Covid-19 has been a scary and exhausting thing for all of us to handle and cope with on an ongoing basis. As this global pandemic spread and changed everyone’s lives, it impacted people in many ways that we likely did not expect or predict. I have spoken with adults from many walks of life who have had to deal with real-world implications of the disease, including loss of work, severe economic strain, illness, and even death. There is no doubt that this global event is both wide-reaching and extremely serious.
We have been in this for a year now and as time has gone by, it seems that the children have been forgotten in many ways, except when we discuss schools re-opening so people can get back to work. While we have been running around or bunkering down, worried about our daily survival (both financial and physical) the children have been home with us, watching, listening, observing, and thinking. Children have been seeing and hearing news reports, observing parents reacting to the potential for infection, and in some cases witnessing family members passing. These events have impacted children in many ways and not always obvious ones. While we have typically included our children in our preparations and procedures for dealing with this crisis, we have not always taken the time to involve them in the planning and explaining to them why we are doing what we are doing. I have talked to children who are always afraid and cannot label it. I have seen the fear in their eyes and it is palpable to them. Children are not just cut off from peers and restricted from typical, social interactions, they are frightened and unsure as well.
Facts are important to share with children. They need to know sensible precautions to reduce the chances of catching or spreading the disease. They need to know what their family is doing to help protect them and they need to know what public resources are doing to help stop the spread. It is good to know that people have plans, that things are being done, and people are helping. If your family is taking precautions to help stop the spread, please take the time to explain what you are doing, why you are doing it, and how it helps. A pandemic is a scary thing and sometimes our reactions look scary to kids too.
The Maryland covid dashboard has a lot of numbers on it, which are typically updated daily.
https://coronavirus.maryland.gov/
While seeing a number attached to the word “Death” is scary, it is also good to see that hundreds of thousands of people have been tested in our state, that the vast majority of people who were tested came back negative, and that even those who tested positive did not all end up dead. As of the date I write this, the total number of confirmed cases in Maryland is listed as 466 thousand. We are now at 3.5 million people fully vaccinated. In this case, sharing facts about the relative number of people who have dealt with covid versus the total population of our state and information about vaccinations can be helpful.
Please talk to your children. It is ok to be scared about something like this but it is better to make sure we are all included in the discussion. Share information, share questions, and find answers together. The more that they are included in the discussion, the more they understand our reactions and our demands on them, the easier it is to help them get through it too.