Resiliency in the time of COVID-19

Sometime around 2:00 in the AM on Saturday my good wife, Anne, had an epiphany and couldn’t wait for me to wake up so she could share it. I could feel her restlessness and kind of knew she wanted to talk, so, being courageous, I pretended to be sleeping. And that’s how she ended up falling back to sleep, and I ended up spending the next three hours wondering what she wanted. While I was pondering, I had an epiphany before finally falling back to sleep. I waited until 8:00 AM to get up.

Guess what? When we finally compared notes, we realized we both had the same epiphany (miracle, right?).

Together Anne and I decided to postpone marketing The Resiliency Toolkit in Action, our new online course for parents, slated to start in April, and, as our gift to you, we will start providing parents (and those who care about them) all the support and resources needed right now to face our current COVID-19 challenges.

We are confident we can come through the confusion and stress of the coming weeks stronger and more resilient than ever as we face these challenges in our homes and around the world. We are all in this together.

So, let’s get started! You may remember that last week Anne wrote to you about the power of the “little things” in nature as well as in relationships. Clearly, we are becoming more and more aware of the power of little things (like a new coronavirus) in the natural world. As we respond by social distancing, we are also becoming more and more aware of the power of little things (like kindness and patience, for starters) in our homes and families.

Here is one of our favorite small and powerful ideas for making this time of family togetherness a time of healthy, happy family connection. No matter how many children you have, as an experiment, every day set aside 10 minutes per child (no more, no less) for what parenting experts Patty Wipfler and Tosha Schore call “Special Time.” Turn off your phone, put down the dishes, set an alarm, and dedicate 10 minutes for you and your child. Arrange for any other children to be in bed, in the care of an older child or adult, or even having a little screen time. As much as possible all rules are off (except those for physical and emotional safety) and your child is IN CHARGE! It is so rare that kids get a chance to be in charge. Your child gets to choose what you do, and you follow their instructions.

We hope you’ll accept the challenge and give Special Time a try. And please write back and let us know what happens. We think you’ll be pleased.

Here’s to Failing Forward,

Cal and Anne