There’s no way you can completely prepare your kids for a crisis.
It’s normal for you to feel caught off guard when a crisis impacts your family. Whether it’s a death in the family. An illness or diagnosis. A natural disaster. Or a global pandemic.
I’ve created these guides for you in the midst of the COVID-19 Global Pandemic. At this time every state in the U.S. has been infected. Schools are shut down. Employees must work from home. Daycares are closed along with more retail stores, malls, and shopping centers. Essentially life has changed dramatically in a matter of weeks.
If anyone would have told me that this was about to happen, I don’t think that I could have ever imagined it. Never in my life have I seen such an incredible amount of change happen across the country, well really, across the globe.
Photo by Sven Brandsma on Unsplash
With every change comes adjustment. And every adjustment causes stress and uncertainty.
And that makes parenting in the middle of a crisis incredibly challenging.
What’s even more challenging is knowing how to help your children when they’re too young or too inexperienced to come to you and calmly say “ Mom, I’m feeling upset and I need you.” Instead, your young ones may whine or get clingy, while your older kids may shut you out.
These are normal responses for kids feeling overwhelmed by a crisis.
What’s NOT normal is how everything in their life has changed because of the crisis.
Children don’t have the words to explain what they feel. Often kids know something is wrong, even if they don’t know exactly what’s happening. They may not have the words, but they can tell things have changed. No matter how hard we may try to protect them from overwhelming facts, it doesn’t erase their sense that things have changed.
If you are trying to help your kids cope in the midst of a crisis, here are guides, by age group, with practical ideas on how you can help them.
