Dear fellow parents,

How are you coping with the kids in this trying time?

Are we communicating with them? How are we keeping them engaged? School activities? Crafts? Games? Cookery lessons? Gardening? Let us share tips.

We are living in a world we had not anticipated and a few things are coming to light, both positive and negative.

Positives: More open communication with our kids and we get to understand them better right? Isn’t it amazing how different personalities the kids have?

Another positive is better health; no more sniffles and annoying colds and coughs brought home from school? More family time, YAY! we can now catch up on those activities we kept putting off as we were too busy- time to build the fort with them in the garden, listen to them practice their musical instruments ( early morning and late night in my home).

Negatives: On the extreme, we have increased risk of abuse; especially for those in vituperative environments( physical too). Increased stress and anxiety as they try to understand us too and the situation; and this applies to both older and younger kids. Is your kindergartener pushing your buttons increasingly this period?

Now is the time to teach them to bake or cook simple meals. Ooh the bliss of having your six year old crack the eggs for those yummy muffins. Just make sure they are safe.

The kids spending a lot of time online exposes them to online predators; are we keeping tabs on them and talking to them about the dangers? What measures are we taking to protect them?

Add to that the stress of not knowing when they are going to complete the school year, especially those in their final year of school, is it all lost? How do we encourage them to not lose hope?

Are you working from home? Not an easy balance when it comes to ensuring the kids have their online classes; you have your zoom meetings and running the household too ensuring all is in order. It is not easy. And gadgets, you may be having that one laptop or tablet that you work on and all your kids need to access their school work too. These are just a few of our experiences.

These are times we had never anticipated but in true human fashion I believe in resilience and adaptation. There is no manual for what we are living through but we will get through. We have to believe that. I know we are already adapting to this new norms as adults, but let us keep communicating with our children.

Keep talking to and with them, have discussions and questions about what they are feeling, what they want to do during this time, what their fears and hopes are. Let us not make the mistake of keeping quiet and caught up in our adult lives and forget they are learning more of the world by watching and listening to us.

So parents, how are you truly coping in this period?