Life as we know it has turned completely upside down. As an adult, I’m still having a hard time wrapping my head around this whole thing. Can you imagine how hard this must be for our kids? After the initial excitement of hearing about their “extended spring break”, we were immediately met with confusion as to why they can’t have play dates, we can’t go on vacation or eat at their favorite restaurants.

The day before we knew school was canceled we found out the NBA canceled the rest of their season. Not long after that we found out college basketball would do the same, leaving us with a big gaping hole in life as we knew it. As we walked back to our car fresh off the update that our trip to the conference championship games were canceled, Lil Dre looked at me with fear in his eyes and said, “Mom, I’m scared to go back to school.”

I wanted to freeze. I wasn’t really ready to answer this. It was so unexpected. In the days prior, the coronavirus panic had completely taken over our televisions and conversations without us really even realizing it. And now here we were, smack dab in the middle of how it would affect our lives and it finally hit me that my kids had no clue what was going on.

In that moment, all I could say was “Dre it’s ok to be scared. That’s natural in these circumstances. But we can’t live in fear. the Bible tells us that over and over that God did not create us to worry or to live in fear. I’m not sure yet if we’ll send you guys back to school, but if we do you will continue to do the things we’ve always done. Wash your hands, keep to yourself, and focus on your schoolwork. Whatever happens at the end of the day WE WILL GET THROUGH THIS.”

That followed with several questions that we were able to talk through. His highest priority being IF he were to get it, would he die. We talked over the reality of what happens to most people that contract the disease. I immediately saw his shoulders start to relax and he took a couple of deep breaths.

Depending on how old your child is, your conversation may look a little different than ours but no matter the age, make sure you’re talking to them at their level about what’s happening in the world right now.

Here are three tips to help get you through it:

1.) PINPOINT – If your child is experiencing any fear, try to pinpoint where it started. Did they overhear a certain conversation? See something on the news? Finding out what sparked the initial fear in your child is important to be able to combat it with facts and faith over fear.

2.) PERSPECTIVE – Giving your child the facts about the truth so they can’t get wrapped up in the what if’s. Sticking to the facts can help put things into perspective and keep them from jumping to conclusions.

3.) PRAY – Don’t just pray for them or with them. Give your child an opportunity to pray out loud. When we start to pray what we really care about comes out. Giving our kids the chance to speak their concerns out loud gives us insight on what’s happening inside of their heads.

Our children will always look to us to know how to react to certain situations. They will typically emulate whatever behavior we exhibit. My main goal for this time in our lives is for my boys to look back and remember how much fun they had with their parents. I’m hoping we are able to turn this chaos into calm and replace fear with fun.

At the end of the day, we’re all just winging this whole quarantine thing, hell even our government doesn’t know what to do! Just do your best momma, it’s all any of us can do. Because life doesn’t come with a manual, it comes with a M.O.M.

Mommi Tierra,

AKA Mommy On the Move