Pandemic Playtime Adjustments

I’m Allowing My Teenager To Stay Up All Night While School Is Closed For Corona Virus

This doesn’t make me a bad parent.

The world has changed, and with it so have my parenting philosophies.

We are several weeks into the unplanned time off of school in avoidance of the pandemic COVID-19.

My son and all his friends have been staying up very late playing on their Xbox game consoles.

Normally I am super strict on certain things for my son. Our routine was essentially tossed into a blender and is unrecognizable.

Breakfast is at lunch time and lunch is at dinner time. His friends are on the same crazy schedule.

They sometimes play online until morning.

My household is stir crazy, so I am allowing some rule bending.

I feel disconnected from our routine, and I am just letting the chaos dictate our activities, because it feels like we can’t do much else currently.

If my 13 year old feels super cool because he can keep his eyes open until tomorrow then I don’t want to ruin it for him.

I am letting him go through this phase but part of me is worried. The bandwagon full of soccer moms are doing it too so it must be okay.

Also, in the spirit of being rebellious to normal rules, these days in my household we jump on the bed. We have pancakes for dinner. We even dipped a popsicle in ketchup- which is not something I recommend by the way.

This is okay. This is a coping method, and it’s working for us.

My boy gets lots of sleep, eats healthy and most days gets exercise. For now it’s indoor stuff, but we do it.

I am allowing my kid to break rules while the pandemic keeps us all from our routine.

It’s a strategy for coping with an upside down world.

My reasoning is: We are all stuck at home avoiding the pandemic from a safe distance. Everything is disrupted.

So let’s play when we want for a week or two. Just go with the flow of the disruption and be chaotic. It’s temporary!

Why not?

Cheers.