This isn’t really how we hoped to start 2021 (even if we kind of saw it coming), but here we are. Once again, we’ve been told to hold tight at home, and this time around, the holidays are over, and the weather outside is frightful. If you’re feeling a little squirrelly, you can bet your kids are too. Out of squirrelliness often come difficult questions, things without easy answers. It’s easy to be overwhelmed and a little bewildered.
Here’s our advice: go with it.
Your kids are in an unprecedented, difficult situation, and have been for the better part of a year. Like you, they have a lot of their minds. If you have to be cooped up together, and a little stir crazy, why not make a lockdown an opportunity to have some really amazing conversations? Here are some of the big questions that might come up:
- Even when we can’t be with other people in person, we still need them. What ties us to other human beings?
- What are rights and responsibilities? What are some of the rights and responsibilities that have seemed more important lately?
- A lot the things that have been happening don’t seem fair. What does it mean for something to be fair? How do we make sure that everyone is treated as fairly as possible?
- What kinds of things make us most happy? Are there some kinds of happiness that are worth waiting for?
- When people make new year’s resolutions, they usually focus on things that are important. What are some of the most important things in your life? Why are they so important?
There’s nothing about being in isolation that will make these questions any easier to answer than they were before. You still won’t know the “right” answer, and you’ll still have to admit to that. Just like before COVID, it won’t matter. Taking your child’s concerns and questions seriously is, and has always been, a way to empower them, to challenge your entire family to thing critically together, and to build a special kind of trust. Conversations about big questions, especially those that are weighing heavily on everyone’s minds, are just another way that we can stick together and get through our current situation.