Kids

Long-Term Effects of the Pandemic on Kids: What Do We Do?

by Kevyn Gohu
July 1, 2022

How can we deal with the long-term effects of the pandemic on our kids?

A lot of us are tired of hearing about the pandemic but we can’t deny that it also has long-term effects on our kids. It didn’t just deprive them of the outside world. It may have stunted the growth of other things that are important to our kids’ development. Here are some long-term effects the pandemic has on our kids.

Social gatherings can be uncomfortable

Considering how we couldn’t have parties or have visitors often, it’s no surprise our kids will feel a bit out of their element. During his interview with Modern Parenting, Bad Boy Gone Dad GP Reyes mentioned how his 3-year-old daughter, Amelia, sort of freaked out when she first saw his friends. “She got so used to seeing my mom, Andi’s mom, and us that when my friends came over, she screamed,” he shared. “She screamed as if she had seen a monster.”

GP with his daughters Olivia and Amelia
Photo by Sweet Escape

School is strange to them

Their definition of school is different from ours. We grew up being crammed into a classroom—competing with 40 different minds. But the pandemic drastically changed that concept in our kids. Two years is quite long and our kids think school is something everybody does online. Celebrity mom Andi Manzano shared on her IG how it took some time for things to sink in for Amelia. “I’ve been telling her last week that she’s going to ‘real’ school and she would say, ‘Zoom class mama?’ Then I would have to explain the whole concept of having face-to-face classes — teachers, classmates, lessons, break time, homework, all of it,” she writes. “She had a difficult time understanding what I was explaining because she’s never been to school.”

But the good news is, she’s adjusting quite well. “Today, we are celebrating a milestone, her first day of school. We woke up two hours before class, she picked her own outfit, chose her baon, and was today’s early bird.”

More digital than mechanical

Being stuck at home means everything had to be done over the digital space. The long-term effect of that means that some kids do become increasingly adept with technology, probably even becoming the de-facto house’s IT department. Unfortunately, not everyone caught up with the digital world. Going outside also means having them deal with things that are mechanical and manual. It may look funny to us to some extent but it can also be rather concerning.

The “woke” people and cancel culture

Social media links people and our kids to every place in the world. And, it’s no surprise if they suddenly start calling us out for our political incorrectness. Worse, it sometimes comes out sounding quite self-righteous which can anger a good amount of people. In an attempt to be empathetic, they sometimes come out sounding holier-than-thou especially since people don’t punish that on social media.

Picking up both our good and our bad traits!

Kids don’t just learn the good things from us. They learn the bad, too! And unfortunately, we can’t pin the blame on some kid in school this time. Our kids learn via mirroring and if they see us snapping and getting angry, they’ll do the same eventually. Remember how kids can say the darnest of things, including some curse words from us that we thought they didn’t hear? Yeah, it’s how most kids eventually become multi-lingual.

How do we mitigate the long-term effects of the pandemic on our kids?

Truthfully, the best way to do it is to bring them out slowly. It doesn’t always mean dragging them to the mall or some sort. It can be as simple as inviting friends over. Don’t worry if they don’t warm up to it right away. As an old saying goes, “The first is always the worst”. It’s also a new learning experience for them so it will take a little bit of patience.