Kids Reflect on the Pandemic

By Cricket

Recently I’ve been reading and writing a lot about the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on kids, without getting input from the sources themselves. Having a ten year old son, I decided to interview him and his friends who live on our street to hear their thoughts and feelings about the pandemic. The kids, all seven years old when the pandemic started, are likely the youngest to experience its start and remember it. All three of the kids I interviewed are from middle class families and four out of six of their parents were able to continue working remotely full-time during the pandemic. As we know, children across the world experienced the pandemic differently and inequitably. This interview is edited slightly for clarity.

Me:  How old were you when the pandemic started? 

Owen:  Seven years old, in 2nd grade.

Rosa: Is that true? I don’t remember how old I was when it started. 

Me:  Does it feel like it was a long time ago? 

Rosa:  Sort of. It kind of feels like it’s still going. 

Gabriel:  I was seven and in first grade. 

Me:  What do you remember about when it started? 

Owen:  I remember when it started it was this big thing. They thought it would be over soon. But how wrong were we? We were very wrong. I remember the last day when the school shut down and we were like, “See you in two weeks and two years later we saw each other.”

Rosa:  I remember when I heard about it when the schools were closing. It was sort of scary to be virtual and harder to work because it was hard to ask questions to the teacher.

Gabriel:  In the beginning, I was sort of excited and sad at the same time. My grandma was here and I got this new science kit and I was making a solution to cure COVID. 

Owen:  I was super excited about virtual learning. I wasn’t even that sad because I didn’t totally like my class. I was like, “Oh let’s go. I’m going to stay inside and eat cheetos.” When we got to Zoom, everything was just closer. It was good. I was happy.

Gabriel:  You could just watch youTube. 

Owen:  I have many good things to say about it. I got closer to these guys [referring to Rosa and Gabriel]. My teachers were like goodbye and I could just run downstairs. I think we got closer because we were so close [in proximity as neighbors].

Me:  What was bad about the pandemic? 

Rosa:  I think what was bad was that you couldn’t see your family that didn’t live with you. Like my cousins, I didn’t see them. And you couldn’t have play dates. 

Gabriel:  I agree with Rosa. You couldn’t see any family members. I also agree with Owen. We were outside the whole time and if we were inside, we might not have been doing things together. 

Owen:  I got closer to friends online too. What was bad is that it broke up classes at school. It was harder for learning. It broke up friends. Say you had a good friend in 2nd grade, you just couldn’t connect with them. 

Me:  Was there anything that was good about the pandemic? 

Owen: That people died was bad. The deep pain that other people felt was bad. But it kind of taught other kids - be thankful about what you have. 

Rosa:  So if the pandemic hadn’t been here, I probably wouldn’t have seen my mom a lot. If the pandemic hadn't hit, she would have been at office the whole time except for weekends. 

Owen:  COVID was good [in the way] it connected families, it connected neighbors. 

Me:  Is there anything that you think kids should learn from the pandemic? 

Owen:  To be grateful.

Rosa:  I agree with what Owen said, that people should be grateful for what you have.

Owen: And to always feel empathy. I mean that people should be able to understand the pain that people are going through. 

Gabriel:  I think it made a big change. We were forced to play outside with masks.

Rosa: I think that playing outside with masks made us know that it was better to play outside and use our imaginations. Instead of just playing and watching TV, we were able to be outside and be around nature. 

Me:  Do you feel like things are back to normal? 

Rosa:  I feel like there’s still damage. It’s still like lingering around. It’s almost completely gone but not quite. 

Gabriel: It’s like the flu but less. It’s like a cold. 

Me:  What’s one word you would use to describe what you feel now? 

Rosa:  Hopeful.

Gabriel:  Hopeful.

Owen:  Ready to move on.