6 Parenting Tips for COVID Times

- Like honest question, what's it been like for you as a parent during the last few months?

- I will say we're very lucky, we're all safe, we're all healthy and then the reality is it's been really, really hard, like challenging on so many levels.

- Parents, we feel for you.

You're trying to homeschool while work from home.

And you're trying to stay sane while keeping your kids calm, it's so much.

Bethany and I have your back.

Here are some tips and tricks for pandemic parenting.

Children have a different way of seeing the world depending on how old they are.

Some younger kids have more abstract thinking and more creative thinking, we don't understand the world around them.

- We have to stay six feet apart, do you know what six feet is?

Daddy and a little bit more, he'll never tell you that though.

If we see somebody coming without a mask, we have to step aside and let them go 'cause it's not safe and explain why it's not safe without creating this boogeyman that lives invisibly all around us.

It's been really, really challenging.

- Older kids are starting to feed off what their parents are going through and then those adolescents and teens are pretty smart, they're with it.

And if we don't tell them what's actually happening, they will go on the Internet and find their own answers or television or their friends.

So tell me this, not trying to stoke any bad memories you may have had over the last few months, have you seen any signs of stress, anxiety at all in your two kids?

- Yeah, I do.

Lulu gets throughout the day will get periods of just like this deep sadness I've never seen before.

And I know it's that she used to be so active.

And now she doesn't always have the words to express exactly what's bothering her but I do see these periods of just this real sadness.

So we talk about it and I'm really honest with her.

I'm like, I'm really sad too.

Daddy is really sad, we're all really sad, we all miss the things that we used to do.

I empathize with that feeling so much and then, she will open up and say but what do you do about it?

I'm like, we just be sad that we miss the things that we can't do anymore but we'd be really, really happy that we have each other and we're safe and we're healthy.

So, my God, Alok, it's so hard (sobs).

- None of that sounds easy.

You weren't lying to them, you weren't BS'ing them.

I think it's commendable that you were actually just straight up with them and you were like, hey, I'm scared, too, that is probably not the easiest thing to say.

That type of tailored language is really important.

There are unfortunately a lot of teens out there.

I say teens but all kids out there who are at a specific risk for mental illness right now.

And I'm talking anxiety, depression, really bad stress, substance abuse.

We're seeing it in these alarming numbers, not all of it's reported.

And so I think this is just our friendly PSA to say if there is any ability for anyone out there to reach out to someone who may need it, amazing.

And if you can't reach out to someone, just simply spreading the information that there's resources out there or encouraging people to talk to their kids or teens to ask for help if they can and I think that's another thing that all of us can do our part in normalizing.

No one ever, but no one especially now should feel embarrassed, ashamed or alone.

When it comes to having any type of mental health issue.

It's part of the world right now.

If you notice that your child or teen has certain changes in their behavior-- - Is acting different.

- Acting differently.

- That's the parent way of saying it.

If your kid's acting different.

- Losing sleep, all of a sudden not interested in their usual hobbies whatever they may be.

It's never too early or it's never wrong to ask for help or just ask questions.

What's it been like for you and Jayme to have to modulate your stress and anxiety because you know that behavior is gonna be translated to Nico and Lulu?

- I won't say we're good at it now but we're cognizant of that.

Our stress, it's like an aura.

In the beginning, we're panicking about very different things.

I'm panicking about everybody getting it.

Jayme's panic is income.

How will he support us?

So our stresses were equally enormous but very different.

And we thought the right thing to do was not talk about it and that was not good in the beginning.

And we felt it and the kids felt it and now we're working on it.

It's not perfect 'cause how can it be perfect?

Like, I honestly don't wanna get the hang of this (laughs).

Do you know what I mean?

- We don't want this to be what we have to get the hang of.

Here's another thing that parents are in charge of, it's structure, it's what gives children a sense of security.

I wanna ask you how on earth you're dealing with creating structure?

- We have a whiteboard with the day of the week and the date and what each of us has to do today.

And we adopted meal schedules which we never had in our life before but now we have Taco Tuesday, Pizza Friday and Spaghetti Meatballs Sunday because I feel like it anchors their week, it gives them structure, it gives them stability like they know on Tuesday we have tacos.

And I've learned to make tortillas from scratch really fast.

- So I have two questions.

Number one, can I come over for Taco Tuesday?

And number two, I'm coming over for Taco Tuesday.

- I love your two questions.

- You did say anchor, you used that word.

And I think that's really important because you are essentially the anchor for your kids' normalcy, for their mental health, for their comfort, their safety, their structure, like parents are the anchor.

We can easily say things all day long on TV like make sure you physically distance and make sure kids play outside whenever they can.

Well, some people live in a single bedroom home.

Some people live in neighborhoods where it's actually not safe to go outside.

- Or some people just live in the city and there isn't a lot of outside.

I do wish that all the information out there, took different resources, family structures, socioeconomics into account.

There is no one size fits all solution for families out there.

- You should not feel bad about it at all.

And you should definitely not be afraid to ask for help figuring out what that is for your family.

One thing I can definitively say and I'm positive Bethany will agree with me, is that kids are resilient.

- Very resilient.

- They go through so much, they bounce back, they get injured, they're back on a tree within another week.

Kids will get through this.

If you want more resources, you have a specific question, comment on this video and one of the two of us will directly respond to it.

Giving me motivation to come over for Taco Tuesday.

I think-- - And Pizza Friday.

- And Pizza Friday.

- You can come all those, everything's homemade for all.

- Yeah, what about Tandoori Thursday?

- Dude, I'm on it.

You said it, by next week, I'm gonna be stumbling through tandoori.

- I mean everyday evening, Hello, today is Tandoori Thursday.

- He can do that, you can do that.

- You can, you get canceled yesterday if you try to do that.

- Unless you are Alok of course.