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Tips For Quarantined Parents In The Times of COVID-19 With schools and colleges being shut across the world in order to curb the spread of coronavirus, parents have more challenges to deal with than ever. The increased stress, fear, and uncertainty alongside the responsibility to keep your children entertained and safe can be quite overwhelming. After all, children are more susceptible to being affected emotionally by the COVID-19 lockdown than anyone else. With that mind, we have put together a great lot of information and tips for parents to teach, play, and entertain their kids during this time of pandemic and fear. Also, these tips will help you make sure that your children can make sense of what they hear in a way that is accurate and honest to minimise the fear or anxiety. How to Help Your Children Cope With COVID-19 Stress? The truth, everyone reacts differently to stressful situations. Nevertheless, children and teens respond strongly to the stress of a crisis making them the most vulnerable age group to COVID-19 stress. As parents, it’s your responsibility to offer the best support to help your kids deal with the crisis as calmly and confidently as they can. So, here are some expert-curated tips on how to help you, children, cope with COVID-19 stress or anxiety. #1 – Build Trust and Safety Stress and trauma can alter the way how a child sees the world, making it suddenly seem a frightening place to be in. You child will thus find it more difficult to trust people and their environment. As the first step, work toward building your child’s sense of security and safety. Here are a few ways to achieve this: Hug your children to make them feel more secure. Though teens might try to tough it out and resist being held, understand that your physical affection as a parent will go a long way into making them feel safe again. Make plans for the future with your kids to help them understand that the future isn’t as bleak or scary as it seems and there is light at the end of the tunnel. Come up with a predictable schedule for your children with regular times for meals, family activities, and homework. This will help make the world seem stable again for your children Push your children to pursue activities they enjoy. Allow them enough space and time to play, rest, and have fun. Children are curious beings. So during the pandemic, they will surprise you with more questions than ever. However, if you don’t know the answer to a question, admit it and don’t make something up as it will break your child’s trust in you. #2 – Minimize Media Exposure Children who have had traumatic experiences in the past will find relentless media coverage to be even more traumatizing. Additionally, extreme exposure to videos clips and images of the pandemic on social media or news sites will create traumatic stress in children and teens who aren’t directly affected by the pandemic. Make use of parental controls on TV, phone, and computer to prevent your children from repeatedly watching disturbing footages. Also, prevent your kids from watching the news or checking social media right before bed. Whenever you can, watch news reports of the pandemic with your children as it will reassure them and help place information in context. Switch to newspapers as it can be less traumatizing for children to read about the pandemic than watch graphic images and video clips of the pandemic. #3 – Engage Your Child Though you can’t walk your children out from a traumatic experience, you can always help them heal by simply spending more time with them. Stop your children from getting distracted by TV, phones, video games, etc. Build an environment where you kids will feel safe to communicate with you, ask questions, and tell you how they feel. Encourage your kids to ask you questions and express their concerns but don’t force them to speak. Also, offer them opportunities to discuss what they are watching in the media. When communicating with your children, make sure you do it in an age-appropriate way. For instance, younger children will prefer reassuring hugs and simple phrases like ‘it’s over now’ or ‘it’s all going to be okay’. On the other hand, older children will tough to comfort. So go about making them feel secure by telling them facts and information about what happened. While you should tailor the information according to your child’s age and personality, ensure that you don’t give out false information. Help your children forget about the traumatic event by letting them partake in normal activities. For instance, encourage your children to indulge in games, sports, hobbies, or things they used to enjoy before the pandemic. Watch a movie together, enjoy a games night, or hold a family picnic in your garden. #4 – Encourage Physical Activity Physical activities are found to burn away adrenaline and release mood-enhancing endorphins that will help your children sleep better at night. Thus, encouraging your children to do some sort of physical activities will help them cope with pandemic stress and enjoy a good night sleep. Find out sports that your child enjoys. Activities like basketball, martial arts, and badminton require moving both arms and legs which will rouse your child’s nervous system from the stick feeling of traumatic experience. If your child is resistant to get off the couch, play their favourite music and offer to dance together. Once you get your child to start moving, they will feel more energetic. Alternatively, you can also arrange a play date with your child and arrange some engaging games for you both to play together in your garden. #5 – Feed Your Children a Healthy Diet The food your child eats plays a great role in their mood and ability to overcome pandemic stress. Refined carbohydrates, processed food, sugary drinks, and snacks result in increased mood swings and worsen the symptoms of pandemic stress. On the other hand, fresh fruits and vegetables that are high in protein and healthy fats like omega-3 fatty acids help your children better cope with the ups and downs of pandemic stress. Rather than focusing on specific foods, make sure that your kids eat healthy by concentrating on their overall diet. Incorporate a lot of food that’s close to its natural form and cut down on whole and minimally processed food. Takeout meals contain more added sugar and unhealthy fat. So always resort to cooking meals at home. Limit sweets, sugary snacks, refined flour, and fried food that can negatively impact your child’s mood. Make mealtimes engaging by gathering your whole family at the table. It is an ideal opportunity to talk and listen to your kids’ worries without distractions. The last and bonus #6 tip is to be a role model for your children by making healthier lifestyle choices such as eating healthy, exercising, drinking plenty of water, and getting enough sleep. Stay well and be safe!