Posts

Kids Need Your Vital Guidance During & After Pandemic

Good mental health is a struggle for all of us during the Covid-19 lock down. We have all lost things we love to do – be that simply going for a drink with friends or playing sports competitively – and that disruption to the norm is taking its toll on how people are able to get through their days. While this is an issue for people of all ages, it is children that really need the best vital guidance that you can give at this point as we continue to navigate through uncharted waters in life.

While adults are – for the most part – fully emotionally and mentally developed, the same cannot be said for your children. Overnight our kids were expected to be able to adjust from thinking about the next sporting event they would play in or the next play date they would go on, to being in a lock down situation with no idea when they would be able to see their friends again.

While this is mitigated somewhat by technology, just imagine where we would be as a global society if this had happened 20 years ago. Face-timing a friend isn’t the same as being able to go to the mall or the movies. This pandemic is stripping kids – specifically tweens and teenagers – of emotional development that they will need to be able to grow in a post-pandemic world.

The good news is that with the right vital guidance most kids will turn out alright. This is the view of most economists and psychologists on the subject – despite their data sets being limited at this point. The best thing you can do as a parent during this time is to give your child a safe, stress free, and stable environment to live in. Young kids will bounce back quicker – they will feel less pressure and stress from the situation – and encouraging interaction without being pushy is a really important parenting technique to master if your child starts to seem withdrawn.

Tighter finances, food shortages, and job losses are all stressful. Those vulnerable families are the ones that are likely to see their children become more withdrawn – for any number of reasons – and as such they are the families that will rely on vital guidance both now and after the pandemic,

Kids are resilient by nature and most will find a way to adapt and roll with the punches. Just try to be a little extra aware at the moment – even with the pressures put on you as a parent during this time – of exactly how your kids are doing and what state their mental health is in.

Article By Vital Guidance