Care For Adolescents, In The Times Of Corona Lockdown

During this lockdown because of Corona,there has been a shift in the routine of children .No play, no friends! The new challenge is. to be at home, learn to be with the family and to be healthy and not put ‘on weight’.

It is a bigger challenge for parents because the responsibility of ensuring a fruitful healthy 5-7 hours of children’s time is now on them and this needs substantial creativity and patience.

Let’s understand what happens in teen-age:

Puberty sets in which means hormonal changes occur in the body. So there is

physical growth and sexual maturity.

Exploration of “self-identity” or ”self- mage”. The adolescent develops his/her opinion of the world. of what Is right or wrong, what is the notion of freedom, what looks good, sounds good, smells good . Their curiosity to understand human relationships is at its peak,and so also to understand the notion of “success”. In this process, they could try meeting new people. explore sexuality or experiment with substances such as alcohol or more.

Building arguments and developing intelligence is at its prime. Thus. It is highly likely that the adolescent may challenge what they have been taught from

childhood, and would disagree with their parents and feel their opinions are correct. Examples are:consumption of junk food is not so bad, sleeping late in the night is not so harmful, and keeping an untidy room is normal. avoiding meeting people because they intrude ‘my space’.

All these are indicators of Pittaj stage of human life.

Why does this happen?

Since adolescent age is a “healthy” and mostly disease-free age, it is not affected easily by eating junk or staying up late in the night,and other such activities and because they don’t see any immediate impact on their body. or on their behavior. so they feel it’s not a problem.

Hence as parents/mentors what can we do?

Open warm discussions! Pitta stage is the time for learnings!

1.Help teenagers see the long -term consequences of these habits, rather than ‘instant results’. After all health is a long term outcome.
2.Provide “right Information” to their curiosities and also tell them when the information is to be “applied”, so that they don’t have to unnecessarily experiment in realms that are ‘not required’ In their age.After all, exploration and experimentation needs to be guided and purpose of it, needs to be defined.
3.As parents we ourselves need moderation in our use of gadgets, and our other habits. After all children learn and question us!
4.Discuss and choose doable and tiny steps to practice for your adolescent, rather than over-whelming them with all the corrections they need to do, overnight.
a.Start by discussing the importance of regular sleep cycle and design one tiny step: to sleep by 1Opm,practice for 15 days. Nothing more than this.
b.Introduce 2-3 yogaasan to practice every day, in the next 15 days.Yogaasan and pranayam can be learnt in adolescence,it brings their attention to being more observant towards their body.
c.In the next 15days, include cleaning of the room as a regular practice. Hygiene begins from one’s bathroom and room!

Care for your teenage children with empathy and patience!