This was pretty dramatic and caught his brothers attention, making it harder to keep them out of it.
I barely made it up the stairs before Gavin, who’s pacing nervously, back and forth in my bedroom, blurts out what happened. It’s an f-bomb filled total freak out and as soon as I understood what he was upset about, I decided it would be best to talk about this as a family.
Gavin was very worried about scaring his little brother’s and I totally respect that. At the same time, Gavin was freaking out because he doesn’t understand the facts about COVID19. I felt it was best to address with all 3 kids at once, and reinforce the facts.
Apparently, Gavin was eating lunch in his room. That’s his routine and I’ve decided not to fight that right now. Anyway, he was eating his lunch and a piece of food broke off, landing on his sweatshirt. Without thinking, he picked it up off his sweatshirt and ate it. As soon as he did that, he became convinced that he had done something really stupid and had given himself COVID19. He was scared that he would have to die alone in the hospital because no one would be allowed to be with him.
How fucking heartbreaking is that.
Gavin explained to all of us what had happened and why he was upset. I asked the boys to talk about how COVID19 is transmitted. We had a conversation about the facts surrounding COVID19 and I reminded everyone how the virus works.
I figured it would be a good time to see where everyone’s understanding was. Elliott and Emmett both have a much better understanding of how COVID19 is spread and we’re able to help Gavin by explaining what they knew.
Gavin eventually calmed down after our family discussion and felt better. Unfortunately, he will likely forget and we will go through this again and again and again.
I told him that I appreciated how he wanted to protect his brothers and that he didn’t hide anything from me. I once again reinforced that he was safe because we’re all healthy and we follow the guidelines put out by the medical professionals and public health officials. We don’t come into contact with any other human beings. We stay on lockdown and exercise an abundance of caution. As dangerous as COVID19 is and as contagious as it is, it’s relatively easy to physically avoid.
This is such a heartbreaking experience for me because Gavin is carrying around this enormous burden because he simply lacks the capacity to grasp how this whole thing works.
Thankfully, Gavin doesn’t keep secrets and I’m learning about these fears in what amounts to be real-time.
I have some educational material about COVID19 that’s designed to help kids better understand what’s going on and how they can stay safe. I’m going to have Gavin go through it again and sit down with him afterwards and answer any questions.
What I’d like to do is get an expert on the pod to discuss COVID19 in a way that kids can understand. I’d like to have it be an episode dedicared to kids.
I was wondering how your kids are understanding and dealing with everything that’s going on? Do they have a firm grasp on how this whole thing works or are you struggling?
