How to not kill your kids during coronavirus lockdown!

PARIS: “I’ve put the kids in the freezer, so everything’s cool now.”

Parents may be joking on social media about their childcare as more and more countries go into lockdown with the coronavirus.

But child protection professionals are not laughing.

They have real worries about the risks with families locked up 24/7 together for an indefinite period.

“You will no doubt want to throw your children out the window at some point. That’s normal,” psychologist Moira Mikolajczak said.

“What isn’t normal, is to do that,” she warned, as she urged parents to give themselves a break and “not try to be Superman or Superwoman”.

While governments across Europe from Ireland to Greece have been having schools send lessons and activity ideas by e-mail to occupy bored children, social media is full of testimony from parents frazzled at having to be both teacher and playmate to their kids.

Grassroots groups, however, are trying to step into the gap with the French feminist collective #Noustoutes (“All of Us”), which campaigns against domestic violence, mobilising with Whatsapp support groups and practical tips on how

“not to blow your top”.

“Being locked down gives us the chance to spend lots and lots of time with our children,” the group said, tongue ever so slightly in cheek.

But when “we have to work from home and we are all stuck together in a small space, tensions can escalate.”

Its Whatsapp groups already have 4,000 members dispensing support and tips on how to stay zen.

First among them is “step away when you feel the tension mount (even if that means locking the toilet door)”.

Parents should also watch funny videos with their children, “and programme in ‘off’ times when you can be on your own... while someone else looks after the children”.

The main thing is to try to avoid “words or gestures... that can hurt and wound... because we can behave in ways that we will regret immediately”.