I’ve been having a lot of conversations with friends, family, and clients about the changes we’re all facing with our kids at home 24-7. Parenting is already hard, but doing so without the structure of school, comfort of friends, and breaks that sports provide can sometimes feel impossible.
Here in the Nashville area, we’re in week 4 or 5 of schools being closed, and the Governor has just stated that schools are to remain closed for the school year. Many of the challenges parents faced prior to the quarantine are taking center stage. This is now the new normal, and challenges such as screen time, social media, chores and responsibility, respect of others, and broken routines are needing parents attention.
The central figure in all of these challenges is not the kids, it’s the parents. Far too often we parents expect and sometimes demand that our kids be the grown ups. We assume that if our kids were more responsible, kinder, and spent less time on screens that our jobs are parents would be easier. While this might be true if it happened, these assumptions get in the way of how and why we interact with our kids. The parents are the grownups, and need to raise kids who will one day do the same for their kids.
Over the next week I will be writing a 4-part series on Parenting in Quarantine that will cover your parenting style, an assessment of your kids as individuals, your goals for parenting, and categories for setting boundaries with your kids. Similar to the 15-day relationship challenge, each day will have questions at the end to guide conversations with your spouse, or for your own reflection.
Along with this “Parenting in Quarantine” series, I’m launching a parent coaching program that will give you the opportunity to explore your parenting style further and develop a plan for how to parent in these new times.
#1 – Your Parenting Style
#2 – SWOT+
#3 – REAL Goals
#4 – Boundaries
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