The Shepherd of Readersburg | 07 May 2021 | Age rating: >5 years:  It's not just a virus on prowl making people sick. There's much more to it. There's much more to a virus when it causes a pandemic.

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There are a large number of people it is making sick. But, at the same time, there are a larger number of people who are indirectly affected by the pandemic.

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Being surrounded by distressing events and news is leaving people depressed and lonely. 

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Children and teenagers are also part of this lot. And unfortunately, children's depression and anxieties goes unnoticed. 

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If a kid or a tween is depressed, it is brushed off as some childish reaction to something. If a teenager is depressed and behaves different by keeping aloof or frequently becoming irritable, it passes off as 'teen tantrums'.

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Many parents hit their children for being too quiet or being too loud or being even a bit different. We, at Readersburg, have constantly expressed our concern, and dissent, about this age-old practice inherited and exercised through generations. Parents, who indulge in such act, approve of it as 'being strict' and pad up their approval by believing that it's a mandatory part of good parenting. Well, we would, as we always have, beg to differ.

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These unprecedented times are hard upon children. Children, and the adults around them, must understand this.

 

We have put together a few suggestions for parents to help them make children comfortable in a turbulent environment: 

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Be friendly

If your children are behaving differently - keep aloof or talk more - don't shut them down or prod them to talk more. It won't help. Instead, imagine them to be that best friend you had back in school. And then deal with their situation.

 

Listen to them

When your children talk, be all ears. Don't interrupt them constantly. Don't hush them. Let them talk.

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Spend enough time

You don't have to be with your children all the time. They will find it claustrophobic. Everyone needs space. But spend enough time with them, listening, telling your own day's stories or stories from your school days. 

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Talk to them about the pandemic

Many parents are trying to cut their children off from the world in an attempt to keep them safe. Well, even as we don't want depressed kids, we don't definitely want dumb kids.

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Children need to be aware of their surroundings so that they can handle it smartly, so that they can handle their lives smartly. 

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Only that the sources that deliver the world's chaos to them should be mature in their own handling of the chaos. This is what parents need to do. Spend some time to handpick media that children access.

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Besides, talk to children about the chaos, which, currently, is the Covid pandemic. Ease their anxieties about it. And keep away the unnecessary  political and other biases that have been attached with it. 

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Read with your children

Lastly, and most importantly, sit along with your children every day and read a good book. Children may read the books they want and you may read the books you want. But read together, at the same time. Be each other's reading buddies for an hour every day.

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Or read out loud to your children for an hour every day. It will work like a magic want to douse off their anxiety.

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To read previous stories in the Readersburg Learners section, click here.