Parenting In A Pandemic

In March of 2020, our daily lives were upended by the COVID pandemic and subsequent school closures. With work and school shifting online, a new and ongoing set of demands has been placed on parents as school moved to online, virtual and hybrid models of learning. Families need to balance professional responsibilities with parenting and supporting their children’s education. As education professors, we find ourselves in a particular position as our expertise collides with the reality of schooling our own children in our homes during a global pandemic. This book focuses on the experiences of education faculty who navigate this relationship as pandemic professionals and pandemic parents. In this collection of personal essays, we explore parenting in the pandemic among education professors. Through our stories, we share our perspectives on this moment of upheaval, as we find ourselves confronting practical (and impractical) aspects of long held theories about what school could be, seeing up close and personally the pedagogy our children endure online, watching education policy go awry in our own living rooms (and kitchens and bathrooms), making high-stakes decisions about our children’s (and other children’s) access to opportunity, and trying to maintain our careers at the same time. In this collision of personal and professional identities, we find ourselves reflecting on fundamental questions about the purpose and design of schooling, the value of our work as education professors, and the precious relationships we hope to maintain with our children through this difficult time. Praise for Parenting in the Pandemic "Lowenhaupt and Theoharis have curated a magnificent collection of essays that captures the hopes, fears, tensions, and possibilities of parenting in a time of crisis. A gift to parents and educators everywhere as we continue to process and reflect on what the pandemic has taught us about what it means to educate others, and perhaps through a renewed imagination, our very own children." - Sonya Douglass Horsford, Teachers College, Columbia University "In this powerful collection of essays, we have a rare window into how the personal and professional worlds of academics collided during the COVID-19 pandemic. What emerges from these reflections is an intimate portrait of the longstanding tensions in our lives as public intellectuals and parents that have long burned as embers, but are now set ablaze by the public health, economic, and educational crisis we have lived through during the last year. Reading these essays will help us to see questions of education policy and practice in a new, more personal light." - Matthew Kraft, Brown University

Best-selling author Emily Oster says "This book is fantastic. Dr. Fradin delivers a timely resource parents need."Dr. Pooja Lakshmin, perinatal psychiatrist and New York Times contributor says "Answering the big questions on every parent's mind, Parenting in a Pandemic cuts through the noise, equipping parents with accurate information so they can make the best decisions for their families".Parents are burning out while kids need more help than ever. With so many families in crisis, pediatrician and child advocate Dr. Kelly Fradin sees an urgent need for help. As a mother of two, Dr. Fradin shares her practical, evidence-based and reassuring advice on what's important to know. Parents are forced to adapt and make decisions now despite constant change and many unknowns. In Parenting in a Pandemic, Dr. Fradin provides all the tools you need to help navigate coronavirus.The book breaks down the science necessary to understand the news about coronavirus and prepare your family for a school year where everything looks different.Dr. Fradin examines the specific risks of coronavirus to children of all ages and adults, including parents, grandparents, pregnant women, and essential workers. She dissects the latest literature on the direct health risks from coronavirus, and emphasizes the many secondary impacts of the virus on families. Some problems you may be overly worried about, while others you may not have considered. She gives realistic strategies you can use to improve this time for your family. Parents who read the book will feel better prepared to make the right decisions with confidence. The pandemic is still unfolding and the science may change, but regardless, these approaches will help you feel better and carry your family through this difficult time.

Parenting has always been a challenge. Under normal circumstances, the average parent is over-worked, under-slept, perpetually worried, and stressed to the point of visible aging. This was true long before we ever heard of the coronavirus. We now refer to that life as "the good old days". Courtesy of the pandemic, parents now have to navigate a wide variety of different responsibilities, trading our "parent" hat for ones that say "teacher", "bouncer", "triage nurse", and more. This book helps you navigate parenting in a pandemic without having a teacher's license, years of self-defense training, or a medical degree. For each role, you'll get the wisdom of experts who are actually in that field, a guide for how to apply this knowledge to parenting, as well as some tricks of the trade that will help you and your kids survive the pandemic as smoothly as possible.

Parents are more worried than ever about how their kids are coping. What kind of impact will social isolation, school closures, and lockdowns have on them? And how can we help them navigate this new Delta "wave"? Comeback Kids: The Pocket Guide to Post-Pandemic Parenting is the relatable companion guide to get you through these tough times. Both parents, child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr. Frank DePietro and author Jacquelyn Lazo provide sound advice and realistic, actionable recommendations to help you and your kids move through this next phase with more confidence and less fear. By focusing on the pivotal role mental health plays in this process, this guide will teach you: concrete strategies and self-help tools for how you and your child can cope better in the face of uncertainty, how to interpret your kid's concerning behavior, where, when, and how to get the support you need, and how to begin to design a plan forward. With quick checklists and mental notes throughout, this light read is perfect for busy parents who are concerned about their kids' well-being and don't know where or how to begin. After reading this book, you'll feel better prepared to parent and create a more connected family dynamic for a brighter future. *A portion of the authors' proceeds from the sale of the book will be donated to the Child Mind Institute (childmind.org), to further their efforts helping families and children suffering from mental health challenges in a post-pandemic world; to the Women's Center & Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh (wcspittsburgh.org), a nonprofit working to end domestic violence and create safe spaces for help, healing, and hope; and to Sin Barreras (sinbarrerascville.org), a nonprofit that educates, supports, and serves the immigrant community, focusing on the Hispanic population of Charlottesville and the surrounding areas.

Schools closing, our lives turned upside down by social distancing policies. Suddenly, millions of parents find themselves at home with their children all day.It's putting a lot of new pressure on parents. How are you supposed to be your child's teacher or daycare provider, when you're also scrambling to make ends meet? Parents feel overwhelmed on at least two levels. First, there's the purely personal burden. There's too much going on, too much to do. The kids -- the interruptions -- might be driving you crazy. You need some relief, some time out, but you can't get it.Then there's the added, psychological burden. The worries, the guilt, the expectations. That feeling that your kids are supposed to be getting a better deal.You might feel threatened, inadequate, or defensive that you aren't meeting the standard, you aren't providing your kids with developmental stimulation that experts recommend.This book is here to help you and your family through the changes associated with the pandemic. This book gives realistic strategies you can use to improve this time for your children. This book also has the best tips to help keep families playful, while also limiting the stress and anxiety that comes with living through a global pandemic.

With specially commissioned introductions from international experts, the Psychological Insights for Understanding COVID-19 series draws together previously published chapters on key themes in psychological science that engage with people’s unprecedented experience of the pandemic. This volume collects chapters that address prominent issues and challenges presented by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic to families, parents, and children. A new introduction from Marc H. Bornstein reviews how disasters are known to impact families, parents, and children and explores traditional and novel responsibilities of parents and their effects on child growth and development. It examines parenting at this time, detailing consequences for home life and economies that the pandemic has triggered; considers child discipline and abuse during the pandemic; and makes recommendations that will support families in terms of multilevel interventions at family, community, and national and international levels. The selected chapters elucidate key themes including children’s worry, stress and parenting, positive parenting programs, barriers which constrain population-level impact of prevention programs, and the importance of culturally adapting evidence-based family intervention programs. Featuring theory and research on key topics germane to the global pandemic, the Psychological Insights for Understanding COVID-19 series offers thought-provoking reading for professionals, students, academics, policy makers, and parents concerned with the psychological consequences of COVID-19 for individuals, families, and society.

Best-selling author Emily Oster says "This book is fantastic. Dr. Fradin delivers a timely resource parents need."Psychiatrist and New York Times contributor Dr. Pooja Lakshmin says "Answering the big questions on every parent's mind, Parenting in a Pandemic cuts through the noise, equipping parents with accurate information so they can make the best decisions for their families." Parents are burning out while kids need more help than ever. With so many families in crisis, pediatrician and child advocate Dr. Kelly Fradin sees an urgent need for help. As a mother of two, Dr. Fradin shares her practical, evidence-based and reassuring advice on what's important to know. Parents are forced to adapt and make decisions now despite constant change and many unknowns. In Parenting in a Pandemic, Dr. Fradin provides all the tools you need to help navigate coronavirus.The book breaks down the science necessary to understand the news and care for your family. Dr. Fradin explains the specific risks of coronavirus to children of all ages and adults, including parents, grandparents, pregnant women, and essential workers. She gives realistic strategies you can use to improve this time for your family. Parents who read the book will feel better prepared to make the right decisions with confidence. The pandemic is still unfolding and the science may change, but these approaches will help you feel better and lead your family through this difficult time.

'A thing to treasure and keep close at hand. I would prescribe it to the lost and the lonely, the busy and the overburdened, the heart-broken and the happy' – Emily Haworth-Booth A moving, funny exploration of life as the parent of a lockdown baby, by illustrator Pia Bramley. Since March 2020, babies have been born into a world of masks, hand washing and social distancing. They met their grandparents on video calls. Their parents held them up to windows and took them for long walks in the rain. Pia Bramley's illustrations capture the intimacy of the small, strange world of the pandemic baby. She draws on her own experience as a new parent, telling the story of a child's first year against the backdrop of the pandemic: the quiet streets of the first lockdown, the relative freedom of summer, the long nights of autumn and winter and, finally, new hope as spring arrives and life begins to open up again. Moving, funny and deeply honest, this is a book for every parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle or friend who waited to hold their pandemic baby.