Family Time: The Silver Lining in a Pandemic
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You’re likely to spend a lot of time at home in self-quarantine. While the situation can be grim, it’s best not to look at the situation as hopeless. Instead, you should see it as an unexpected ‘staycation’ where you get to spend a lot of family time with your spouse and kids.
Spend Time With Your Family
In regular circumstances, we’re all busy with many things. Work, school, commitments – the list endless. With everyone staying at home, now is the perfect opportunity to spend time together and reconnect the way you usually can’t. You might be tempted to keep the TV on and listen to the news for any updates. However, the best solution is to keep all negative thoughts regarding the pandemic outside the house and focus on the fact that you and your family are safe inside.
Catching Up
When everyone is busy with their own lives, there is not a lot of time left for family members to sit together and talk about things you are each going through. When everyone is at home, avoiding the outdoors, and, without any commitments, interactions between family members become inevitable. There is no one to talk to but each other. You will not only learn what’s going on in the lives of your kids and spouse, but you will also be able to help them solve any problems that they may be facing. You can also sit together and list down all the things you and your family members have been wanting to do so that you can pass the time together in isolation.
Doing Things Together
It might have been a while since you brought out those board games or even just sat together in the living room and talked. Now that there is no homework to address every night or work to attend every morning, you have the perfect opportunity to sit back, relax, and have a good time together.
If your child has wanted to play a game or watch a movie with you, then this is the best time to do so! This way, you’ll be able to spend time with your children and understand what kind of media they are consuming at the same time. Even something simple like playing make-believe with your children or listening to your teenagers talk about their problems can help strengthen the bond. Being ‘stuck’ together at home would also mean that siblings can bring out their wild side, bringing them closer to each other.
Reassuring Each Other
Sitting together can also be beneficial in helping you find the strength and support needed to get through tough times. A pandemic can be scary, especially since the news is everywhere, and holding all that stress on your own can be tough. By spending some family time together, you can reassure each other that everything will be alright and look at the situation logically instead of panicking.
While it’s easy to fall victim to the paranoia that comes with news of a pandemic, the key is to remain hopeful that things will get better and use the time you have to be productive.
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