Is The Pandemic Messing Up Our Kids?

I'm a pandemic parent with two little ones who are now 2.5 years old and 5 years old. My husband and I are both work-from-home entrepreneurs in New York City (pricey!) and we don't have a backyard. Daycare shut down for 7 months so we've been in the huge overwhelm of running businesses and caring for children full-time.

Ironically, I am the CEO of Startup Parent, a company for working parents, but I never expected to run a company in the midst of a pandemic without childcare. I have always built my work under the assumption that I need paid, regular help with childcare in order to make it work. Then... pandemic.

My work took a huge hit. The podcast took a hiatus, because recording episodes with two tiny babes at home became nearly impossible. My newsletter paused for a while, and then became monthly, and is finally back to weekly.

Over the last month, I've had a chance to return to the podcast and sit with experts and interview them. A few weeks ago I got to ask Dr Courtney Bolton, who has a PhD in counseling clinical and school psychology, all about the pandemic and the potential long-term affects on kids. She shared with me how to talk to children about grief and loss, about how the pandemic might be affecting us and the kids, and a framework she uses to adjust and recenter as a parent, which I'll share below.

I'm curious: What have you found with your kids? Have you seen them be affected negatively by the pandemic? How have you talked about grief, loss, and the changes over the last year?

Here's a link to the full show, with notes on talking about grief and the 6P's framework for parental wellbeing. https://startupparent.com/is-the-pandemic-messing-up-our-kids-episode-182-with-dr-courtney-bolton/