch the disease because they are taking all the necessary precautions for coronavirus. Let them know so many people and authorities in your area are working day and night to ensure your family’s safety. These reassurances go a long way in comforting children and keeping anxiety at bay.

 

Encourage children to look for helpers

Stories of kindness and generosity act like rays of hope during a global crisis like this. Amidst all the tragic stories around, direct your child’s attention to the people who are helping each other with whatever they can. Show them videos of people showing solidarity and hope from their balconies or front yards. 

Let them know how health workers are no less than heroes for us and they will make sure that the world gets through this pandemic with a lot of hope.

 

COVID-19 Parenting Tips: How to Help Children Cope During COVID-19 Crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic is extremely difficult to deal with even for adults so one can imagine how confusing and stressful these times must be for children. To help your children deal with disruptions in their lives due to the coronavirus outbreak, here some valuable COVID-9 parenting tips:

Have a flexible yet consistent routine

The COVID-19 outbreak has disrupted life as we knew it. With so many drastic changes making way to our lives almost abruptly, families can easily fall prey to anxiety resulting from chaotic days. Having a structure and consistency in routine can be very calming for the kids. 

As a parent, you must make sure your children wake up and go to bed at their regular times. Plan out how your kids and you should spend the days and try to stick to the schedule. Try to involve your child in developing their own routine. Making your life structured during this crisis will shed some anxiety away and make children feel safer. 

 

Be creative with activities and exercise

Since children are home all day long, boredom eventually gets to them. In order to keep your children engaged during the lockdown period, try and be creative about how they can kill the time with engaging activities. 

You can equip them with resources to do some art and craft every day. Encourage them to cultivate a habit of reading books during this period. Use online educational videos to teach them history or to connect them with their culture. 

It’s vital to also organize daily activities for the entire family to spend time together. You can play board games, pictionary, dumb charades or do some fun quizzes. Get your children moving somehow; you can dance with them, do some sports competitions in your front yards or simply play the music and get going. Exercise is essential for children’s physical as well as mental health.

 

Stay calm when children act out

These are unprecedented times for all the current generations. It’s only natural that sometimes the isolation will get to your children and they will act out. 

When your child is angry or misbehaves, do not shout at them. It will only make them angrier. Stay calm and use positive words to tell them what you want them to do. For example, instead of saying “stop watching so much TV,” you should say, “you should spend more time reading books.”

Be attentive to your children even when they aren’t acting out. Praising their good behavior makes them aware that you are watching out for them and you appreciate their efforts.

 

Final Thoughts

We hope you found these COVID-19 parenting tips helpful. Also, it’s extremely important for parents to manage their own anxiety and to take care of themselves. You can help your child only if you are stress free yourself.

As far as your children are concerned, make sure they stay connected with you. Check-in with them as frequently as you can to know how they are doing. Spare time to do something creative and fun with your children. Most importantly, let them know that they can talk to you about anything at any time.