So let’s say I’ve got children, and they’re misbehaving. I mean, what can you do in this situation when I mean, they are get the kids are getting much more bored than we are? Because I just think adults can keep themselves a little bit more occupied than children, you know, children don’t have much to do. I mean, if they don’t have an Xbox or a PC, maybe they’ve got tablet devices, but after a while, there’s only so much time they can spend on those devices before they’re going mad.

Absolutely and not every family’s got a device that everybody can be on at the same time. So there’s lots of sharing going to happen. And you know, we’ve always, I suppose, up until now, we’ve said about limiting time on devices, but now a lot of people are seeing it as a friend to help them get through the day. But in terms of children misbehaving, we certainly have to remain with our parenting scripts, and still continue to parent in the same way that you know children learn right and wrong and what they can and can’t do.

But I think the stress levels is making that much harder because lots of people haven’t got their own space that they need to escape to. They’ve got different age groups of children in the house with different age groups. So you know, they might be alright for a teenager to escape to the bedroom and you know, be on the Xbox, for example, or Netflix for a couple of hours because it’s keeping them occupied. But the younger ones might need a bit more stimulation, and that’s fine if you’ve got the time to do that and you enjoy it.

If you’re not creative person and don’t want to get out with the crayons and the playdough and make something then it can make that more difficult, but I think we do have to go back to basics here and think about the times that in the past where we have to occupy our own children, and be more creative, and be more patient and ask for help runs in the household if needed.

So if you’ve got children of different ages, maybe they can be some responsibility past a little bit, to occupying each other and being kind to each other. If you’re trying to work from home on a laptop and you’re trying to home school, you need to ask for support there. But no, that’s an easy answer when you’ve got a different age group

What do you mean by ask for support you mean from your partner? Click here if you are looking Counselling in London.

From whoever is around, and I’m working with people that they’re helping people through Skype, and my own daughters, for example, we’ve got brothers who live in America, and they are doing spelling test with them over Skype, or FaceTime, and they’re doing reading with them.

Well that’s a good idea, yeah.

[Inaudible 02:42] continent so obviously, the time can be a bit of an issue sometimes but also playing games, they are playing games with them. So people can help each other that way because the internet is a marvelous thing to be able to get in this close contact without actually being in person, but they are all kind of if you can reach out for help.

I know a lot of people have said to me, it’s okay for my partner, they don’t live with us, and they are not the responsibility of the children. But maybe you have to ask for that and say, well, for two hours a day, you do have to do some home schooling with me. And you can do that over video. In any which way that’s appropriate, really. But you do have to ask for that help as you are feeling stress, because it’s not going to get any easier in the immediate future.

And the schools won’t talk about going back anytime soon. So help is important grandparents, and that sometimes love hearing that kind of stuff, you know, listening to the little ones read over Skype, crayon with them over Skype, and doing something creative. There are ways to do this without actually being in person. It’s just that maybe a lot of people aren’t familiar with it. And you know, the idea just hasn’t struck that these things are available.

Okay, Diane, so what are you doing at the moment in regards to helping people with their mental health?

So in terms of being a therapist and therapist is still working out there. We’re doing it very differently, although some therapists are online therapists anyway. But therapists have changed their business so that they’re now doing online sessions. So that can be Skype or Zoom or Telephone. So when people that do need the mental health support, and there is people out there still offering sessions, so if you do feel you need counselling, and some people have put it on hold thinking, we’ll do all this on the lockdowns over if you do need it.

There are people out there that can help you. Some therapists have turned their hand to helping local charities and they’re offering free services for the NHS and other key workers. So therapists are still trying to do as much as they can and getting information out there to help with mental health. And so don’t neglect your mental health. If you need support, still seek it out.

And you know, for people at home, you know, if you are looking to book, Diane, you can give her a call and there’ll be a number in the description. Or maybe behind the screen right now. It will be in the description of this video. So you know you can contact Diane at home and if you need therapy then you can get in contact with her.

Thank you, James