After a year of remote and hybrid learning, getting back to normal may be a challenge
Caroline Miller - Child Mind Institute
For many families, two important events will be happening at about the same time this fall: Kids will be going back to in-person school full-time, and parents will be expected to return, at least part-time, to their offices.
From one perspective, it’s just a return to what was normal before the pandemic. But from the point of view of families that have adjusted to remote work and remote or hybrid school, it will be a major break from what’s become normal. It will mean new routines, new expectations, new activities and new stresses.
Anxiety about balancing
After more than a year of multi-tasking from home, for better or worse, the prospect of getting everyone out the door in the morning and managing a full range of activities is daunting.
“When we went into lockdown mode, there was a lot of anxiety and worry around how to manage working from home and school at home,” recalls Janine Domingues, PhD, a clinical psychologist at the Child Mind Institute. “And now it’s kind of like the opposite: How are we going to manage commuting and drop off and everyone’s schedule outside home? Now there’s anxiety around that.”
Parents are out of practice when it comes to commuting and kids are out of practice dealing with full days and a full week of in-person school. The beginning of the school year is always a time of adjustment, with some anxiety, Dr. Domingues adds, but now she thinks that’s going to be amplified for a lot of kids, because it’ll be a long day for many who have been used to shorter days, intermittent study times, and lighter demands.
One thing Dr. Domingues recommends is not making all the changes at once. If parents have flexibility, she suggests that they start returning to their offices occasionally before school resumes, so kids who are nervous about separating will get used to mom and dad coming and going again.
Social anxiety
One of the sources of anxiety about the fall is that there will be increased social demands on kids who aren’t used to being in a full classroom with their peers.
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