How Has the COVID-19 Pandemic Impacted the Kids?

My child completed the 3rd grade this June. The pandemic happened right as she started spring break in Kindergarten and she was out of the physical classroom until well into first grade.

At the end of this school year, her teacher’s parting email mentioned that, in the teacher’s opinion, this particular group of kids, the ones that had their first real year of school interrupted, had the most negative impacts from the disruption, but they had made great strides forward this year.

I think I can see some effects in my kid. She’s more reserved, especially with kids her own age, than she was in Kindergarten. The result, I suppose, of being an only child and losing the opportunities to bumble around and socialize with her peers. She’s also got some anxiety going on, especially around health and cleanliness issues. We tried to shield her from the bulk of the worries, but she was hanging around the house while her parents were in the washing-off-the-produce stage. And when she went back to school, all the kids were separated from each other in their own desks surrounded by plexiglass shields.

But, then I think about all the middle-school and high-school kids who were just getting to the point where they wanted more independence and to spend more time with their friends then with their parents, having to be locked inside with them 24/7.

And I think of the parents of really young kids. One family I know had two during the pandemic and are still reluctant to have anyone come and take the kids to give them a break. The kids have separation anxiety and the parents are exhausted and snappy.

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