Parenting in the Era of COVID-19: A Daily Checklist to Stay Grounded During Uncertain Times
⃞ Take care of your personal needs. Did you take a shower today? Did you exercise? Meditate? Take the dog for a walk? Make sure you take care of your own needs first whenever you can. It’s easy to jump into the role of caretaker first thing in the morning, but before you jump, take some time for yourself. Just as we’re reminded every time we get on a flight: in case of an emergency, put on your own oxygen mask before helping your child put on their’s. This is true for life and especially true during a crisis like we are experiencing now.
⃞ Find normalcy. This can be through your daily schedule, family rituals, or the way you show up every day. Things are not normal right now. Where can you and your family experience the everyday? Even having a fight about doing the dishes might not be such a bad thing these days.
⃞ Feel all the feels. You might feel like you have to be “strong” for others right now. Maybe it’s for your kids, or your partner, or maybe your employees. It’s okay to admit when you’re struggling with difficult emotions, and as a matter of fact, it might actually be a relief for those around you to hear and know that you feel as scared/worried/bored as they do. Share your feelings. Acknowledge and validate your children’s feelings. Help identify and name feelings that are new to them. Perhaps set aside time each day to check-in on emotions as a family.
⃞ Make mistakes. No one has the playbook for this. We are all pretty much winging it from day-to-day. So if you have perfectionist tendencies, give yourself permission to let them go. There will be fights, there will be tears, you may run out of toilet paper. Your children might even spend an entire day or days watching TV and learning nothing. Oh well. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not a big deal. Practice perspective-taking and remember that mistakes are inevitable. It’s good modeling for your kids to watch how you recover from them.
⃞ Connect with people outside your family. This is the perfect opportunity to call/Facetime/Zoom/Skype your bestie from college who you only talk to a few times a year. I’ve had more phone calls and video chats with friends and extended family this past week than I have had in months. Even as we are social distancing, it is more important than ever to connect with the communities that sustain us. Ones we can commiserate, cry and laugh with. Ones that remind us we are not alone.