How to explain a pandemic to a 5-year-old

It has happened. Trying to shelter our kids from the worst of the news is now futile. Their schools have closed, reality as they know it has been suspended and we are all getting on as best we can with our new routines.

Like many young children, the question my sons, who are 6 and 4, often ask is ‘Why?’ And that question is coming thick and fast at the moment.

Before we were living in the midst of a pandemic, my 6-year-old would understand that we were being careful so as to avoid catching a bug. I found it heartbreaking when my youngest, who is 4, told me gravely that we ‘must wash our hands.’

Messages from this time will stay with our children for many years to come and while it’s a difficult topic, we have a duty to answer their questions responsibly. But two weeks ago, my eldest sounded out ‘pan-dem-ic’ as Boris Johnson made a TV news announcement at teatime. A week later, he read from the TV screen about the rising number of deaths. Obviously, his greatest fears were that we are all going to catch ‘the Coronavirus’, as he calls it, and die too.

I’m treading a line of trying to be both factual and reassuring. I keep repeating that he and his brother are healthy and probably wouldn’t even feel poorly if they were to catch the ‘bug’. I also say Mummy and Daddy are lucky to be healthy and that we have medicine in the cupboard. I have explained that the schools have closed, and we are all staying at home to stop other people from becoming ill.