My 3 year old is starting to realize things are weird and it's so sad ...

[Anonymous]

I tell my 4 year old that outside has a bad virus that made people sick & die. So, that is why we have to stay home. I don't sugar coat it because it is a fact. My neighborhood still have some people walking their dogs, kids playing soccer & bicycle/scooter etc. Sometimes he points them out & asks me why they are outside, and I tell him that it is safer to stay home. He does not miss daycare & playground, but he is jumping around at the house (to use up his energy), asking for screen time nonstop, no napping, no routine at all. It drives both he & parents crazy. I wish we have a lot of snowstorm this year than dealing with this virus. It is a weird winter that there is no snowing at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I tell my 4 year old that outside has a bad virus that made people sick & die. So, that is why we have to stay home. I don't sugar coat it because it is a fact. My neighborhood still have some people walking their dogs, kids playing soccer & bicycle/scooter etc. Sometimes he points them out & asks me why they are outside, and I tell him that it is safer to stay home. He does not miss daycare & playground, but he is jumping around at the house (to use up his energy), asking for screen time nonstop, no napping, no routine at all. It drives both he & parents crazy. I wish we have a lot of snowstorm this year than dealing with this virus. It is a weird winter that there is no snowing at all.

You aren’t going outside? Why?

[Anonymous]

If your young child is SO SAD after one week, they are picking up those feelings from their parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your young child is SO SAD after one week, they are picking up those feelings from their parents.

NP sorry but no. My kid is wondering why their routine is different. I have no answers

[Anonymous]

My 5 year old is sick (sore throat and runny nose/congestion) but refuses to take medicine (which he usually loves taking) because he insists if he takes medicine it means he has “the virus.” We do not have the news on when the kids are awake and aside from telling them things will be closed and we can’t see people for awhile, we don’t talk about this with them. He’s very sensitive and picks up on the strangeness of all this social distancing. It’s hard for young kids too.

[Anonymous]

My 5 y/o isn’t sad yet, but I’m sad for him because young kids should be at school learning, having play dates, looking forward to their birthday party, traveling to see grandparents, etc. Not stuck at home with too much screen time while mom and dad scramble to keep generating an income stream. So I’m sad for him because he has no understanding yet that this is going to last a long time and I know after possibly months of this, it’s going to be really hard on him. He’s a social kid who always wants to be active and around others. I haven’t had the heart yet to tell him t-ball is canceled because he has been obsessing over the season staring since before Christmas. Who in the world wouldn’t be bummed about dashing their child’s excitement about something because of a pandemic that still has a lot of unknowns.

Is this the end of the world? No. Are there people suffering worse issues (lay offs/illness)? Of course. Will we do our best to remain positive and try to reach him resiliency? Absolutely.

But that doesn’t mean it’s not a sad, crappy situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 5 y/o isn’t sad yet, but I’m sad for him because young kids should be at school learning, having play dates, looking forward to their birthday party, traveling to see grandparents, etc. Not stuck at home with too much screen time while mom and dad scramble to keep generating an income stream. So I’m sad for him because he has no understanding yet that this is going to last a long time and I know after possibly months of this, it’s going to be really hard on him. He’s a social kid who always wants to be active and around others. I haven’t had the heart yet to tell him t-ball is canceled because he has been obsessing over the season staring since before Christmas. Who in the world wouldn’t be bummed about dashing their child’s excitement about something because of a pandemic that still has a lot of unknowns.

Is this the end of the world? No. Are there people suffering worse issues (lay offs/illness)? Of course. Will we do our best to remain positive and try to reach him resiliency? Absolutely.

But that doesn’t mean it’s not a sad, crappy situation.

Your problem is lack of childcare. Find a responsible HS or college aged babysitter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 5 y/o isn’t sad yet, but I’m sad for him because young kids should be at school learning, having play dates, looking forward to their birthday party, traveling to see grandparents, etc. Not stuck at home with too much screen time while mom and dad scramble to keep generating an income stream. So I’m sad for him because he has no understanding yet that this is going to last a long time and I know after possibly months of this, it’s going to be really hard on him. He’s a social kid who always wants to be active and around others. I haven’t had the heart yet to tell him t-ball is canceled because he has been obsessing over the season staring since before Christmas. Who in the world wouldn’t be bummed about dashing their child’s excitement about something because of a pandemic that still has a lot of unknowns.

Is this the end of the world? No. Are there people suffering worse issues (lay offs/illness)? Of course. Will we do our best to remain positive and try to reach him resiliency? Absolutely.

But that doesn’t mean it’s not a sad, crappy situation.

Your problem is lack of childcare. Find a responsible HS or college aged babysitter.

What? You think finding a high school or college kid to look after this 5 year old will make him feel totally ok about his world being upended?

Young children thrive on routine because they don't understand much of what happens around them. This is a significant disruption in their routine. Introducing someone as his caretaker whom he doesn't know could only make things worse.

[Anonymous]

I have seen some really great parents getting their kids out but being careful to maintain their social distance.

The kids so want to play with each other, they so want to be - kids again. Yet, the parents are being super cautious and telling them - no, you have to keep 6 feet from everyone else. Sorry, we can't eat inside McDonald's today, we'll need to go through the drive thru and eat in the car. No, sweetie, no story time at the library. Nope we can't go to the playground, either.

If we were dealing with Captain Trips we wouldn't have much of a choice but to self isolate and stay isolated. But we are not dealing with anything so dire and the messages we are sending to our kids over this virus are going to impact them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have seen some really great parents getting their kids out but being careful to maintain their social distance.

The kids so want to play with each other, they so want to be - kids again. Yet, the parents are being super cautious and telling them - no, you have to keep 6 feet from everyone else. Sorry, we can't eat inside McDonald's today, we'll need to go through the drive thru and eat in the car. No, sweetie, no story time at the library. Nope we can't go to the playground, either.

If we were dealing with Captain Trips we wouldn't have much of a choice but to self isolate and stay isolated. But we are not dealing with anything so dire and the messages we are sending to our kids over this virus are going to impact them.

This is why I continue to send my 3 year old to preschool. Normally she goes for a full day. Now I'm doing more like 9am-1pm.

Why? A few reasons:

- She's an only child, so without preschool and activities, she has no socialization.

- There's barely anyone at her preschool, so there's never a situation where there are more than 10 people in a room at a given time. These days, it's more like 3-4 kids and one teacher.

- Her preschool is sanitizing like crazy. It smells strongly of cleaning products when you walk in.

- She goes nowhere these days except for preschool and home, so there's minimal chance she's bringing the virus into the school.

The more posts I see of preschool-aged kids having accidents at home (a clear sign of anxiety), the more confident I am that sending her in for a few hours each day is the right decision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 5 y/o isn’t sad yet, but I’m sad for him because young kids should be at school learning, having play dates, looking forward to their birthday party, traveling to see grandparents, etc. Not stuck at home with too much screen time while mom and dad scramble to keep generating an income stream. So I’m sad for him because he has no understanding yet that this is going to last a long time and I know after possibly months of this, it’s going to be really hard on him. He’s a social kid who always wants to be active and around others. I haven’t had the heart yet to tell him t-ball is canceled because he has been obsessing over the season staring since before Christmas. Who in the world wouldn’t be bummed about dashing their child’s excitement about something because of a pandemic that still has a lot of unknowns.

Is this the end of the world? No. Are there people suffering worse issues (lay offs/illness)? Of course. Will we do our best to remain positive and try to reach him resiliency? Absolutely.

But that doesn’t mean it’s not a sad, crappy situation.

Your problem is lack of childcare. Find a responsible HS or college aged babysitter.

Wow, privileged much? Currently I’m paying 2000 a month for child care and now I’m supposed to also somehow come up with hundreds of dollars on top of that to pay a college kid? Must be nice if you’re wealthy and can afford it, and also have the space in your home set up to work. Some of us live in apartments that are small, we don’t have home offices that make it convenient to work, we don’t have yards where we can just unleash kids to play, our kids don’t have playrooms or siblings to play with, we don’t have partners/spouses/families to help, etc. This is not equally hard for everyone. Check your damn privilege and wealth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have seen some really great parents getting their kids out but being careful to maintain their social distance.

The kids so want to play with each other, they so want to be - kids again. Yet, the parents are being super cautious and telling them - no, you have to keep 6 feet from everyone else. Sorry, we can't eat inside McDonald's today, we'll need to go through the drive thru and eat in the car. No, sweetie, no story time at the library. Nope we can't go to the playground, either.

If we were dealing with Captain Trips we wouldn't have much of a choice but to self isolate and stay isolated. But we are not dealing with anything so dire and the messages we are sending to our kids over this virus are going to impact them.

This is why I continue to send my 3 year old to preschool. Normally she goes for a full day. Now I'm doing more like 9am-1pm.

Why? A few reasons:

- She's an only child, so without preschool and activities, she has no socialization.

- There's barely anyone at her preschool, so there's never a situation where there are more than 10 people in a room at a given time. These days, it's more like 3-4 kids and one teacher.

- Her preschool is sanitizing like crazy. It smells strongly of cleaning products when you walk in.

- She goes nowhere these days except for preschool and home, so there's minimal chance she's bringing the virus into the school.

The more posts I see of preschool-aged kids having accidents at home (a clear sign of anxiety), the more confident I am that sending her in for a few hours each day is the right decision.

Let me add one more thing: I have to work. It's on a staggered schedule, but I have to work. I cannot telework. So she has to go into preschool.

[Anonymous]

I have tweens. It would be so much easier to have little kids right now. My kids actually understand what’s going on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have tweens. It would be so much easier to have little kids right now. My kids actually understand what’s going on.

You probably forget that your kids can pour their own cereal, make their own snacks, wipe their own butts, and not need to be constantly supervised at every moment to ensure they don’t choke, break and arm/leg/furniture, or make a huge mess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 5 y/o isn’t sad yet, but I’m sad for him because young kids should be at school learning, having play dates, looking forward to their birthday party, traveling to see grandparents, etc. Not stuck at home with too much screen time while mom and dad scramble to keep generating an income stream. So I’m sad for him because he has no understanding yet that this is going to last a long time and I know after possibly months of this, it’s going to be really hard on him. He’s a social kid who always wants to be active and around others. I haven’t had the heart yet to tell him t-ball is canceled because he has been obsessing over the season staring since before Christmas. Who in the world wouldn’t be bummed about dashing their child’s excitement about something because of a pandemic that still has a lot of unknowns.

Is this the end of the world? No. Are there people suffering worse issues (lay offs/illness)? Of course. Will we do our best to remain positive and try to reach him resiliency? Absolutely.

But that doesn’t mean it’s not a sad, crappy situation.

Your problem is lack of childcare. Find a responsible HS or college aged babysitter.

We have one sitter we use for date nights, but she is high risk. To find a HS or college kid, I’d have to find someone brand new to our family a) willing to been babysit during a pandemic and b) that we trust is adequately social distancing, not out partying like so many of the younger people seem to be. Not to mention a large portion of my paycheck is continuing to pay preschool. Having to pay for even a part time sitter on top of things is going to mean I lose money to work. But thanks for totally just writing off what my family is going through.