T o stay healthy and avoid contracting Coronavirus, we’re instructed to shelter in place, favor well-ventilated spaces, avoid crowds, social distance, wear a mask, and wash hands frequently. All necessary precautions.

For children, this pandemic has meant the closing of schools, the adoption of online classes, and social isolation. For parents, their jobs have grown from parenting and working to pay the bills, to also providing therapy for their kids’ growing challenges due to their lack of in-person connections, trouble-shooting tech issues and overseeing that their children’s computers are fully charged each day, guiding kids’ internet programming options, supervising their children’s education—whether that’s home schooling and/or insuring their kids’ participation in their online classes, and arranging for additional childcare.

All of this takes a toll on children, their parents, and teachers, who are forced to instruct via video feeds and deal with children’s lack of attention, while not being physically present to address their students’ frustrations. This causes fear, worry, changes in eating patterns, sleeping difficulties, concentration problems, worsening of health problems, and depression. And there’s no simple solution. Time outside in nature and talking—a lot of sharing about how this makes us feel— helps.

Coronavirus compels us to be creative to maintain our mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health. We benefit from sharing our ideas for coping with friends and family. Most of all, we need to be patient with ourselves and manage our expectations.