How To Talk To Your Family and Kids About Coronavirus with Dr. Jody Carrington

In the midst of a dramatic change in our world, challenged with the spread of COVID-19. If your head is spinning and you find yourself thinking... “is this real life?”, I’m with you 100%.

We all need help during this unprecedented time. We need help, perspective, connection and most importantly, community.

We need to lean in and lean on each other in every way.

So today, bringing back a special guest by popular demand Dr. Jody Carrington, a clinical psychologist who is amazing when it comes time to guide children and families through difficult times. Not to mention a best-selling author!

Jody shares her perspective as a leader navigating through uncharted, unprecedented times with COVID-19 and how getting through hard things as humans, is not unprecedented.

Let's get started.

What You’ll Hear in This Episode:

Jody talks about what a normal reaction would be as an adult in times like these, to essentially working our way through the swamp and expecting to deal with the worst whilst focusing on being ok.

Understanding how kids will be reacting in response to COVID-19 and how to respond to them. This is a time where we have to do things differently. From physically washing of the hands to understanding kids on an emotional level.

She speaks on how much is too much when it comes to talking about the current pandemic and the criticalness of having hard conversations with your children and paying attention to their behaviors.

Jody shares the 3 magic words for effective communication and the importance of holding space for listening.

Discussing home-schooling - The why behind all the panic mothers had when they heard the schools were shutting down, the gift of some of the biggest things kids will learn from this is how to regulate emotion and how to stay connected when hard things come.

She expresses that it's ok to accept that other people are better with your children and the reason why we actually have the institute of education.

Jody shares her opinion on the upcoming transition where educators are serving our communities to teach on an online platform.

Structuring your kid's day: Doing the best you can with what you got VS routine and predictability.

We share the true admiration and love we have for all of the teachers/educators working around the clock to help our kids progress with education

At the heart of Jody's teachings, she dives into reconnection. A glimpse of what this brave new world looks like in the light of social distancing and the importance of collecting before directing.

How we serve each other in hard times and doing great things in our communities.

Lastly, In difficult and challenging times, how to reframe our thinking and finding ourselves in a place of gratitude.

Quotes:

“There is nothing normal when you don't have a script for it.”
“We are wired to do great things and we can only do so if we stay connected.”
“How we stay grounded is not an end game.”
“You cannot give something you've never received.”
“When you feel out of control, what's the first thing you want to do? Get control.”
“Some of the biggest things kids will learn from this is how to regulate emotion and how to stay connected when hard things come.”
“What is so interesting is that we are in this situation, globally.”
“We are in a fight with something that doesn't have a race, religion, non-partisan. It has nothing that goes It VS Them. This is a human race against something that we can't see. Are we in it together?”
“Your responsibility is to be as kind as you can in this possible moment and think about other people first. You do it, we will survive.”
“You got to collect before you direct”
“What a gift this time is”
“You gotta do your very best to stay connected in this hard time and see your kid's behavior as not attention-seeking but connection seeking.”