How to manage parental anxiety during the pandemic

Balancing hectic work from home routine, scheduling online classes, playdates to keeping ourselves safe, parenting during the pandemic has become a lot more challenging than it previously was. It can become extremely difficult to keep up with parental duties while combatting the deadly virus.

In times like this, it is absolutely normal to encounter stress, nervousness, anxiety and guilt. However, as a parent, not only is it pivotal to fight off the stress, avert anxiety and manage physical and mental health, parents should also ensure that they do not pass off the stress to their kids, who can very easily pick it up.

We got in touch with Fatema Agarkar, an educationist and parenting expert throws some light upon some of the beneficial techniques to help families during these testing times. Here are some helpful tips to follow:

As per Agarkar, parenting during the pandemic can be a test of your abilities. But if an individual follows a routine, it can easily help to negate the anxiety. Not only do kids thrive well under a routine, having a good routine is much like the DNA of following a well focused lifestyle which includes being vigilant about your diet, fitness and no fatigue.

A good sleep powers the body to face the challenges that lie ahead during this lockdown. If you enjoy an undisturbed sleep at night, you will suffer from less fatigue, less irritation, and would better plan out and perform your schedule throughout the day.

Agarkar importantly recommended this technique to be followed by the parents which basically means to be Calm, Focused on the task ahead, for the day ahead. One should stop thinking about the weeks ahead, or the years ahead, it is primely necessary to take each day as a bite of a larger picture. Since it helps you to navigate better and better focus. She also added a few possibilities which won’t allow certain things to work out but in this case one should try to remain calm. You can include some therapeutic family activities such as meditation, yoga or music in order to maintain peace.

While practising your routine, assure that you have your own ‘me-time’ everyday. Try determining what you want throughout the day in the morning before your kids wake up. Because then only one can make a healthy and an impactful conversation with their kids.

A parent can definitely call a friend in order to vent out the frustration, worries, and fears or seek help from professionals or experts via online communication. If you flush out your repressed feelings, you can better manage your conversation with your children.

Fatema Agarkar mentions that irrespective of the age group of the children they demand a different parenting approach. But what secures them is a structure, and consistency in the routine. Since it gives them the power to know what to expect and therefore they're a lot more independent. All you need to do is, once your routine is set, you just need to be consistent with that. “You may have to program it for the first few days, and the golden rule in parenting is, try anything for 3 days, the 4th day you will meet success,” She said. However she even added the extreme scenario where it might even take weeks to settle but eventually if you’ve given clear instructions and have a routine in place. It can help you achieve the goal.

A parent should accept that there are certain things that cannot be controlled always which are generally your external factors. But what can be controlled is how you react to it. It is very necessary to be calm, peaceful and embracing those uncontrollable things as just another adventure.

Anxiety levels are surely controllable by powering, feeding, resting, exercising, and connecting socially. If one learns to tackle such situations, it doesn’t advance into a major problem. It simply requires changing the mindset and attitude to parenting. Remember to take care of yourself first to take care of your kids better. Accept the fact that parenting during these testing times is going to be tough, challenging, also at times the variables or dynamics will change but you are necessarily required to make an honest conversation with your kids without dictating or imposing certain rules on them.