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Over the last six weeks the corona virus has reached the shores of the United States. At this time much is being done to slow the spread of it.

Many leaders in health care, politics, education, sports, churches, and other industries are pulling extra hours to create strategies and lines of communication to care for those within their reach and stay in business.

If you are a leader in your community and you have children, this is an important time to care for your business in addition to your children. Yes, like you, I have two responsibilities that create tension. I care for my family and care for those in my church.

Often times, the enemy can plant seeds of fear in our children when mom and dad are busy helping other people. It’s important that we educate our children, and I would even go as far to say, include our children in the problem solving process. 

Other times, we can be so zealous to protect and prepare that when something out of our control happens, we leave the door open to shame. “How come we are carrying the virus? We wash our hands?”

Kids have questions and like the serpent in the garden, those questions can cause doubt.

It’s important we aren’t giving our kids whats “leftover” but that we are giving them our best and giving the world the rest. Answer their questions.

Can I be transparent?

My oldest asked what would happen if Trevin and I died.

We didn’t shoo his question to the side with facts. “Oh, the virus doesn’t really affect people our age like that.” We answered his question. We told him that he and his brother would go live with his Auntie and be together, that he would get to see all of his cousins, and both sets of Grandparents, have a good school and still go to church and do sports. He was able to settle down emotionally and THEN we let him know what is happening, and how low risk mommy and daddy are at.

When emotions run high children (as well as adults) are unable to understand facts and plans clearly.

We must connect with our kids first!

Young kids think in black and white. They are very literal and have a hard time understanding concepts" until about fourth grade. While every kid is different, we have the opportunity to answer their questions with faith, to help connect them to the facts with a spirit of faith as well.

Here are some other ideas, that I hope will help you come up with strategies for your family:

Let’s say you are purchasing hand sanitizer or more soap from the dollar store or online. Let your child pick out the color of soap to buy or press the submit button online for deliveries.

If you have an older kiddo, have them help pray for their friends, fill cups with ice and water for guests, or help watch younger siblings if you must work at home and PAY THEM for their time.

With children of all ages, engaging with them will help them stay calm. Play games and do puzzles, instead of sitting next to them watching tv. Sitting next to someone isn’t engaging with someone.

We have plans to watch church online and have some balloons on our mail box and build legos. Guess what our kids jobs are? Yup! Lego patrol and blowing up the balloons.

Now you don’t have to spend money on balloons like we will, but the point is, that we can’t let our kids wonder what our family plans are while we are making important, special, helpful, plans for everyone else. 

Create a family plan first, then a plan for those in your community. 

I like to call it “front loading.” When I educate my kids at the beginning they know what to do and some things to expect throughout the day, or that weekend.

Let’s choose to be honest with our kids when we don’t have the whole plan.

Let’s choose to listen to their ideas and concerns when they have them.

Let’s choose faith over fear and eliminate any fear inducing media that our kids are exposed too.

Let’s avoid counseling or strategizing for difficult situations in front of our children.

Let’s share scriptures with our kids.

Let’s pray out-loud for protection and help to make smart choices, THEN let’s invite our kids to pray out-loud. This could give us a glimpse into our kiddo’s hearts.

Fear and shame will fight us for our children’s hearts.

The greatest way to WIN is by giving our kids ATTENTION, FAITH and (age-appropriate) CONVERSATIONS.