‘Has being faced with our vulnerability made us recognise the importance of our families?’
Sisters of mercy: changes to family life under lockdown have much to teach us, says psychologist Val Parker
During these strange and surreal times, as we all try to adjust to a world in which life as we knew it has been turned upside down, I have been observing families closely. Through my work as a psychotherapist I know something about the considerable strain and desperation experienced by many – not just coping with regular sibling quarrels and sulky teenagers, but literally feeling on the edge of managing. I have spoken to parents at the end of their tether trying to work and parent and teach their children. I have spoken to parents who fear the future – who have lost their jobs, who don’t know how they will survive – and to parents who are desperately unhappy, who feel imprisoned and forgotten, or who are being abused or harmed.
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