I just read today that little children under six or seven years don’t know how to tell you they’re unhappy. They may act out, but it also likely they might ask you to play with them. I believe this to be true. My grandchildren, five year old Jake and four year old Jenna, are always asking me and their grandmother Sharon, to play with them. Whether it’s hide and seek or horsey or coloring with them, they want us to play with them.
In this confusing and scary time they are just looking for stability. One day their world was safe and secure. They were going to school, seeing their friends and the next day the world was shut down. For a long while they couldn’t visit family, couldn’t go to the store or a park. The world turned upside down. How do little ones process this? Dad is home every day. He now lives and works in the basement. How come he doesn’t go to work anymore? I’m sure it’s all very confusing. So they want us to play with them. It seems it’s the least we can do to relieve their fears a bit. Just try to be there for them.
As for the adults this article seemed to say that one way we deal with our fears and concerns, is to write. I started this soon after my open heart surgery and I know it has helped me deal with my fears. The surgery was a big deal and memorializing it and what has been going through my brain has helped tremendously. I know this process calms me down.
And now in this world of a new normal, writing has helped even more. I can elaborate on my feelings and fears about no work, no real income, what the future will hold, when will we gat back to a better normal? And I can also Visit My Life; tell stories from my past and tell a bit of my history and my family history. This exercise is all good, one of the unintended consequences and benefits of my open heart surgery and the pandemic.
