Tips for Thriving During a COVID Winter

We are Canadian and we can do this! We can handle the cold, we can handle ice. We can play hockey, build snow forts, have snowball fights, ski, and enjoy our great country.  

This winter, being social will look different and that’s okay. Here are 10 things parents can do to keep socializing safely.

(This is respective of the date and numbers of course.)

1. Pick a friend you trust and stick with them. Find a friend for your child to play with whose family you trust. 
2. Install control apps to manage tech usage and bedtimes. Children’s frontal lobes are not developed enough for them to decide if they should turn off their phones.  Remember, this is brain chemistry that is developing into unwanted psychological behaviour.
3. No phones or technology in their rooms. PERIOD. That includes you too parents. Your sleep will be far more efficient for repairing the body and brain for the next day.
4. Plan meeting up with families that you trust to have a bonfire or tobogganing. 
5. Kids are sleeping less and less. Sleep helps our bodies to protect themselves from the disease.  If kids stay up late, they become moody, irritable, lazy, don’t eat properly, and their immune system starts to weaken. 
6. Spend time with your children, 30 minutes every day, without a phone. Teach them they are valued. If they see you on your phone, they feel insecure and neglected. 
7. The psychological consequences of mental health and feelings of isolation derived from how we use technology have revealed more dire consequences than we thought. 
8. Call a friend, Facetime, stay in touch once a day with someone. 
9. Routines are vital to children’s mental health. Stick to them every day. 
10. Teaching your children how to self talk and how to be at peace with themselves is crucial to their overall mental health.  Learn how in these courses. 

Socialization: The Key to Thriving During a COVID-19 Winter

Adults and children need socialization now more than ever. Children and adults are on their phones four to six hours a day. That is approximately 960 hours a year families are not spending together. Children need play, exercise, outside play and creativity in their days to keep their emotional cups full.

Larissa Mills, B. A., M.Ed. is the founder
of Iparentgen.com. She is a mother of three, a Parent Coach and a 4KIDS Sports & Educational Consultant.