The Children Being Raised in COVID

Joshua Lasarte, SPORTS EDITOR

     Teenagers and adults can remember a time before COVID, they all have an experience of life before everything was shut down. What about the toddlers and the people who are no more than five years old? Meet Gen C: generation COVID. Although most of these kids don’t understand what’s happening, they are being heavily affected. For most people COVID is a normal health crisis, but for young kids it has become a mental health crisis.

   Gen C is a group of very young kids that haven’t got to experience their life like every other generation before them. Instead of having years of memories of vacations, parties, and hanging out with friends, all these kids remember is being locked in their house. They are being raised in their homes and won’t have the same experiences as the average child before them. The way a child acts and thinks can be heavily influenced by the way they are raised or where they are raised. These kids are being raised in a completely different world and it is defining who they are.

   Kids aren’t exempt from the normal dangers of COVID, they can be affected just like the rest of the world. Junior Ashton Banarsi says “It’s not affecting them as badly as adults because they’re still young with strong immune systems.” Children have the best chance of beating and recovering from COVID because they have very good immune systems. However, the main worry for Gen C will be their mental health. 

 The kids in Gen C who are going through development and transition points are the ones who are the most vulnerable. Newly born babies can become victims to overstimulation and lack the normal social skills a baby has. Just imagine what these kids have to go through, they will be raised in isolation then they will be thrown into the real world with no life experience. There is a great fear about the kids not knowing how to play with each other and that the kids become very antisocial. 

   Everyone had a standard of normal in their lives before COVID, but these kids have an extremely messed up definition of normal life. Almost everyone they see has a mask and they don’t get the enjoyment of just having a normal playdate with their friends. Children who experienced traumatic events but received mental help were helped, but Gen C can’t get the help they need because everyone is focused on ending the pandemic. Kids from different walks of life are all being affected differently.

   Not all Gen C members are being affected in a uniform way. The challenges they experience are seen worldwide but, the kids don’t experience them equally. So the way every child acts or everyone’s personality won’t be the same because of the different way each kid is affected. Everyone living through COVID is going through it in a different pathway, while everyone sees something similar they will all deal with it differently. A child’s age can be a major factor in the way COVID will affect their future. 

   One of the biggest factors on young kids right now is the way their parents are handling the pandemic. Children could unfortunately become victims to the mental health issues their parents could face which will greatly affect their future. The young kids who have to deal with that will also have mental health issues later in life due to the effect of their parents. Gen C has one significant tool that all other generations didn’t have, technology.

   Just like their parents are right now, Gen C will deal with their life completely virtually because that’s all they know. Sophomore Owen Galvin said, “Kids will probably end up being lazy.” With all the technology they will have, they won’t ever have to leave the house because everything can be done virtually. The biggest thing that will affect Gen C is the way others act around them, and they will rely on the current generation to shape their future.