How Is Your Family Handling the Quarantine Period?

            Families are stronger when they have both quality and quantity of time together, and strong families strengthen communities and nations. However, when families are forced to hunker down at home for weeks on end, even the strongest families face difficult times. All families are being stretched to their limits in this multi-week quarantine. Nevertheless, some families are weathering their time together better than other families.


            Armstrong Jones posted an interesting article at The Daily Signal about the effects of the coronavirus on our society. As we support the most vulnerable people among us, we must remember the children and teenagers who are suddenly stuck at home with no ability to meet with friends. Jones reminds us that some of those children and teens were already “struggling with depression, anxiety, or sadness,” and their challenges have only increased.


            In addition, there are millions of children across the nation who face abuse of one kind or another at home. With parents and children stuck together at home for long weeks at a time, many children and teens are hunkered down with the person or people who are abusing them. According to Jones, reports of abuse are more frequent.

That’s where an organization like Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline comes into play. According to Childhelp’s “Child Abuse Statistics and Facts,” a report of child abuse is made every 10 seconds and “approximately 5 children die every day because of child abuse.”

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Childhelp has reported a 20% increase in calls and has reported four to five times the number of texts from abused children when compared with the same time last year.

Tragically, it is reasonable to assume that this uptick is just the beginning of an alarming trend. These numbers are likely to increase significantly as the stress of job and wage loss takes its toll.

            I am not a child or teenager, and I do not have children at home to entertain. Neither do I worry about losing a job and not being able to pay bills. However, I have felt an underlying tension about the whole COVID-19 situation. I am well into my fourth week of not leaving my home except for a short walk up the street. I am not a shopper who has to be in stores, and I am not a social butterfly that is always surrounded with people. Nevertheless, I do enjoy my independence and the ability to come and go as I desire. 


            I have plenty of tasks here at home to keep me busy, so I have no concerns about becoming depressed. Besides, the long, dark, cold days of winter are behind us once again, and spring is here with its increasing daylight. I do not worry about my own mental health, but I do have concerns about my husband. With his health situation, there is not a lot of things that he can stay busy doing. Once he finishes with the income taxes, what will he do?

I worry about my son who has an “essential” job as a dispatcher for the local police department and whose wife has a comprised immune system due to her fight with cancer. He recently learned that he has co-workers who are presumed to have COVID-19. Now what does my son do? I worry about my other son who is an emergency room doctor and comes face to face with people who have COVID-19. What are his chances of staying healthy? What about my other sons and daughters who can work from home but must venture into the community from time to time to buy food? What are their chances of staying healthy?

I worry about my children and grandchildren. How are they dealing with the isolation? Are the mothers of young children handling the extra pressure well, or are they becoming too stressed? How much stress can the rising generation handle? My missionary grandson who is supposed to be out meeting and teaching people is hunkered down in his apartment setting up online meetings. My high school senior granddaughter is mourning the loss of her last semester at school with all the activities and competitions. My high school junior grandson is missing numerous track competitions that he could win. He has an essential job working in a food truck, so he is out amongst the people. How safe is he? I think the bigger question is, how careful is he about keeping himself safe?

I feel certain that every person feels the underlying tension to some point, and every family is dealing with increased worries and stress. If it were just week after week of being cooped up at home, the tension would be hard enough. However, there is also concern about job security, providing food for the family, and paying rent. 

How are we handling all this extra stress? Are we taking advantage of increased family time to strengthen marriages and families? We know that we are not going to be shut down forever, but we may be hunkering down for a few more weeks. How we handle our forced time together will make a difference in the strength of individual family members and in our family as whole. Our goal should be a little stronger today than we were yesterday and better tomorrow than today. If we can meet this goal, our family, community, and nation will come through this pandemic in good condition no matter how everything else works out.