Being deprived of social healthy interaction, how can parents help kids in dealing with phone addiction, loneliness, irritability, and academic pressure.

23 Jun, 2021 | 07:16

By looking at the drivers that have led to this above cluster of symptoms – do we think the children are finding it meaningful to be passive recipients of the pandemic?

They have been told that adults are handling it- they just need to comply- regardless of the absolute change in standard- including our about-turn on screen time usage- preference for working harder to keep our jobs over family time.

The need is to recognise what the last year has taught us.

1. Ask yourself – what are the skills and qualities that have helped most of us in this time?
2. When you have your answer e.g. The sense of the collective over the sense of the individual (the “me” to the “we”), the humaneness, compassion, empathy, resilience, communication skills, looking after our own bodies, being able to connect to others, the ability to stay by and within one self and create our own grounding and joy—whatever the answer – the next step is to ask: Am I providing an environment where my child is being taught these skills? Or am I nurturing these qualities in them? If not, be mindful of nurturing these life skills in the family. When families and children are far more connected to the collective and to their inner sense of purpose and meaning- the loneliness and irritability decreases.
3. Engage children in collective roles, make them understand their privileges over those who don’t have them. If adults appreciate each other and express gratitude, children will emulate.