Pandemic Childhood



Having a baby in a pandemic is one thing. You have to shelve all of the ideas and activities you thought you'd be doing. Get used to just being you and bubs. Focus on the new life that's born into a crazy situation. 

But, this pandemic is taking so much from our children. It feels like it's damaging an entire generation. 

We don’t really know what our children will have lost out on by over the course of this chaos. It will largely depend on our children's own resilience.  Their developmental and social ability not just their age. 

At this point, with so many things cancelled and so little real social interaction, some degree of developmental damage is likely for all our children... Whether academic, social or emotional.  

Months have passed without access to essential support services for children and families. Virtual learning with stressed parents cannot replace the in-person teaching they would have received at school. 

As a Mam, I'm watching my 7yo long for the normal she used to know. The school interaction, the clubs, meet ups with family, the outings. I feel helpless to prepare her for the new normal, because it keeps changing. 

How badly I want to take both my children shopping. Out to play dates and other social gatherings. I find myself fantasising about the summer that we could have had. The trips, visits and holidays we now can't have. 

I'm frustrated. Frustrated at the childhood our children have lost. Frustrated at the illogical way our governments are easing restrictions. 

Looking towards the Autumn and Winter, it will be more difficult than our spring and summer. Because COVID isn't going to disappear just because it's raining. At least in summer, outside is an option. 

Every step into creating our new normal requires a risk and benefit analysis. It is exhausting. People say, “well they don’t  know the difference”. But that's not true. 

My 7yo knows this is not how it was.  She wants the interaction, the social life she is being deprived of. 

For all that children are oblivious to, I know enough about early childhood development to know that their brains will be forever changed. 

It will be a skeleton of a school year next year for my 7yo, broken up as they, their classmates or their teachers are required to isolate. If we are lucky, we'll get a full school year in somehow.

But for my baby girl, this is the world she was born into. If my 7yo is struggling with online everything, it is impossible for a 3 month old. I can only hope that in this new normal, we remember that the youngest members of our society have had it worst. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Plus je vieillis ...

Image
One of my friends shared the Jamie Lee Curtis quote a while ago on FB, and, basically, it set my head thinking a lot. This year has been full of drama of various kinds, not least because of all the chaos caused by COVID.  As a result, this year has been hard.  Really hard.  Between juggling expectations, the constant moving goalposts, as well as general family life, this year has been one I don't ever want to repeat. I've learnt a lot about me though too.  And some of the things that I've learnt are that I am actually a lot tougher than I ever believed.  Yes, it's not always been an easy ride, and getting to the middle of December has been a roller coaster of epic proportions, but, generally, I have come out of it mentally tougher than I went in. I was struck by Jamie Lee Curtis' sentiments.  They pretty much sum up what I want out of life; to relax in my own home, surrounded by people who are supportive and that I know I can turn to when I need to, without...
Read more

When school feels a bit like the Hokey Kokey

It's been a while since I last wrote a blog post. Mainly because, as a family, we've spent most of our time together. In the house, juggling work, study, playing with a baby and home teaching a 7yo.  Like most families, that juggling act has taken a bit of time to get used to. But we've got there. With a bit of 'ooops' when you've got 3 TEAMS meetings overlapping 🙈 Now though, it seems that we are facing being forced to send our children back to school*. And, here in Wales at least, the threat of an extended school term, taking away our children's relaxation time because someone, somewhere, has decided that they are 'behind'. Behind what exactly? OK, we, as a society might have to concede that many of our children aren't currently keeping up with the target driven curriculum that has been constructed for them.  And yes, there will be a minority of children who really do need additional intervention that is realistically only possible in a school...
Read more

Lockdown Christmas

Image
  This year, getting to Christmas has been tough.  For someone who usually throws themselves at the festive season with gusto, this year has seemed a lot like a damp squib, for many reasons. This year, it's my eldest's Dad's turn for actual Christmas day.  And that means that she will miss most of her sister's first Christmas day.  OK, her sister probably won't remember.  But she will.  So we'd planned to do lots of the fun Christmas stuff before the day itself.  Except COVID had other ideas.  And our pre-Christmas out of the house activities were curtailed by the phone call from school telling us that my eldest needed to isolate for almost the entire pre-Christmas period.  So no walks to see the twinkly lights.  No trip to town to see the window displays.  No dash to the shop to buy the new star for the top of the tree. The final blow came when, a week ahead of schedule, Wales was plunged into lockdown-3 with only a few hours' warn...
Read more