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How to deal with cabin fever (especially parents of young children)?

6 points by zubairlk ↗ HN
I think it's a safe bet we will all face lockdown. It's just a matter of whether it's today or tomorrow..

I'm wondering how are people planning on staying sane. From Italy's example, food shouldn't be an issue as groceries and pharmacies keep functioning.

Most worried about handling my 2 year old. It's hard to keep up with him during just the weekend even.

4 comments

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jka
There are some tips for working from home & under social isolation (including as a parent) in this Google Doc: https://coronavirustechhandbook.com/isolation

It might not all be directly relevant to your situation, but they do accept feedback and hopefully it'll spark some ideas. Good luck!

relaunched
create a schedule and try to stick to it - for you and your children. Schedule meals, lessons, creative time, exercise, quiet time, work time, chores, reading, screen time, meal prep...everything.

Our kids are going to be out of school a long time and it'll be weeks before they have the remote school ironed out and ready to go.

muzani
This might backfire on a 2 year old because very small kids are resistant to schedules. I handle my kids better being impulsive. Two years old is when they say no to everything, so I prefer to make them offers they can't refuse.
muzani
You can still have physical contact. I chase my kids around, carry them, watch the moon with them every night, wrestle them. You can long baths, play with bubbles. My two year old likes to creep up on her mother/sister and surprise them. Help them out with that.

Teach them to read. This isn't just "A- Apple, B- Ball." You can write text on your phone, like "dog" and Google keyboard will show an emoji of a dog. Or you can read out food labels with them. I count to 100 with my kids and it slows them down a bit.

I have a minimalist stash of food for the whole lockdown. But that includes lots of flour, yeast, eggs. We plan to make pancakes and donuts with the kids later. It's so cheap to do that it's almost free. If you want to get crazy and let loose, you can throw those eggs and flour on your spouse and kids (and have a good, long bubble bath afterwards).

This is a good time to pay attention to the little things. One of the upsides is no more commute time, so that just leaves you more time to mess around.