“Wash your hands!” My kids hear me say this all the time, but this week these three words have taken on a new meaning. Now washing your hands represents an important protective behavior against the coronavirus pandemic.
After getting home from school yesterday, I reminded my children, as per usual, to wash their hands, but this time I stressed, “for at least 20 seconds because we need to be extra vigilant against getting the coronavirus.” My generally cool-as-a-cucumber son immediately replied, “I don’t want to hear about that anymore!” While we are all adjusting to social distancing and self-quarantining as adults, do we realize how this may be creating anxiety in our children? It was my son’s abrupt response that made me pause and reflect about how other children are coping with the unpredictability of the pandemic. I realized that while I limit the amount of news my children watch, they must have been inundated with information all week as their teachers diligently shared information about the pandemic while encouraging hygienic behavior in the classroom. And now their school was closing for at least two weeks! There would be a disruption in their day and simply missing their friends that would induce anxious feelings that they may struggle to articulate.
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