How can I support my kids during COVID?

Although there is a plan for kids in LAUSD and LBUSD to start hybrid learning, most of them are still in online school these days.  They are having to learn things that most adults didn’t know how to do a year ago.  They know how to join a Zoom meeting, they have to be organized enough to know where their links are to join different meetings, and they have to know how to work their mic and camera so that when their sibling screams in the middle of their class, they can quickly put themselves on mute.

I have talked to MANY teachers and we all seem to agree that kids WILL catch up academically.   What we need to be concerned with right now is their mental health.

Here are some tips to help your kids through COVID:

1. Help them set intentions each day (even if that intention is to watch YouTube all day). Structure is very important for human beings and it is hard to have structure when being locked inside for 9 months.  We tends to roll out of bed each morning and wear pajamas all day.  If we are lucky, we might change into new/fresh pajamas.
2. Get outside.  Go for a walk or find somewhere outside to sit that is safe.  Your body needs sunlight!
3. Encourage them to connect with someone outside of their home every day.  There are many free ways to do this through Telephone, Zoom, Hangouts, Facetime, Skype, etc.   When they were physically going to school, there are people they would interact with every single day whether they liked those people or not.
4. Get some alone time away from other people in the house.  Being stuck in the same house with the same people for 9 months is hard.  It is important to have alone time to be able to process your own thoughts, feelings and experiences.
5. Make sure they are doing their daily care routine of brushing teeth, taking a shower, etc.  Even though the teacher no longer cares if your child stinks, it effects someone’s mental health when they don’t shower for days on end.
6. Make an appointment with a therapist who they can talk to.  This can provide two benefits right from the start.  First, they will be talking to someone who they don’t live with (refer to Tip #3).  Second, they can talk to someone who is trained in mental health to help them stay on track so that when this is all over, they have less to recover from and will be more likely to step right back into the world.

If you have questions, please call us at 562-310-9741 so that we can help guide you in finding the right therapist.