If you have young children, how do you think they will remember this time (mid-April 2020)?

The children I am most familiar with are my grandkids. The three year old in San Francisco is enjoying very much the time at home with her parents, who while both still working are splitting the child care and seem more relaxed.

I don’t have much detail about the Paris two but the last I heard they were very happy that their home schoolwork went by much faster than the school day and left more time for play. I’m not sure home much the older one might have absorbed more worries about what is going on in the world or whether he is being shielded from it.

It will depend on how big of a deal their parents make of it.

My daughter was only hours old when 911 unfolded. She remembers nothing, but every year she resents the anniversary coverage putting a damper on her birthday mood.

I think they will remember it as a time when grownups were stressed, and vulnerable.
They will always feel a need to be overstocked on tp and pork and beans, without even realizing why.
They will remember a few days of quality parent time as being nothing more than a long weekend.

Some will remember that they lost grandparents, a cousin, and a parent all in the same month, or week even.

I know if I had been a kid I would have been so happy to not have to wake up early for school.

I probably would have fought with my parents about doing any home school assignments.

I think children will have certain habits based on how their parents were reacting during this time. I have friends who wash fruits and vegetable in multiple steps. If their children are the right age that might be the normal they learn. I leave pantry food in bags at the foyer for a few days before putting them away. My husband who would sometimes wear his street shoes in the house, I prefer they are removed at the door, now he always removes his shoes.

I just think kids will be more aware of germs being brought into the house in many households (some people are not worrying about this except they wash their hands). Additionally, I think kids en masse will be more aware of death at a young age like during war time.

Stories of people being taken away and hospitalized alone and dying alone might feel like the stories I heard growing up about the Holocaust. It made me feel vulnerable and afraid that in a moment you can be taken and tortured or killed. At least the Holocaust was on a different continent years before, but we were also taught it could happen anywhere. It changes your trust and I think it makes you very afraid of physical harm and suffering. I see how some people, especially men, don’t think about that vulnerability very much, where I’m hypersensitive to the possibility of suffering. Not only suffering inflicted by another person, but also because I had chronic pain for years, suffering related to illness also.

I also think a lot of kids will have a memory reference to the smells of sanitizers.

My daughter is 12 and I think she will remember it kind of being like a long vacation with mom around. She enjoys not having to wake up for school. I am helping her doing school work, which only takes about an hour or two a day.

I’m not very obsessive about wiping things down that come into the house. If I do go out to shop, I take a shower when I come home. I don’t talk much in an anxious way about the virus. Sometimes I make a joke when I come home like “I have to take a shower now because I’m covered with viruses” and we laugh. I’m not a very anxious person and if something does make me anxious, I try not to show it too much because kids pick up on it.

I ask her friends and sometimes they say they miss school and sometimes they say no. When I ask my daughter she says no, she doesn’t miss school.

My daughter tends to be a night owl, so this is perfect for her because she has a really hard time waking up for school. The big change around here is we can’t go shopping or to restaurants or to the mall with her friends, which is what kids her age do a lot with their free time.

I think it’s a gift for us as a family because I have more free time and am more relaxed with not having to get to sleep and get up for work, and we have more time together in the house.