How do I help my child socialize while socially distanced?

While it’s important to practice peer interactions, any face-to-face interactions — with parents, siblings, caretakers, even animals — are going to feed that social part of the brain. It’s important to remember that socialization is not so black and white: i.e., either they’re with their friends or they’re done for. There’s a term in psychology called the “good enough parent,” so we could call this the “good enough socialization.” We need to get some of that social activity going in our kids’ brains.

You can try a social-distance playdate where kids do an art project, or have a movie night with blankets positioned six feet apart. If you host a Zoom playdate with a peer, maybe the kids can make something or bake a cake simultaneously — this also pairs a physical activity with social time.

If your child isn’t able to socially distance, you might consider getting them a pet if they don’t have one. I realize that this is a (very!) tall order, but socializing with any animal can have therapeutic value. Get your child outside hunting for bugs: really, anything that involves another living being helps in this time.

Quality time together is more important than quantity. We’re with our kids so much, and many of us are pushed to the brim, so it’s important to remember that you don’t have to do a 2-hour art project to spend QT together. Try singing a song while they brush their teeth, for instance, to bring fun into something we still have to do every day.

For more details and ideas, check out our article Dr. Lauren Stutman, Psy.D, on How to Ease our Kids’ Anxieties: Pt. 2.