Covid: Are children getting more anxious since return to school? – Hayley Matthews

Hayley Matthews’ eight-year-old son is enjoying being back at school but there is still something making him feel upset.

Children may be struggling with anxiety, fears Hayley Matthews (Picture: John Devlin)

I’ve always been quite an anxious person. It doesn’t take me much to start spinning round like the Tasmanian devil! I’ve said it before and it’s no surprise to those who know me well, but those who see me going about my everyday life, who maybe see me on the TV, hear me on the radio or witness me prancing down the street like a disco diva from the 70s Soul Train may not realise the inner turmoil that is whirling round my head.

If you asked me what was making me anxious, I’d have to think because often I’m not consciously aware of what’s brought on the big wave. At the start of the lockdown, when basically everywhere you went all you could hear was coronavirus, it was difficult to shelter my eight-year-old from it. I wasn’t massively concerned about him because he seemed pleased about playing the PS4 a bit more, and to be honest I was delighted to have a break from the hustle and bustle of the school run and spend some quality time with my boys. So he seemed fine and wasn’t massively fussed with “the rhona”, as he calls it.

Fast forward a few months though and I think that being thrust back into reality has left him ever so slightly windswept. We always take it for granted that he’ll just take everything in his stride but I actually think that this jump back into normality and the grind of the daily routine, as well as going back into school after nearly six months off, has caused him a little anxiety. I mean who wouldn’t after getting to spend six months on the PlayStation, going to the park when you feel like it and watching YouTube most nights?

And so now I realise that getting back to a routine so sharply and promptly has come at a cost to his mental health. The last two weeks he’s been sick most nights just before going to bed. He starts talking about not feeling good then throws up.

He asks me to tell him all the good things about the day ahead and I can see that the lockdown lows are now manifesting themselves in the form of anxiety.

I do blame myself although I try very, very hard to shield my anxiety from him, but I can relate to his feelings which I hope gives him some comfort. It’s all happened since returning to school and I can only put his recent anxiety down to post-lockdown symptoms. It’s not nice to see. He asks us what’s making him feel like this and is confused. He knows he’s not feeling good but doesn’t know why.

With Childline warning a few years back that the numbers of kids suffering anxiety has risen sharply, I can only imagine how the last six months are impacting most kids’ mental health. I wonder just how many children out there are anxious, upset and worried but actually don’t even know why. The lockdown surely has brought on a whirlwind of emotions for most children to make sense of.

It’s not nasty kids at school because he’s loving his new class (we’re away from a kid who was always baiting him or trying to get a rise out him, and the mum was the same with me – the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree and all that!) and has a good group of friends around, has fun every day, and yet, there is still something making him feel upset and my mother’s gut instinct is “child anxiety”.

Since our children have been through so much already this year, I’d gladly welcome the addition of some mental well-being chat in our schools and a rethink on how we handle child anxiety as I bet I’m not the only parent with a kid who’s a bit anxious since returning to the daily routine of school.

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