The "Local Living" section of today's Washington Post has several columns or questions about helping kids cope with anxiety over the way things are right now. I'm not sure how the sons would have reacted had we gone through something like this when they were little. I know we would have explained it to them as truthfully as possible. We would have let them watch the news with us. We would not have censored the information.
I was something of a pariah among preschool parents in 1990 when Operation Desert Storm began. As noted above, the sons watched the nightly news with us, and we answered their questions factually. Older son took the information he had learned and was explaining troop movements to his preschool classmates, none of whom had any idea there was a mini-war going on. Some became quite anxious according to their parents, and it was my fault for letting my son know what was going on.
Children not old enough to understand the details about something mirror their parents' attitudes toward that something. They learn by doing or feeling what they see the adults they know best doing or feeling. Older son was not anxious about Operation Desert Storm because the husband and I were not anxious. We did not hide our concern from him, but it was certainly not the end of the world. I am not sure that would be the case with the current pandemic. I do know that I would have been less nervous about things then than I am now, almost 30 years later. My asthma would still have put me in a higher risk group, but I would have had a much younger age to put in the plus column. And I am less anxious now than I might otherwise be because I am following the guidance about social distance and contact. What anxiety I do feel these days is helping me take the precautions I can after which there's not much else to worry about.
Today's parents may also be handling having their kids home from school for an extended period of time, in a couple of cases for the rest of the academic year. At-home enrichment and reading may be enough for the young ones, but the teenagers in subject-matter classes are a totally different matter. Teenage me would probably be fine with learning online. My first experience with online instruction was when I was in a sixth grade math class, way back in the late 1960s. In many ways student me enjoyed online, independent learning, but I have been told that I am not normal. I hope that today's students in sequential classes are able to grasp the material that would have been taught in a classroom March through May.
The students in social studies classes such as civics, government, or history are watching a future textbook being written before their eyes. I just hope their possibly pariah parents are letting them watch or read the news.
1 comment:
I don't remember now where I read it, but just saw the phrase, "I'm not raising children, I'm raising adults." Seems apropos to this post.
That was my philosophy, too. I don't remember being a pariah, but then again, I never could sense other's opinions of me very well (or care much, either).
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