For all our Parents
Look after yourself too!
There is no point pretending that this isn’t a strange and difficult time. And you may feel so busy looking after everyone else that you forget to look after yourself. It’s important that you find time for you when possible, and to look after your own wellbeing.
Remember, this situation won’t last forever and you might one day look back fondly on this time you spent together as a family.
Parent Club Scotland have some useful online advice on looking after you and your child’s mental health during this time:-
Mental health advice for parents during coronavirus
Mental health advice for soon-to-be and new parents during coronavirus
Supporting your child’s mental health during coronavirus
You can also find advice on the Mind website about coronavirus and your wellbeing.
Keeping well
A few simple things you can do to keep yourself and your children as healthy as possible are:
- Keep to routines.
- Go to bed and get up at the same time as usual.
- Eat and drink healthily.
- Stay in touch with friends and family (phone and online).
ParentClub and Parentline have some good advice.
One Parent Families Scotland has produced information about how to keep your children occupied during social distancing.
Doing the best you can is what counts
It’s hard for everyone to be staying at home the whole time whether you’re working from home or not. Some of you will be trying to continue your children’s education, others will be doing their best just to get by.
Some parents will be looking for information and resources to help with their child’s education at home; others will be just trying to get by.
Just remember, maintaining the health and well being of your family is essential, everything else is optional.
If you are worrying about your children missing out because they are not at nursery or school, you might be tempted to do more than you all can really manage, like trying to make them do learning or school work for so many hours a day. You can help as best you can, but they also need you to give them and yourself a break:
- Like us, they’ve never experienced anything like this before. Although the idea of being off nursery or school might sound great to them, like you, they’ll find it hard being stuck at home and not seeing their friends.
- So, you might see more in the way of meltdowns, tantrums and opposition. This is natural and to be expected.
- What your children need right now is to feel comforted and loved, and to know that this time will pass.
- If you’ve got a garden, play outside. Go out for walks but keep your distance. Make meals together, paint pictures, play board games and watch films. Do science experiments together or find online tours of zoos and museums and other places. Start a book and read together as a family. Snuggle under blankets and do nothing.
- Everyone’s in the same boat. When they get back to nursery or school, the teachers will pick up and start again. Your children won’t lose out in the long run. Do your best to encourage them, but there’s no point in fighting with your children about all this.
- Do your best with them and try to keep in mind that, after this time has passed, how your children feel will be more important in the long run than what they missed at nursery or school.
Screen time
Like it or not, we’ll be using our screens more than usual: for fun; for learning; for working; and for keeping in touch with others. We’ll all be on our screens a lot more but try to keep some sort of limit on this if you can.
- Educational and other programmes online and on TV will be good for learning and entertainment.
- Promotional videos are good for encouraging children to be physical, eat and sleep well and have good personal hygiene.
And more generally, all curling up to a good film or favourite programme is a great way to have family time and wind down.
