What has Covid taught us about parenting? What have we learned in this last year of “quarantine”?
You know the expression we make our own luck? Well, we must make our own “good” too. This is something I read from a young middle schooler (a very wise young person)!
What has the pandemic taught us as parents? Maybe we learned to slow down. Before Covid, were your children’s lives overly packed and structured? Have you noticed that it’s okay to do less? What other positives have we derived? Covid has forced us to take a step back and appreciate what it means to live and find joy in life’s smaller things; to appreciate the present. What a wonderful thing to hold onto.
Hopefully, there were greater bonds of connections within your family and community. Maybe it has taught us that life can be simpler and still be rewarding and fulfilling? It’s taught us about “resilience”. This is a great teaching lesson for your kids. We can all look back and say, “Remember the year of the pandemic when we were all quarantined together…what did we learn, what did we do together as a family?
Maybe there are some questions we can all answer about what we learned about our kids during this time? What did we learn about ourselves?
Reminders of what this time has provided:
- It’s not bad to slow down. Maybe there’s something we can learn from not being so overscheduled & having our kids run from activity to activity. For your older kids who have tried many different things, maybe this will provide an opportunity to hone in on their true interests and spend time being really accomplished in this area. Maybe your younger kids do better at a slower pace.
- Savior the togetherness; it goes fast (my daughter is 16 and it’s hard to believe this chapter will end in a year and a half when she goes off to college) Maybe you created new family rituals that you wouldn’t have thought of, or done if we weren’t all in quarantine together?
- Create more outdoor time, free time in general. Have your children learned to entertain themselves & found new creative outlets? Or, maybe you’ve heard endless cries of boredom? Sometimes, being bored is a good thing. Children are quite resourceful when left to their own devices; never underestimate a child’s imagination. Maybe you’ve developed new outdoor activities as a family?
- You’ve been able to be on the front lines of your child’s learning. For many parents this has been a window into how their child learns. Many of you have had to be in the role of teacher and you’ve noticed things about how your child takes in information. Are they visual, or auditory learners, or a bit of both, or possibly you noticed a learning issue that wasn’t identified previously? Maybe when your kids go back to school full time, you’ll be able to have greater insight into helping your child if there are issues.
- You’ve found new ways to do self-care. Maybe you’ve realized that you don’t need a gym to be active. You can do at home workouts, or now enjoy walking or biking. Maybe you found meditation or yoga, or have become an expert on baking “sourdough bread”. You’ve learned something about what it means to take care of yourself.
What did you learn about yourself? What are your takeaways about your family and kids? Let me know about those silver linings. I’d love to hear your unique stories. This will enable us to form a community around shared experiences.