It seems that love between the youngest is immune to the pandemic and develops completely oblivious to the global health crisis .
Adolescents, being confined have more time. Unstructured time, as they cannot perform usual activities. Now, that time is being used to establish virtual connections , through social networks, thus exploring romantic relationships.
In these rare times that we live in, parents, when working from home or being unemployed due to the pandemic, have the opportunity to witness, or at least be aware of, their children’s romances .
What is not clear, as revealed by the Washington Post , is whether this close relationship between parents and children really encourages adolescent children to have constructive conversations on this sensitive topic.
In this sense, if something is true, it is that Adolescents need more support than ever at this time, as the pandemic has created new complexities and fears around sexuality (physical contact, contagion), while posing new obstacles in sexual education and protection.
With much In schools with virtual or hybrid schedules, adolescents have less than normal access to sex education at school and to health centers on campus, some of which provide information on birth control and sexual intercourse, such as STD testing.
Additionally, parents may be less willing to schedule wellness checkups for their teens during the pandemic. Given these gaps in access to reliable resources, it is important for parents to initiate conversations with their children about sexual behavior and its implications.
In these times of confinement and risk of contagion, it is clear that not all families share the same attitudes about social restrictions related to the pandemic. Some parents allow their children to communicate with romantic interests only by phone or during outdoor gatherings, socially estranged. Others take a more permissive stance.
During the pandemic, Daniel Carter, from Ontario, California, says he and his wife allowed their 17 year old son to visit their girlfriend only after talking to him about the coronavirus-related precautions and receiving validation from the girl’s parents that he was still following similar security protocols.
Such decisions made by parents are not always well received by teenage children, but in addition to being necessary they are a way to go paving the way for a broader conversation about sexuality.
“The pandemic has really given us a great opportunity that I have seen many parents seize,” says Elaine Taylor- Klaus to the aforementioned newspaper , an Atlanta-based parenting coach and author of the new book “The Essential Guide to Raising Complex Children.”
That opportunity, she says, is because parents and adolescents spend a lot of time together.
“We are having important conversations that can be a bit uncomfortable, that we have not had in the past, ”says Taylor-Klaus.
For parents who still don’t dare to start conversations about sexuality with their teens. However, the pandemic offers opportunities for an alternative: modeling healthy relationships: “Children observe and see how parents express their affection, how they resolve conflicts,” says the expert.
It sounds simple enough, but showing affection or even routine courtesy after several months of togetherness can be even more challenging than dealing with teenage romance. On the other hand, no one said being a parent was easy.