Explaining social distancing to kids so that they understand?

[Anonymous]

My kids are 9 and 13. No real issues with the 9 year old, but 13 year old, who is somewhat up on news is having a bad/angry reaction to us distancing/isolating. I admit, it's not like I formally addressed this. I figured that schools closing, activities canceled, etc. with their awareness of coronavirus was sufficient. Apparently not.

How are you explaining this and helping them to understand that this is not fun, but is necessary - or, how are you empathizing with them?

[Anonymous]

I told mine to picture that instead of this elusive coronavirus that they can’t picture, to treat everyone they see as if that person just barfed, wiped their mouth with the hand and said “ugh, this stomach bug is a killer!”

That seems to help them with perspective. Because realistically, you can’t tell who has it, it has a much higher death rate than norovirus and it spreads easily. So it’s worse than norovirus, but because it’s all theoretical now, everyone is very casual about it.

[Anonymous]

We've been talking about it in terms of our responsibility to protect others. Also -- if your 13 yo is news-savvy, discuss it in terms of exponential growth. This is a nice explainer: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/corona-simulator/