Surviving Lockdown
Once again due to Covid, we are now on lockdown number two. Schools are closed as well as non-essential shops and recreation centres, and households cannot mix. Your children cannot play with their friends, there is no teacher to sit down with them, but you still have to work from home. Initially, it was all probably great for everyone. No early morning rushes out the door, no uniforms to iron, and lie-in’s galore, but as we all know, novelties can quickly turn from excitement into a bore. Now you’ve been there, done that, and your children are getting bored and restless.
So, now you are left with a quandary; you cannot let them watch television all day but you cannot get them to the park, and sitting down with them for any length of time is not easy when you have other commitments that have to be met. So what do you do? Maybe you’re lucky and they are all able to occupy themselves sensibly while you get on with that lengthy meeting on Zoom. Maybe all your children get on well with each other, even when they are cooped up all day. If that is the case, you are probably doing okay, but if like many other families you are finding juggling work, schooling and childcare a challenge, how can we all survive lockdown without going absolutely crazy?
All children need some kind of structure, so the key is setting that structure to each day. Whether it is in your head or written down somewhere, set specific tasks or jobs for specific times of the day. Try to stick as closely to a normal school day routine as possible. That means curbing lie-in’s, rationing screen time and over-seeing school or play activities. Interspersed between all that are your other work commitments, so it is not going to be easy, but that is why you will see the benefit of structure. Of course, the age and number of your children will make a great difference. Younger children need more hands-on care, whilst the older ones can, on the whole, be left to their own devices. But regardless of how old or how many, you still need to give your children time and attention.
Photo courtesy of Artem Kniaz (Unsplash)
The best way to set this structure is to first think about what your children will need. As well as your time and attention, toddler and school child alike will all need the following each day:
Physical activity
Intellectual stimulation
Social and emotional compensation.
Physical Activity
This is needed to continue developing muscle tone or control, maintain a healthy lifestyle and also to burn off the excess energy children are always blessed with. And believe me, when it comes to bedtime, you really want to make sure you have done this so your children are tired enough to sleep.
Intellectual Stimulation
Whilst children are not at school, intellectual stimulation is very important. It comes in many forms, all of which should be covered on a daily or at least weekly basis. If your child is already at school it may come in the form of Zoom lessons, and if possible or available, follow-up work that will reinforce what they have just learnt. There are also a number of educational websites that you can put to good use (See My Three Favourite Websites). On top of school-related work, they should also be reading every day. Don’t forget the daily handwriting practice too. This is especially important for the younger child, as they will probably not be doing as much as they would have done had they been at school.
Social and Emotional Compensation
Humans are naturally very social beings but in effect, Covid has forced us all into isolation. So not only should you cater to your children’s physical and intellectual needs, it is also necessary to address their social and emotional needs too. Lockdown will have an impact on everyone’s social and emotional well-being, but for children it is particularly hard because they lack the emotional maturity to deal with such a profound change to their daily life. It will also be different according to the age of the child, but even for children who are still too young for school, its effect will have an impact on their social development because they are unable to learn how to socialise with the outside world. However, this shortfall can be compensated for, to a degree, if there are older siblings.
For older children, the social and emotional effect of lockdown will probably feel more significant because they have already made those emotional connections with other people, and have been used to sharing their own worlds together. Now all they have is a live video on the screen (if you are able to use one of the more widely popular video conferencing apps), or a voice on a phone. Maybe not even that, if texting has become their only form of communication. How can I help this? you may rightly ask. Well, you can’t do anything about the situation we are all in, but just being aware of the possible social and emotional impact of lockdown means you can take steps to minimise your child’s feelings of isolation as much as you can. You can do this by organising regular video calls with friends and family. Why not have a family quiz night, whereby one family is pitted against another? These can be a lot of fun, and is a good opportunity for some extra bonding during these difficult times.
Photo courtesy of Torsten Dederichs (Unsplash)
Family Tensions
Something else to consider is the family unit as a whole. Some families thrive the most when the members of it are together. They all love being with each other 24/7 and as such, don’t have such a broad need for space, but there are other people, other families, who need their space. This is not to say that those families are any less close to each other than those who love being in each other’s pockets; it is merely a difference in personalities and nature.
Stuck under the same roof, sometimes people are going to feel frustrated because their freedom has been stripped down to the minimum. As a result, this may lead to family tensions brought on by things that, under normal circumstances, wouldn’t even have been an issue. Undoubtedly, sibling relationships may end up getting a little frayed too, so you could opt to play a game such as charades, which is entirely dependent on decoding visual cues as opposed to knowledge obtained, and pit the children against the adults. This promotes teamwork and a renewed enthusiasm for each other, or at the least, an invigorated tolerance!
Whatever issue you have under lockdown, there is always a solution. It is just a matter of finding the right one for you. Perhaps most importantly of all, remain positive because this will rub off on all those around you. And remember, lockdown will not last forever. For better or worse, one day, hopefully soon, things will be back to how they were before, and you will probably look back at this time with a mixture of love and hate. The situation that brought us to this was something nobody would ever want to go through again, but families were forced to spend time with each other, and perhaps this made you grow a little closer or understand someone a little better. Either way, take the good from everything you can because it is not just a case of surviving; sometimes we need only see the good in order to flourish in the rain.