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Parenting in the Age of COVID
In my admittedly short time parenting, just six years, I’ve learned a few things, but one of them is this: Children are sponges. They absorb everything around them. I’ve been thinking about that in the last few weeks and months, as I’ve closely watched the coronavirus tsunami headed our way. I’ve slowly been stocking up; buying a bit more food than usual over the last weeks; dry goods for my pantry and food for my freezer. Stocking up on over-the-counter medication like Tylenol and Motrin for adults, kids and infants alike. My anxiety levels have been at a slow simmer, and in the last days, have come to a rolling boil.
I’m home with my four kids all day (we homeschool), and I’ve been trying hard to manage my anxiety so that they don’t absorb and internalize it. I’ve been trying to think of ways to discuss the situation with my kids so that they understand why we are drastically altering our day-to-day routine, while at the same time not scaring them about their grandparents and great-grandparents dying. I’m trying to be mindful of what I say when I’m on the phone around them, and how I discuss the situation with people we may encounter.
I’m writing all of these things because I am trying to be mindful and calm as I parent. I remember how anxious I felt on 9/11, and this feels like one of those kinds of moments in one’s childhood: A turning point that we’ll remember where we were and what we were doing. My kids are young enough to shield them from most of it, and I’d like them to, as adults, as much as possible, have little memory of these next few weeks.
Published in General
By Bethany Mandel
March 12, 2020 (40 Minutes Ago)In my admittedly short time parenting, just six years, I’ve learned a few things, but one of them is this: Children are sponges. Well that did not work like it does on MEMBER FEED, capture part of the post and hit reply or comment and it brings it to this box to continue with a reply with the part of the post you are commenting about. I am learning how this site works. I wanted to share based on raising two adult children and also teaching over 8,000 little kids how to swim over the past 16 years. The philosophy of my swim classes is that kids manipulate what every assets they have in order to maintain their sense of control of the world as they perceive it. The sponge is the accumulation of assets to use. The behavior carries into adulthood. I argue that all conflict is rooted in the sense of the loss of control that a person, community, or state experiences. That sense of control is the cause of action or in-action. For example the virus that is said to be out of control threatens the world’s sense of control all the way to most Americans. What is the first thing we have done? We pull our money out of the stock market to protect our wealth because money is a perception of control needed to have peace in one’s life. Now we want someone to fix the threat and we are ready to blame someone who we think has the power to control the threat. Public figures are the easy target. As a mom you are doing similar things. You want to protect your children and maintain a sense of control for them so they feel secure. You are searching within all your assets to apply them to protect them from insecurity. You have much to manage and bear in mind this virus is in addition to the election cycle which uses propaganda to ramp up our sense of security or insecurity depending on which political party message fits your perception of comfort and control. It is going to be an interesting season this year as political hatred grows with billions of dollars to promote how bad others are so we feel good and secure by supporting the other side. In short you might try to just pull each child into your arms and tell them you love them for who they are and you need them to be who they are because in that, you have a sense of peace that you cannot find without them in your world. here is the link to my swim class philosophy https://swim2john.com/philosophy Here is the book I wrote about the politics of Majority Rule in Congress and how it abridges free speech, which deals with security and control.https://flyzoo.blob.core.windows.net/uploads/5e691351bb547e338c188f21-1earfinal.pdf