It is a common sight to see parents getting worried when their kids prefer to be left alone. However, from a mental and developmental health standpoint, this can turn into a highly healthy method for children to recharge themselves.
Shifting inward isn’t something that parents encourage in kids. According to recent research, people should rethink this aspect. Before the lockdowns due to pandemic, kids were highly busy with their school as well as organized activities. And in this situation, the well-meaning parents habitually arranged family activities or playdates for filling in any gap in their regular schedule. As those activities continue to remain limited and parents have been working remotely numerous families are spending near-constant togetherness for many months.
Based on the version of many experts, children need more alone time and this is what parents call quiet time. They spend this time wandering, tinkering, and reflecting.
Alone but not alone at the time of the pandemic
Living 24×7 in a suddenly crowded home while maintaining social distancing exhibited numerous families the value of alone time. Parents do commiserate with each other hiding in cars and closets for escaping their children. However, children become tired of grown-ups and siblings. As parents remain bothered that their children were lonely at the time of the pandemic, they dialed up their tendencies of a helicopter. They hovered during scheduling board games and distance learning. The chief thing is every family loves to hike for filling in the free days.
In place of basking in the additional attention, a few children became irritable. According to some, healthy family relationships get built on the time that is spent together besides the time that is spent staying apart. When people’s physical space becomes constrained then their requirements for more and more emotional space expands.
Many younger children struggle with having their parents more present. Again, some people find too much interference of family with playtime to be triggering meltdowns. Young children do flourish in many child-directed plays where they become capable of forming their own rules and also make their decisions. Helpful parents, as well as big siblings, can form an opposite situation unintentionally.
The older kids who are still very young for taking a solo task or solitary drive remain annoyed and exasperated. Numerous kids are compelled to share their workspaces and rooms. Again, at times, they are also required to take very good care of their siblings as their parents remain busy. And so, precious opportunities for escaping the house and even parents and little siblings present in the house who seek independence naturally feel more stuck than in previous times.
Some benefits of staying alone
There are many biological reasons why kids and adults look for alone time, particularly when there is a shortage of it. According to some top pediatricians, alone time does support children’s cognitive, emotional, and social development.
Again, alone time is also capable of boosting critical thinking skills and confidence in children as they rely on their wits for entertaining themselves, playing various games, like Judi Slot Via Pulsa, or working through problems.
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