Many schools are beginning to reopen or are making plans to do so. After more than a year at home, there may well be some anxiety or other issues that come up, so now is a good time to help your child to start making the adjustment. Yes, there is going to be excitement about seeing friends that he hasn’t seen for many months and a return to some sort of normalcy, but after so long at home, and after hearing about the pandemic and watching family take safety precautions, there’s liable to be some hesitancy on his part. We need to expect that your child may act out, may feel out of sorts, may even balk at going in the door at all. Most certainly, they will have some questions. This is completely normal, and schools across the country are seeing this reaction in many of their students as they begin to transition back.
So what can parents to do help?
If you haven’t established some sort of daily/weekly routine during this past year, now is the time to set one up. You can even begin to get your children back into their school routine. Wake them up at their usual school time, eat breakfast, brush teeth, and get dressed. You should be modeling this behavior for them as well, though it’s very tempting to stay in those pajamas. This is also the time to stick to your house rules, as things may well have slackened off during this past year. What you’re doing here is providing your child with a sense of stability and support that they’ll need for their return to “normal.”
Prepare them for the changes they’re liable to find when they return to school. It’s certainly not going to be the same experience as the classroom that they left. Let them know that everyone will be wearing masks, that there is likely to be distancing between friends, that they will probably see plexiglass dividers that weren’t there before, and that lunchtime and recess procedures will be different. All of these changes will likely contribute to your child’s anxiety, so talking to them about these things will help to ease the uncertainty they may have.
Also important is to keep your own anxieties about their return to school in check. If your child is sensing that you are having fears also, then they are most certainly going to pick up on that.
Don’t assume that your child doesn’t have worries or that the anxiety will just go away on its own, and certainly don’t gloss them over when those concerns arise. Talk to them and listen, really listen to what they have to say. Watch for behavioral cues as well. It’s important that everyone, parents, schools, and students, realize that this isn’t really a return to normal, but a new opportunity to begin to step back into pre-pandemic life in a new and safe way. Everyone is having worries about this transition so we all should work to normalize the experience. You can do this by maintaining those routines mentioned earlier, but also find ways to strengthen connections within your family. Make sure to sit down together for family meals, do things together outdoors, talk to children about how their day is going, what they’re seeing on social media, how they’re connecting with friends, and if they’re not ready to share, that’s ok. They’ll still know that you are there. You are their safety net.
Help your child to ease back into social interactions, in person and safely. Now that the weather is getting better and temperatures are milder, find ways for your child to get together with friends outside. Head to a park, ride bikes, whatever they enjoy, just doing so masked and safely distanced as necessary. This will be a good step towards helping them to feel safe around others before the return to school.
Taking these steps, doing creative thinking, and paying attention to the emotional needs of your child will go a long way towards an easier transition back to full-time, in-person school.
