MCO is not a school holiday. It is not the time to let your children just do a few hours of ineffective online schooling by teachers and let them spend the rest of the hours on their gadgets.

Obviously, no one has ever expected the situation that we are in. No one has predicted that this Corona Virus Disease outbreak will be announced as a pandemic. Most importantly, no one knows exactly how long this MCO period will last and when will it be over. 

But as parents and leaders, it is our duty to demonstrate exemplary behavior in times of crisis. Children learn by example. What would they learn from our current behavior?

Would they learn how to navigate storms of life or would they learn how to check out whenever things get hard?

Because honestly, behaving as if this is the end of the world and throwing education out of the window is not the best example to set.

Here are 4 things you can do instead.

1. Talk finance.

How is this affecting your family? How will this affect your children? How about the economy at large? How about all the SMEs that will not survive Covid 19? How about the 70% Malaysian workforce that is employed by the SMEs? Talk about factors that caused this economic meltdown.

Covid 19 is not a black swan. Wait, does your child even know what is a black swan? See, there is a lot you can teach and learn from each other. Okay, coming back. Finances. Talk to them about how the massive amount of global debt coupled by a widespread pandemic is affecting the whole world. 

This is the time for both parents and children to learn together. Ask your children to teach you and you will be amazed by what they can do. At Pasxcel, we discuss all this and more with our students during our weekly forum. I am almost amazed at how interested they get in current affairs when asked to participate.

2. Talk about mindfulness and living in the moment.

A lot of people are spending their days mindlessly. Without the usual schedule and routines, everyone’s day had lost its structure. Address this. Let your children know how important a structured day is in order to be disciplined and successful in life. 

3. Talk about the future. 

Personally, this is my favorite. Instead of being hopeless about the next 6 months of economic downturn, talk about how this too shall pass. We will come out of this stronger, wiser and better. As long as we take the right actions during the downturn. More successful enterprises were found during a recession than boom anyways.

4. Talk about taking action and preparation.

Lastly and most importantly, talk about taking action and do it yourself. I noticed some parents who will call Pasxcel, get convinced with our express online homeschooling program for IGCSE or online IGCSE tuition and finally make the decision to pursue after the crisis is over. 

Now here is my misgiving about this. Let’s say your child is weak now, are they going to get any better in the next few weeks? Highly likely with less engagement, your child is going to get more laid back.  As parents, you know more than anyone else that it is hard to build momentum. 

And worst still, what are you telling your child by doing this? During times of crisis, we should huddle. We should stop thinking of a better future. We should just wait it out. We should not take any action that would give us a competitive advantage over others. We should not get a headstart. We should be like cattle and follow the herd. We should remain afraid.

Or do you want to demonstrate that we should not lose hope in adversity? That we should march on because we know whatever COVID 19 is, life has to go on. Show that with our actions we can build a better future. That no matter what life throws at us, we will course correct but we will march on.

What you do as a parent has a huge impact on shaping the psychology of your children. So go ahead and watch the video for the last tip and go inspire your family!

Good luck. Stay strong. You got this!