As a parent, I feel so powerless.
When the schools closed almost two weeks ago, like most kids my son was excited. He came running out of his school delighted that school was off until April.
As the days went on though, he suddenly realised that while yes, he didn’t have to follow the teacher’s rules and he could eat whenever he wanted to, he couldn’t see his friends.
At first he took the attitude of ‘oh well I’ll see them in a couple of weeks’, as more things shut and more cases of COVID-19 are declared I’m no longer able to reassure him that the schools will definitely open after March 29 as originally planned.
The last couple of days he has begun to ask questions about if he’ll see his classmates and teacher before the end of term and if he’ll get to make his communion, which was due to take place in a few weeks.
As a parent I feel powerless as I can’t answer either of these questions.
He is genuinely fearful that he won’t see his friends again and there is very little I can do to ease his mind as I can’t tell him for sure when he will be able to see them again, and in particular if he’ll get to sit in a classroom with them all before the summer.
It’s absolutely heartbreaking not being able to help him but also knowing that he might not actually get to finish out the school year with his friends and teacher.
His class is small and they all have a great relationship with their teacher so it’s awful that they might lose out on spending the last few weeks of term with her, especially since she’s worked so hard with them all year long.
It’s a difficult situation that none of us could imagine being in only a couple of weeks ago. Last month I was worried about him forgetting to bring in his P.E gear one day and what I would wear for his communion.
Now that’s all gone. No need to worry about any of those things, something bigger has come along.
I know I’m not the only parent trying to reassure their children over these kind of fears and honestly I wish there was some advice I could give but I’m stuck.
This isn’t something I ever thought I’d have to prepare for and as it stands I don’t know what to say to my son to make him feel better about this whole situation.
