Social Pods
I Get It, We Have All Had Enough
We can no longer avoid talking about what this pandemic is doing to our:
- children
- families
- selves
We are being tested to our core.
- Frustration and impatience dangerously cloud our judgement.
- We are loosening our masking and distancing habits.
- Treading a very thin line between social needs and health.
- Potentially endangering our families and communities.
- Concern over children’s overall well-being and development.
I get it, we have all had enough.
I wish that were a good reason for relaxing our standards, but it’s clearly not.
This dangerous and highly contagious virus thrives on our frustration.
The vast majority of cases are traceable directly to our inability to maintain and be mindful of recommended precautions. With schools opening we’re seeing the increases that were expected.
As a professional, with years of service to children and families, I’d like to discuss a possible avenue of management.
Create a pod
All families are in the same situation as you.
Discuss with your partner who you’d feel comfortable including.
Contact those people to identify who else is willing to limit their exposure to only two or three other families in the social pod. A pod should be small but big enough, that if a family opts out of an activity the other families won’t feel left-out or abandoned.
Be clear, the responsibility of a pod member is to be total and absolute to your commitment to limit exposure.
In this way, you and your children can have meaningful interaction with others while staying safe.
Children thrive in all areas of development when surrounded by people who care and other children.
The social pod can do anything and everything together: prepare and eat meals while the kids play, watch movies, parents can do things together while kids play in another room… the possibilities are endless.
In keeping a pod, everybody benefits. Life will be more normal, and the confinement will feel less oppressive for everybody.
You need to take care of yourself in order to survive this and make good choices for your family. This may include:
- Personal time
- Exercise
- Phone and virtual social contact
- Time outdoors
- Recognize that we are living in unprecedented times and everyone is traumatized.
I hope you find the idea of creating a pod for your family helpful & empowering.
We at Listen For Change Tomatis New York are taking this pandemic very seriously in terms of our responsibility to our clients and local communities. Please talk to us about our specialized programming for this time. For more information about me or what we do here follow us on Facebook.
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