I'm sure most of you have heard the phrase along the lines of, "the little ones are always watching". Being the oldest sibling in my family, I have heard this phrase numerous times and every time, I proceed to brush off the idea that the younger ones were always watching. However, more recently, this phrase caught my attention when I was examining the many perspectives that are involved with the Coronavirus pandemic. I was curious as to what thoughts and feelings were swirling around in their somewhat little mind when the topic of the virus was addressed to them. Therefore, I proceeded to gather some information from a young boy by the age of 11 and see what his opinions were on the virus. While his responses were short, they made for a very interesting story. I started off our conversion on a high note by asking him some of the positives that he may see from the virus situation. His response was the highlight of the interview and set the stage for what I could eventually see was the reasoning behind most of his ideas. "You get to see your family more", he said. Then, it didn't matter that he couldn't think of any other positives because that one positive, in my opinion, is the best one of them all. The idea of family was brought up many times throughout our conversation. When asked about what he was concerned about most with the virus, he responded with the single word, "family". He went onto explain that he was scared that his mom or dad would contract the virus because they had to go to work every day since the businesses they work for were considered essential. However, when I proceeded to ask him to rate his overall worry about the virus on a scale from one to ten; ten being the most worried, he responded with only a five. He went on to explain that he doesn't think the virus will become a major issue in his area and that he doesn't think about the virus very often. I found that response to be very interesting. One would think that the many negative stories and statistics involved with the virus would make it's way to the minds of young ones. However, this was not the case. It was no coincidence that when I asked him what was helping him cope with the virus's effects, he said his family and God. I could tell by now that his story was all based on his family and nothing else. Now you can imagine that there were many other questions asked that didn't result in a family-related response. I asked him what negatives were affecting his life during this time. The responses included a lack of interaction with his friends, no participation in sports, and being restrained to his home for most of the time. Most of these answers were expected, but I could also tell he missed his friends. So much in fact, that he missed being at school and wishes he could go back so he could interact with his friends and teachers. I found it interesting that a young boy wants to go to school for a change. While I found these other responses interesting, they did not distract me from the main idea I achieved from that interview. I realized the thoughts and feelings of the young boy were directly affected by his family's reactions to the virus pandemic. When I closed the interview by asking him about the outlook of the virus, he responded with the positive idea that it would get better. Whether I refused to admit it or not, the little one was watching. I believe the young boy was not worried about the outlook of the virus because his family continued to have hope as well. Through all the madness, chaos, and negative outlooks that are involved with the virus, the young boy continued to have a positive outlook on the virus because he was watching his family experience the same emotion. Not just in times like these, can we learn a thing or two about how things are perceived through other's eyes.
