Our entire world has been turned upside down due to Covid-19 and in a crazy twist of events, most parents now find themselves wearing another hat…. The Relief Teacher! * gasp *
We have put together a few tips and a brilliant Resilience Resource to help you keep your sanity and see your children and teenagers flourish during this time at home.
MAINTAIN A ROUTINE: A good sleep-in will be a novelty for the first day or two, but a lack of routine and structure long term can lead to feelings of depression, lethargy and increase the negative impacts of social distancing. With everyone working from home, there is no need for the usual morning stress as everyone gets out the door and you can now be more relaxed, but try to make sure everyone has breakfast, gets dressed and cleans up before getting stuck into their school work! Let them pick their morning playlist and have a bit of fun with it!
SET GOALS: Humans are wired for purpose and achievement so it’s important to help your child or teenager set some goals for this time. Each person will have different types of goals that they will find fulfilling, so we’re not just talking about the kind of goals YOU might have for them… like cleaning out their closet… ;)
Chat with them about what they will find fulfilling to achieve during this time. One of your children might find it fulfilling to read a certain number of books, while another might like to design a video game or learn an instrument. Depending on the child, it will probably be helpful to set small daily goals and larger goals for the weeks that they are experiencing social distancing. Throw some physical activity goals in there too!LIMIT NEWS EXPOSURE: We don’t need to tell you how many channels your child is hearing news through, it’s on TV, radio and social media - it is EVERYWHERE! Even having the news on in the background can lead to a range of different messages and opinions, with bits of information that your child or teenager is absorbing unnecessarily. If you and the family are wanting current information on the virus, the Australian Government’s website is a great place for facts without the emotion or drama sometimes added to news stories and commentary.
MAKE SURE THEY ARE STILL SOCIALISING: For a lot of teenagers, social media will ensure they have PLENTY of contact with their friends, but for some, you might need to encourage or facilitate quality connection through platforms such as Zoom where you can play games like Jackbox by sharing screens, or via the Houseparty app where you can play built-in games. If your young children don’t have social media, set up a FaceTime play date where they do a similar Arts and Crafts project at the same time.
KEEP THE CONVERSATION OPEN: While this can be a difficult time for all, we can also use this as an opportunity to strengthen family relationships and teach our young people resilience through adversity- they need it now more than ever! As you open up and share your feelings around the situation and the healthy coping mechanisms you are using to manage stress, you are not only modelling emotional intelligence but also normalising vulnerability. This is a great time to share personal experiences you have had in your life, like a time you felt nervous or lonely. It’s also the best time to share your personal faith, even taking time to pray or meditate as a family.
The headspace app has some great guided meditation available for free!To support parents and facilitate these resilience conversations, we have released a 7 episode video series called ‘MARKED’ that parents can use with their children/teenagers.
The series is designed for Year 5-10 and focuses on Emotional Intelligence, Self Responsibility and Empathy, with each episode running for 5-6 minutes.This resource comes with a Discussion Guide to prompt important and positive conversations and can be downloaded through the link below.
Whatever kind of week you are having, just know that you are probably doing better than you think!
Ensure you are staying in contact with your friends, taking time to look after your own physical and mental health and remember that in the course of your child’s life, this will just be a blip on the radar. It might seem crazy now, but in 10 years time, you will probably look back fondly on this time where everyone is working from home!!
KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK PARENTS!! WE’RE CHEERING YOU ON * crowd roars *