- Take care of yourself: Take steps to make sure your needs are being met by other adults. Avoid voicing your emotional concerns in front of your children and be sure to monitor your own stress and anxiety levels around your children. If you're feeling anxious, give yourself time to notice and process those feelings so that you can be fully present.
- Use age-appropriate language: For example, “a new germ that we don’t know very much about”, “we are doing everything we can to keep from getting sick.” When your children ask questions, answer them to the best of your ability, using words and concepts that are appropriate for their developmental stages. Likewise, be sure to create space for questions your children might have.
- Share family plans: Talk about what you are doing to stay healthy such as washing hands, cancelling vacations, avoiding places with lots of people and staying home if you aren’t feeling well. You can also reassure them that very few children have been sick and if they have been, their symptoms have been mild. Children are comforted by feeling a sense of control and by having predictability in their lives.
- Maintain routines: Stick to regular activities and routines for things like meals, naps, baths and bedtime. This increases predictability for kids. Spend time doing activities that promote calm in your family like reading together or getting outside for a walk. Children will be comforted by spending special time with you.
- Provide reassurance: Reassure children that the adults are managing the situation and that you give them permission to be children.
- Limit media exposure: This may include monitoring and appropriately limiting your own exposure to anxiety provoking information.
