Kids and Covid-19: 'Our calm is infectious'

Parents are encouraged to be honest but positive with kids in conversations about Covid-19. Photo The Parenting Place

While grown-ups are busy dealing with the ramifications of a global pandemic, you can be sure kids are working hard to process it.

The Parenting Place has released helpful tips on how to navigate Covid-19 with children, ensuring they feel okay and know how to look after themselves.

Keep the lines of communication open
Keep conversations going and encourage our kids to talk to us. An easy way to do this is to ask our kids what they already know about Covid-19. This gives you the opportunity to respond; reassuring any fears and correcting any misinformation. A healthy amount of information is helpful, but the extent of detail that you share with your child depends on their age and personality. As much as possible, try and ensure that you are the main source of your child's information, so you can inform their view and monitor how they are interpreting the details they have heard elsewhere. It is important that our children know we're always available and here to listen – that they can bring all their questions to us whenever they need to, and that all their feelings are welcome.

Consider how much media they're exposed to.
Too much information can lead to anxiety. Keep the lines of communication open, but use your discretion to change the subject when you sense your child is getting overwhelmed by details and worry.

Provide reassurance
Our goal as parents is to reassure our kids – we want them to feel secure, while at the same time letting them know that the big people in their lives (parents, caregivers, teachers, doctors, politicians etc) take seriously their responsibility to keep everyone safe.

Our calm is infectious
Being calm communicates to our kids that "we've got this".
Asking ourselves questions such as, 'What potential risks are there for our children?' and 'How can we help mitigate these?' is helpful. We best communicate calm and reassurance by being calm ourselves, as our children will react to both what we say and how we say it.

Be honest
Avoid making promises we can't keep, eg 'No one will get sick'. Covid-19 is a real concern and people are getting sick. There's no sense in hiding this fact from our kids but at the same time, we need to help them understand that getting coronavirus is much like getting the flu and the world's best doctors and scientist agree that people with youthful and healthy immune systems (eg most kids!) can handle the virus and will recover quickly. However, while healthy children may not be at great risk of adverse health outcomes from contact with Covid-19, they are not immune to fear.

What if someone in the family gets infected?
It is really helpful to front-foot this scenario, even though the likelihood might be slim. For some children, what they imagine might happen if someone in their family got the virus may be a lot worse than the predicted reality. My 13-year-old was surprised to hear that Covid-19 was like the flu and said, "Oh, so just because you get the virus, it doesn't mean you are going to die? I thought you died if you got it." How incredibly stressful for our kids if that is what they believe.
Having a conversation along these lines might be helpful: "If someone in our family got the Covid-19 virus, it would be like getting the flu. They would need to rest in bed and we wouldn't want to get too close to them – so no kisses and cuddles with them for a couple of weeks because we wouldn't want anyone else in the family to get the virus. We would also need to take precautions so we didn't give anyone else the virus, so our family would need to stay at home for a couple of weeks."

Brainstorm fun
Isolation could actually have the potential to be a special time together. Providing a unique opportunity to build closer connections through games and projects around the home. Ideas could include planting a garden, learning an instrument, completing a large jigsaw puzzle as a family, reading aloud a series of books, watching movies.

Practise good hygiene
On a positive note, a global pandemic is a learning opportunity for our children. Terms like 'germs' and 'bugs' can seem a bit frightening to kids so it may help to provide some basic scientific context for what causes us to get sick. This, in turn, empowers us with helpful insights into how we can prevent getting sick and what we can all do to slow the spread of viruses.
This is also, of course, a pertinent time to emphasise important hygiene guidelines.

Keep a friendly distance.
Encourage your kids to come up with creative ways for greeting their friends and family – particularly girls, who may be more likely to hug each other. Elbow taps, foot taps, knee taps, hip taps or a creative sequence of all of the above are fun ways to say 'Hi', in the absence of a hug and a kiss.
Stay home if sick. If anyone is feeling unwell, they are best to rest at home so as to avoid the possibility of spreading any germs. While missing out on events and activities is disappointing, reassure your kids that cancellations and isolation are preventative measures. Missing out on something fun is hard for us as individuals, but better for everyone in our community.

Maintain a normal routine
As much as possible, try and keep to your regular schedule. Maintaining a sense of routine can be really helpful in reassuring our kids in an uncertain season. Encouraging our children to keep up with their schoolwork and extracurricular activities is also helpful while ensuring you are tuned into how your children are coping. We want to avoid pushing them if they seem overwhelmed.

In summary, the key to coping with Covid-19 could be as simple as keeping calm and washing our hands. Which is precisely what our kids need in this crazy season – gentle reassurance and healthy hand-washing habits. Plus lots of love and parental connection – even if that is in the form of elbow taps.

* Article courtesy The Parenting Place