How to cope with confinement with children

Recommendations for getting through coronavirus confinement in the best way with your children.

The current situation due to the COVID-19 virus has caused enormous changes worldwide. It is clear that we are going through a situation that we could call "exceptional" and that is going to lead us to have to stay in our homes for a prolonged period of time.

If confinement and staying indoors for hours at a time is already a difficult task for anyone, we can imagine how hard and frustrating it can be.If confinement and staying for hours indoors is already a difficult task for anyone, we can imagine how hard and frustrating it can be for children. Sometimes it is the little ones of the house who give us a sign of overcoming and we see that we may even be having a worse time than them, but the truth is that even so, the current situation can make it difficult to live together as a family, causing emotions difficult to control to arise.

In this article we propose some guidelines to help you cope with the stay at home with your children. to cope in the best possible way with the stay at home with the children..

How to get through pandemic home confinement with children.

Even so, these guidelines are no more than a guide to orient how to manage certain situations, but if in your case you feel overwhelmed by the circumstances do not hesitate to consult with professionals and from Mariva Psicólogos we will be happy to help you.

1. Explain what is happening

A common mistake is to try to "make up" or not explain why we are at home.. It is true that we can always make the stay more bearable and try to play at imagining that we are confined in a special mission, but it is still important that children understand why we have to stay locked up, both for their safety and to naturalize that they can also accept this situation.

We should always adjust our language to the child's age and explain what is happening in words he or she can understand.

When explaining what we are going through, it is common for doubts to arise in children: "Are we going to die, how long do we have to stay, can I catch the disease? It is important that we try to solve their doubts by being realistic and offering appropriate answers and always with a positive approach.. When we do not know the answer, we will tell them "The truth is that we do not know yet". It is important that they also know the protocol to follow to prevent contagion.

2. Maintain schedules and routines

After a week of "readjusting" routines, it is common for schools to have online classes or homework available. As far as possible it is good that we do not alter the usual schedules that they had before starting the confinement..

We can be flexible in some things but it is good that we try to maintain schedules and routines at home: schedules for getting up and going to bed, for eating, for doing homework, etc.

3. Naturalize emotions

If we were to say that we should keep calm and pretend that nothing is happening, we would be lying. We are living in an exceptional and unusual situation, a situation of alert, therefore it is normal and adaptive that there are moments in which we feel fear, anguish, anxiety, sadness or despair. It is good that we talk about it with our sons and daughters so that they understand that what they are feeling is normal in this situation, but that they will be able to adapt little by little to a greater or lesser extent.

We as adults will also be feeling these emotions and we must try to control them but at the same time accept that they are part of the adaptation process.

4. Organize time

Sometimes when spending so many hours at home both adults and children can fall into boredom and anxiety. This is the time to try to do those activities that you didn't have time for before: playing sports, reading, watching a movie, etc.Do sports, read, watch a movie, organize closets, make recipes, play with the family, etc.

Something very necessary is to be able to occupy your time doing activities. If we have an outdoor space such as a balcony or terrace, we can do some outdoor activities. If this is not our case, we can try to do relaxation exercises, physical activity and games to visualize ourselves in an open space. This will make the stay in an enclosed space more bearable.

5. Allow ourselves our own space

After days and days all together in a few square meters it is easy to have more discussions, as well as an increase in negative emotions, which can lead to family conflicts and coexistence. For this reason, it is it is important that at the same time that we do activities as a family we can all have our own space and time alone..

It is good to dedicate a few minutes of the day to be alone, for example: try to extend the shower for a few more minutes, put on music with headphones and concentrate on your breathing, leave the child in a room to play alone and relax, etc.

We must also keep in mind that in this situation it is easy for our children to in this situation it is easy that our children do not perform at their best and do not concentrate on their homework.. We must normalize this, if for you as an adult this is being difficult and it is hard for you to get the same performance, for them it can be even more complicated. That is why you have to be patient and try to be flexible with them.

Looking for support?

These are some guidelines to use at home, but each person may need different tools and techniques to manage the state of alarm. Therefore, it is essential that we try to identify what our child needs and try to offer a solution for each problem that arises.

It is important to emphasize that although it is normal to feel certain emotions and concerns, if you feel that the situation is overwhelming you or that problems that you had under control before are reappearing, you can consult a professional to help you manage your emotions. From Mariva Psychologists we are currently working through telematic means such as video calls to continue helping you in any way we can. To see our contact details, click here.