Hi. well, I am 11 years old and I tried being in my house. I want to go back to school and spend time with my friends. I’ve been inside the house – I don’t know what else to do.
my mother tries to find games for me and my brothers and sisters, but we got tired of playing the games. this is driving us crazy. my mom tries to do the best she can for feeding us and making sure we stay nice and calm with all this. but she cries at night time when we are all sleeping ’cause of the little bit of food we have. she gets scared about the we stay without food until this is all over.
but we thank god every day. we aren’t eating the way my mom loves to cook for us, but we eat. thank god. And I don’t know what else to say.
HELP YOURSELF
- First, thank you for writing to TeenCentral and trusting us with this hard story. Sometimes it can be really hard to share what you are going through in life. It’s the first step – to open up to people, and you did it! So good for you!!
- Secondly, take a look at two specific areas on the TeenCentral website…1) the Wellness tab under “LEARN“. Under this tab it gives some suggestions for physical activity – different kinds of physical activity. This could be more helpful for you and perhaps your siblings right now than sitting and playing games. Getting energy out may be helpful. ….2) Check out the “TOOLS” section of the website and specifically click on “Yoga Poses” and the “Running” tool. These are other downloadable resources that could help you and your family get started on being more active. Perhaps the pent up energy could be adding to the frustration for you.
- It’s clear that you are concerned about your mom’s feelings, which is very sweet of you. Have you talked to her about this? Have your shared your concern with her? I know it can sometimes be difficult to be honest with parents, but you never know. Opening up a conversation could really help.
CONSIDER THIS
- You wrote about missing your friends a lot. Have you had any opportunity to connect with them at all – even online? Have you checked in with them over the phone? If not, that may be a first place to start. I know it’s really difficult to be patient to get to seeing your friends. There is a lot of uncertainty about when things will get back to normal. Have you thought through that at all? Have you talked about any feelings you have about that?
- Many young people like yourself like to keep a journal. You don’t have to be a good writer. It could even be a journal you keep on a phone or computer and you would write just a few lines a day about things that happened, things you feel about what happened, what you would like to do about those things, etc. Today (for example) you may write about the fact that you were brave enough to write your story into TeenCentral and this is what they said…and this is what I think about it…..and this is what I think I’m going to do about it…… Going forward you can reflect back on these entries and it can help you process how you have felt about things happening in your life over time. This can be very helpful to you.
