Family memories of what wasn’t lived
May 15 is the International Day of Families, designed to celebrate families of all shapes and sizes across the globe. To mark this day, at McCann Worldgroup we’ve decided to explore the impact of coronavirus on parenting and see how a selection of McCann parents are coping around the world.
This is my point of view from my experience as a soon to be dad.
The four-year-old daughter of one of my best friends is having a lot of nightmares these days and she is behaving worse than usual. Although children do not read the news and may not understand exactly what the coronavirus is, psychologists, pediatricians and parents are all aware that children show signs of anxiety and uncertainty, if they see them in their parents. This time is, without a doubt, a time of learning from uncomfortable new practices that we will never forget.
In Spain, where some of the strictest quarantine measures in the world have been applied, children have spent more than 45 days without being able to leave home even for a short walk. Most parents did not expect they would need to learn to manage the frustration and misunderstanding of their children who have been taught to fear going outside. And now, they must also manage the fear that their children now have learned in the process.
Or, consider the lessons learned by the couples and families who are giving birth during this pandemic. Think of the pregnant women who have given birth — or are about to give birth during quarantine — and who are surely impacted by the general uncertainty that is rarely spoken of, but which is apparent everywhere. Imagine being the woman who must wait for days to see her newly born baby for fear of contagion from coronavirus. Imagine being denied the occasion to witness the first moments of your child’s life. Imagine starting a family during a time when our most basic social behaviors have been paused indefinitely.
I am going to be a father myself in a couple of months and it is not yet clear if I will be allowed to attend the delivery, for health security reasons. Without a doubt, we’ll do whatever it takes to protect my baby, but I can only imagine how difficult it will be to get through that situation. During the first day that I was able to walk around the streets of the city, I thought about him — my expected son — and a strange feeling overcame me: how would I ever be able to explain to my son how much his life is going to be affected by something that he will simply not remember, but that I will never forget?
