How do you feel about isolating with one child?

[wohdk]

Feel a bit sad that ds has no company other than dh and I . I'm hoping it won't be too long

I'm so anxious about this. I feel terrible that she'll have no child company for an unknown period. If anyone has tips, I would love to approach this more positively.

I'm hoping to use social apps to allow face to face contact with friends. Experimenting at the minute to find one that allows playing board games this way so they still have social interactions.

I feel rotten about this too. My DS is 9 and we stay in a small, safe village with lots of children his age so he goes out to play or out on his bike all the time with friends locally and he loves it. We just need to accept this is temporary and they will probably not even remember it next year.
On a positive note at least we don't need to worry about sibling fights and squabbles during the isolation.
My DS is actually going to school next week as I work for the NHS but it's still a huge change for him.
Would love to try out apps to share with friends too although he doesn't have a phone. Maybe need to think about getting him a phone??

DD is having lots of video calls with friends. She is quite enjoying it!

There are quite a few games that can be played remotely. DD loves Psych which is cross-platform.

I was wondering about this. I will he arranging FaceTime with school friends.

All my friends with multiple kids think their kids will just fight constantly.

So I don’t think anyone is better off than the other!

I’m going to try FaceTime with friends.

I have to admit concern that it’s going to be so long without any other children to have contact with. I’m worried for mental health. But we FaceTime cousins regularly so it should be ok. Kids are resilient.

Yes I'm a bit worried. DS is 7 and can be pretty shy, he has a big group of friends but no particularly close ones. I'm hoping that we will set up skype calls so he can have a laugh with his friends but it's hard to know how that will go as they are so physical at that age rather than being interested in conversation as such.

I'm very sad about this. Especially as our neighbours will have several children playing in the garden and mine won't be able to join them. Horrific really. Especially since both households have key workers in their family so even as time goes on there is still exposure risk for all the kids.

This is such a worry for me and no one has understood so far. Guess it takes a one child family to get it.

My DD is 16 and does it have many friend anyway so going to school was at least some contact.

Any suggestions of online places where she make some new friends would be welcomed.

Yes, this. So worried. DD is super social and I'm worried about keeping her mental health good when she's stuck in with us all the tine. Video chatting won't be the same plus being at home means not much to talk about as they won't be doing exciting stuff

DD 8 and has been Facetiming but very concerned about long term impact. Makes me so sad but we have to do this. Our children already have good lives compared to many others.

DS10 will be doing Facetime, and I like the idea of them playing games together. There will be a significant relaxation of screen time restrictions...

DS says he isn't at all troubled by the idea of not seeing people; he is very sociable and chats or plays with anyone, but in the school summer holidays, he is never that arsed about meeting up with friends and likes just hanging out with me or exH (we get on well, so are teaming up to get through this). I think it will be hard if it goes on longer than a couple of months though.

DD is 3 and too young to get anything out of face-timing and too young to understand why this is happening. She's really sociable and I'm scared she'll lose those interaction skills and I know she'll miss other children. A fortnight would be OK but longer is really worrying.

Christ Whitty said on TV a few days ago that children could meet up to go to the park of have a kick about as long as they kept a social distance from one another. I'm not sure how easy this would be to arrange but perhaps if we took our DC out under strict supervision with one other child it might be ok? I'll probably get flamed for this and I really don't know how practical this would be but it's something to think about.

I'm really worried about this as well. My DS is 13 (today - all birthday plans scrapped :( ) and super sociable. He's going to really struggle after a while. I'm encouraging him to ring/video-chat with friends, but if we have months of this it will really not be good for his mental health at all - he's just settled into a really good friendship group after an awful time in Y7 and I'll be gutted for him if he doesn't see any of them for months. Just as they're all spreading their wings and going into town/to the cinema on the bus together, it's all been curtailed. We have green space close to our house and I've already had a conversation with his friend's mum about them playing out there when the weather's better but I don't know how easy it will be to enforce physical distance between them.

My DD is 16, we are in Italy so a bit further down the line than the UK. Our kids are also having online lessons in the mornings with their teachers so it's not quite business as usual but it is a godsend.

I think older ones will find their own way to contact people, but younger ones might need a bit more parental help to get into Skype/facetime stuff.

Good luck to you all

trump yes I'd thought about this too, meeting up at a distance in the local park, just in pairs so it's easy to play something that maintains that distance, eg catch or tennis, but still allows them to see eachother.

I have 3 DCs but one of our friends has an only child.

We have had her on Hangouts every day. Yesterday they set up the laptop at the dining table and all 4 of them modelled playdough together. It was lovely.

The great thing about video calls is that you don't have to be talking all the time. You can just be there doing your usual thing but with someone.

@PorridgeAgainAbney

Not catch, the virus can survive on surfaces for days!

We have 12yo ds and was thinking this morning that this is going to be different for only children. We too live in a village and ds spends so much time out with his friends now he is older. Just being with me and dh is going to be hard.

He does have his Xbox so can play with friends on that but I’d be interested in other things he can play as well. Will look at Pysch. We’ve got Drawful which I think would work but need to try.

Hi ive been worrying about this too. We in ireland so been locked down for over week now. My ds os only 2 so face time wont really work. He is so socialable and we would go to a group most days or he be in creche. Im so worried it will change this side of him. Also crazy active so hard work chasing him around the house all day!!
Dh works for hse (nhs) so is,working still.
So sorry no ideas .was tempted to foster a dog but he us too young I think!!

Our daughter is spending a LOT of time on FaceTime, having virtual play dates , dancing, etc!

I'm worried about the social impact my only child and the fact I'm a lone parent. So it really is just us two. I work from home as the norm, so usually we have an active family and friends social life. We normally have lots of outdoor activities etc, that we could continue together within remits, but it could be rthree very long months.

Cracker yes you are right. I feel like I've gone back to when DS was diagnosed with food allergies, trying to train my brain into a new way of thinking.

You can get Monopoly that can be played with friends online too. It costs £3.99 on Android, not sure about iOS. DD played with a friend from school today.