Quarantining with an Only Child: How to Deal With It

Parenting is already a very challenging job in itself. Unexpected scenarios only make the plate of parents even fuller (if that's even possible).

However, the recent stay-at-home order imposed by many states is giving parents a more difficult task of making sure kids are busy today and are having fun while only at home. Although there are a lot of tips found online on how to cope with children during quarantine, there are still some parents who are having dilemmas right now. Specifically, parents who have an only child, find the quarantine a notch more challenging.

Rules are Changed

Abigail Rasminsky of What's up Moms shares her observations of her 6-year-old daughter while on quarantine to her readers. According to Rasminsky, there are a lot of differences when it comes to the rules she imposed before the quarantine and the ones she has right now. One of which is the use of cellphones. Because she thinks this is a way to help her daughter cope with the quarantine, Rasminsky allows her daughter to Facetime with her friends.

See the situation from their eyes

Lacking a sibling is one factor why some parents feel they are not doing enough for their only child. It is a kind of guilt they experience now that they see their child alone or spending time talking to his or her friends online. But as for Rasminsky, she uses this time to remind herself that this is a time that her daughter needs a lot of time. What moms like her find effective though is to look at each passing day the same way an only child would - this way, they get to understand them. And of course, be the playmate a child would want right now.

Do not worry about lack of "social contact."

However, if it is the lack of social contact that parents are afraid of, experts believe that the isolation brought by the quarantine will not be damaging to an only child. 

According to Temple University, psychology professor Dr. Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, being at home means that they are still living in a social world, and the parents are the travel agents. 

Try Video Conferencing with Friends and Relatives

Dr. Hirsh-Pasek and Dr. Toni Falbo of the University of Texas at Austin, both think that video conferencing can fill social gaps for an only child. FaceTime and other video chats were seen as beneficial to toddlers, in an experiment conducted in 2014 by Dr. Falbo and Dr. Hirsh-Pasek. That is why they highly suggest that parents set up video-conference playdates with friends or relatives where they could sing songs or even play games. 

During this stay-at-home period, everyone is usually anxious and tends to notice even the slightest changes with a kid's mood or the other people around them. For Dr. Falbo, it does not necessarily mean it is a developmental problem. The new situation highly causes this that they are into now. 

Despite all these, what matters most, according to Dr. Hirsh-Pasek, is not if you have an only child, nor if he or she has siblings; it is that your child knows her or she has a person to depend to at the end of the day.