Tips to support your child’s wellbeing during COVID-19

Our country is in a crisis, we are all stressed out. Things are changing every day it seems! Whatever you are feeling at the moment, your child is feeling too. They feel scared, vulnerable, uncertain of what the future holds, not knowing when they’ll go back to school or see their friends again. They also sense all of your anxiety. None of us have ever experienced anything like this before.

Of course, your little one’s behaviour is going to change, and unfortunately it won’t be for the better. They may have more meltdowns or tantrums, they may get angry and fight you on everything, they may become really anxious or wake in the night with nightmares, or not be able to get to sleep at all. This is all normal.

First of all, you need to think about yourself, your own mental health. You can’t help your child if you’re stressed out all the time. I know that you don’t want me to tell you to relax because when people tell me to relax, I want to scream at them! So instead I will say be calm. Try to focus on your family and helping them to feel safe, meditate together or go on a walk. Do something fun together that you normally wouldn’t have the time to do.

Please try not to worry about your child’s education. Every single child is in the same boat. I wonder what they will call this generation. Gen-COVID or the Corona Generation? Who knows, the important thing is that you realise that they will not fall behind at school if you do not stick to a schedule whilst you are home schooling. Do what you can. The most important thing is that they feel that everything will be ok, they feel safe.

Here are a few strategies that we’ve shared in previous blogs that may help your children if they feel anxious at the moment:

• Don’t dismiss their fears
• Talk to them, be positive but be honest
• Strategize how to handle the thing they are afraid of
• Let them know that you have confidence in their ability to handle this
• Try to stay calm yourself (this one is hard at times, I know!)
• Use relaxation techniques
• Reassure them that they are safe
• Be consistent. Don’t give up
• Meditation and calming, relaxing music and sounds work really well once they are in bed. You can get some fantastic apps like Headspace, Smiling Minds or Relax Melodies. You can head to our Sleep apps blog to read our top 5 apps to help them sleep.
• And if you are having problems at night time, we highly recommend our Duski Dream Guardians to help them sleep. They combine a colour changing night light (at your desired brightness) and a Bluetooth speaker to stream meditation, sounds and to help them relax. (remember to use red for sleep)

If you would like more bedtime specific strategies, you can read our fear of the dark blog which has some really useful tips for helping your child at night.

Most of all remember, this will pass. Be kind to yourself. You will be ok.

*If your child’s worries start to interfere with their ability to do normal activities please take them to see a doctor.