Covid19 Is Making A lot of parents Camp Directors too.
Covid 19 is providing all members of society with large amounts of stress and anxiety. Kids routines as well as many parents have been completly upended. It is indeed for many a crisis and the word crisis means threat and opportunity.
Threat. Along with uncertainty a parents state of overwhelm can lead them to periods of isolation, withdrawl and bare minimum parenting. At times like this the TV and iPad can become instant baby sitters and we all know that long periouds of screen activit is not healthy for kids of any age.
Opportunity
If you asked many parents of the baby boom or Gen X if they had a parenting regret, many might just say, too much work
too long a commute and not enough time with their kids. They wish they could have done more with their kids. Covid 19 issolation is actually giving us that opportunity. Many of us can look back on our past and undoubtedly our favorite activities will be a game of Twister with the family or a in infamous snowball fight or day on the tobaggan run.
Routine is key. Children actually love it. If you can build up a small library of activities for your family to do many of which do not need to take hours of planning the day will go by so much faster. Example for those of you who have never played Ispy or better yet the game called Red Light Green Light (Google it) then you can’t imagine how much fun it is. And guess what, you can have the best of both worlds by simply playing a game on YouTube called explore.
You ask your kids. Do you want to learn about Dophins or Panda and then search the name with National Geographic or PBS and you’ll get zoodles of videos. Panda… just add the word funny and there’s a million hours to get the whold family laughing. TIP It is important that you watch with your kids and not use it as a babysitter or it will not have nearly as positive an effect. When you watch with them you can add questions and answer them too when the program is on and make reference to what you’ve learned. Maybe even build a word list.
So while COVID 19 Sucks a lot, remember there is a perspective where it’s an opportunity to have fun and then make it so!