Reconsidering Socialization

It remains to be seen how these days of quarantine will impact children in the long term. While there may be cognitive and emotional impacts to address in the future, we can also look to these unique circumstances as an opportunity to develop new skills and relationships that may not have been explored otherwise.

In many ways, all around the world, this moment is creating an awakening to or resurgence of considering ecological and environmental issues. For instance, for some of us, the outdoors has become all the more precious as we shelter in place, and for others, the link between animal born viruses and the industrialized world’s push into natural animal habitats has caused us to take pause. Perhaps this moment can create a cultural shift where we discover newfound relationships with animals and plants. While we experience barriers to human contact we can take this time to explore and center our relatedness to the plants and animals in our local environment.

If you are fortunate to have a family pet you may already see the positive influence that relationship has on your child. Studies say children who grow up with pets have higher self-esteem and lower blood pressure among other health perks. Certainly, there are many ways to build responsibility and empathy through teaching how to care for animal friends effectively. In what ways can you observe that relationship between child and animal and encourage even deeper lessons and positive habits?

Growing and learning about plants has many benefits for young people. Besides being fun (whether identifying plants on excursions or gardening) and offering the opportunity to work with learning through our senses of smell and tasting, I find that building an inclusive perspective of the world that incorporates plants can be a helpful counterpoint to an increasingly digitalized culture. Seeing plants as more than green stuff you walk upon but actually, food and medicine in many cases can create responsibility rather than taking the world around us for granted. Noticing plants and trees as you would street signs and points of urban life (like buses and stores) can create a larger vision for the world we live in and inspire curiosity. A chat about rocks and the layers of rock under our pavement may lead to fun conversations about history and geography!

Finally, it’s not quantity it’s quality. With all of the talk about playdates and age-appropriate activities, we may forget that the most important relationship in a child’s life is with their caregiver. While we may miss a certain level of connectedness with our larger extended community of family and friends, let us not forget that simply being present and caring for our little ones is what they want and need most of all. We are enough and shouldn’t feel bad about not being able to create as big a social circle for our children as we normally would have. Providing a safe and nurturing home is essential.

I hope that with the limitations we are experiencing -including the decrease in busy distractions - we can foster practices that slow us down and create more compassion for each other and the world around us.