How can you manage family stress? Engaging in three critical areas – communicate, ground yourself in common beliefs, and create new routines and structure – will help you and your family move through this difficult time.
Ground Yourself in Common Beliefs
Families may grow stronger when they feel connected. A shared understanding of “how we live together as a family” is important.
Reach out every day to your family members who live in other places by phone or video calls.
- Have children read a book to someone over the phone (grandparents or someone isolated).
- Start a journal that you write something in daily about what you are thankful for.
- Watch a favorite movie or look at photos with your children and share stories about why they are so meaningful to you.
Create new routines and structure
The uncertainty of these challenging times makes us anxious, and we share that anxiety with our families. While change can produce anxiety, it can also bring an opportunity for experiencing life in a different, perhaps healthier and more satisfying way.
- Connect with nature – take walks and exercise alone or with your family. Exercise helps to manage emotions.
- Take time to do things you’ve been wanting to try. That might be cooking a different dinner, reading a book or calling a friend you haven’t talked to in a while.
- Connect safely (from 6 feet) with someone new in your community. To
stay six feet apart, imagine there is a full-size couch between you. - Keep some of your family rules in place, especially mealtime and bedtime for children. For you, getting up and going to bed at familiar times is also important.
By: Brenda Langdon
