4 Ways Parents Can Calm Their Back-To-School Fears (NY Times)

A psychiatrist offers these tools to her patients who worry that Delta will disrupt the school year.

As a psychiatrist specializing in women’s mental health, I have spent the past few months celebrating alongside my patients as they planned family reunions and sent kids off to summer camp. But with the arrival of the Delta variant, old questions and a familiar despair have begun to resurface in our sessions: Patients find themselves yo-yoing between “The kids will be all right” and “What if they’re not?”

With vaccination rates still low in pockets of the country, a rise in pediatric Covid-19 cases, and battles being waged in schools about mask mandates, parents are understandably disappointed and fearful about sending their children back to school.

Last year I wrote about how to cope with the anxiety of back-to-school decisions. One year later, though the details differ, the landscape is depressingly recognizable. If you are a parent who is struggling to deal with the roller coaster of back-to-school emotions, consider turning to these tools to cope.

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