Being a Tween or Teen can be tough when life is normal. With the restrictions due to COVID-19 it is even harder. Many important milestones, in the lives of youth, have been altered this spring. Many activities have been cancelled: graduations, trips, driving lessons, sports, clubs, etc. Socializing and gaining independence are very important for teens and tweens. Youth may resist help and routines suggested by parents.
Future events can seem so far away for teens because they have lived fewer years than adults. The current social distancing measures seem, to me, to have been going on for a long time. Image how it feels to be a youth! They do not even know what they can look forward to in the months and the year ahead of them. There is a certain amount of grief that comes along with the loss of activities that youth have been looking forward to.
Grief contains many emotions: sadness, feeling low, feeling unmotivated, weepiness, hopelessness, irritability, and anger. These emotions and their intensity are different for everyone. Adding the shift to distance learning can cause even more stress. Some youth will be struggling to understand and explain what they are feeling.
The link below will take you and your teens/tweens to an online presentation (from April 2020) where a local highschool student talks about what students are going through during COVID-19. She hosts a local professional tutor and a local highschool child & youth worker. They give suggestions for ways to stay focussed while learning at home, and how to deal with stress. They share resources that teens and tweens can access.
Please contact [email protected], or 519-837-2050 if you need help accessing the video or have questions or need resources.
The video is presented by Big Brother, Big Sisters of Centre Wellington, Youth Action Committee: BTogether Talk Series.
