Tips for keeping children safe while practicing social distancing
Monday, April 13, 2020
Jan Rayburn
This year, it has been an ill wind that brings us to April, Child Abuse Prevention Month. Lately, our concentration has been on the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. While the disease seems to be of low risk to children, the risk of child abuse during times of stress and uncertainty is high. To say these are stressful times is woefully inadequate. We tune in to media coverage to see the total counts of those infected by county, state, nation, and country — and accompanying death tolls. We may be worried about our work status, financial difficulties, and struggling to find childcare. With social distancing, perhaps we feel at a loss without a support system in dealing with all these things.
Children too sense this stress and since they are not in school at this time, they may be home alone. Without dedicated professionals around them, who provided not only an education but also served as protectors — since they represent the largest group of hotline reporters — children are more vulnerable than ever. So we need to be more vigilant than ever and we need to do so in more creative ways.
While social distancing for health reasons, we can look to social platforms to stay connected with friends and family and to support each other. The options are abundant: You can call, text, Facetime, Skype, Zoom and instant message with each other throughout the day. If you are at work, you can check in randomly with children and let them know they can contact you, too. Remain calm and communicate with children, age-appropriately, about what is happening, and the safety measures you are taking to protect them. Remind them of your family safety rules, including online safety.
Refer to the basics of the Protecting God’s Children Program by reviewing “Step 1: Warning Signs of Inappropriate Behavior” and also by following “Step 4: Be Aware of Child and Youth Behavior.” Watch, listen to, and observe your children. Be a good neighbor when you can and do the same for the children of your friends and family. Enlist other trusted family and friends to check in on the kids electronically in some format.
Stay tuned to those needing comfort and reassurance. Share ideas and resources for family activities like requesting prayers and accessing Mass through links on the Miami archdiocesan website: www.miamiarch.org.
If you are at home due to social isolation, you will also find ideas for family activities like taking virtual tours of museums all over the world, building indoor forts, making puppets and putting on a show, writing letters to friends and family and including pictures and artwork. (Remember letters that get delivered through the U.S. Postal Service — sometimes referred to as snail mail? We have time now!)
Create fun art projects like making pinwheels and planting a pinwheel garden for your upcoming May flowerpots or box? A dozen pinwheels will look great in a vase. Or fill in a pinwheel coloring sheet. See the link below for instructions to make your own pinwheel and print out a fun coloring sheet.
Did you know that the pinwheel is the national symbol of child abuse prevention efforts? It represents the innocence, joy and fun which should be the experience of all children. All the more appropriate then, that this reminder to be ever vigilant in protecting children, especially during these extraordinary times, is literally blowin’ in the wind.
Editor's note: Click on the images to download the PDFs.
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