Finding Balance During a Pandemic

Sure.  We’re four months in.  It’s been a challenge for all of us, and when we say all of us we mean it.

It would be one thing if you alone were asked to stay home for a long period of time and limit your social interactions while your friends and family maintained their normal lives.

Was the term “social distancing” even a thing back in February?  Not for most of us.

The important part is this: it helps to know that none of us is going through this alone.  We all may have different stories and experiences, but when it all comes down to it, this #alonetogether idea is universal, and in a lot of ways that’s comforting.

Still… we are here with you, validating your experience.  It hasn’t been easy for any of us but there has been one shift that has happened that we can all relate to:

screen-time, or rather, it’s inherent imbalance.

Virginia Family Therapy has developed a solution with the help (and sheer momentum) of Emily Helft, M.Ed, a member of our team who specializes in accessible education in central Virginia, and Amanda Sovik-Johnston (that’s me!), Ph.D. + Founder of VFT.  Emily helps spread the word about assistive technology through courses, coaching, and consulting.  As a mom and proponent of healthy families, Amanda has been working for a long time toward the goal of delivering helpful and real-life solutions to parents who need guidance.   Prior to this pandemic, and even more so now, Emily and Amanda saw and see a need to be filled when it comes to screen-time usage at home.  How many of us can relate to the push-and-pull that results from limiting screen-time, then giving up and offering (in hindsight) what is too much for the developing brains of our children and teens.  Perhaps even as adults many of you can relate to the over-stimulation that occurs because we go from scrolling through our phones to sitting in front of a screen in our make-shift home offices to bingeing a show at night.

Even local mom Lynsie Steele admits that when she was raising her stepkids (now 20 and 24) it was far easier to limit their time in front of their devices as it is now for her four boys, especially while working at home during this pandemic.

If the sound of screaming from the next room over whose turn it is has brought you to your boiling point, VFT has a solution:

Click here to see what SB is all about and

 GRAB YOUR FREE WORKSHEET for first-time phone users and their parents!