Explaining the Coronavirus to my 3 year old

I think we can all agree that what we are all currently living through is a very confusing and scary time for everyone. I have never experienced anything quite like this in my life time before. The Coronavirus has impacted more than just peoples health. It’s had an impact on everything. It’s affected our day to day lives, it’s affected work, school and even leaving the house. Since the Coronavirus hit, everything just feels surreal. Almost apocalyptic. Different. And Kory, who is 3 years old has picked up on this.

When all this first came about, there wasn’t much I needed to tell him and I wasn’t even sure what I should have told him. The Coronavirus has caused a lot of uncertainty and nobody really knew what to do or expect. In fact, I know I still don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing. But as events have changed and escalated, I have tried my very best to protect and shelter Kory from what is happening around him but 3 year olds are more aware of their surroundings than we might realise and he definitely picked up on the fact that things have started to change.

Kory started to ask questions. He wanted to know why schools were shutting to be cleaned, he wanted to know why he had to wash his hands more often, he wanted to know why more and more people at his school were off sick, he wanted to know why his teacher hadn’t been in and in the coming days when his school closes until further notice and if we have to go into lockdown, I’m sure he will have even more questions. So, I didn’t see what good keeping him in the dark would do so without scaring him, I explained the Coronavirus to him the best way I could. I explained the Coronavirus to a 3 year old the best way that I knew how.

First of all, I asked Kory how does it make him feel when he has a cold and a cough to which he replied ‘rubbish.’ So I told him that there is a new sort of cold going around except when you get it, it can make you feel worse than rubbish and sometimes it can make some people very poorly so in order to try and stop people from getting this nasty cold, we have to stop the germs from spreading and to do that we have to wash our hands more. People have been off school if they’ve been poorly so that they don’t make anyone else poorly, the same with a normal cold and we have to shut the school and keep it clean because that also helps to stop the germs. He must have been satisfied with my answers as he just said ‘Ok, mum. Do you want to play on my game with me now?’

I have just been trying to keep everything as normal as I possibly can for Kory, I do not want him to have to deal or worry about any of this. I really have tried to remain calm for the both of us despite everything but as someone who already suffers with anxiety, all this talk about the Coronavirus has only added to that and let me tell you, it hasn’t been easy trying to keep my stress levels and feelings under control. I can’t help but worry sometimes as I’m sure you’re all the same and these are worrying times.

Let’s just all hope and pray that everyone stays well and that things start to get back to normal soon.

Have you had to sit down and talk to your children about the Coronavirus? If so, how did you find that? What did you say? If you’d like, leave me a comment and let me know!