Caleb Verbois: How to talk to your children about coronavirus

My wife and I homeschool our children, so we did not have to suddenly tell our children “no school for the next month,” as we will still be having it. But we did have to talk to them about why we will not be able to do other normal activities, like swim practice and play dates, for a while. As it happens, my wife just finished a unit with our first- and third-graders on germs and sickness. They have been learning a bit about Louis Pasteur and the invention of some of the earliest vaccines, such as his vaccine to protect from rabies.

One of our family practices is to eat dinner together almost every night, and most nights at some point I ask, “Who wants to tell me something they have learned today?” Our children are still young, so this is a fun question, fun enough that sometimes they fight over who gets to go first, which is less entertaining for my wife and me. But we persist, as we want our children to develop the practice of learning, remembering and sharing what they have learned. So last night, after a couple of days of learning about germs and diseases and being told that they could not go to swim practice for the indefinite future, their answers were focused.

“Germs live inside of you and make you sick.” “White blood cells protect you from the germs, unless they get overwhelmed, and that’s bad.” “Vaccines help teach your body how to fight germs.”

But why do we have to stay home?

“Because we don’t want to get sick from other people,” or “Because we might be sick and not know it and spread the sickness to other people.”

That’s right, because this illness doesn’t seem to be particularly dangerous to children, which we’re thankful for, but children can get it, not even know it, and accidentally give it to others.

“Yes Mommy, because if I was the only person on earth with a type of cold virus, and I didn’t meet with anyone else, and the virus died in me, then the virus might die all over earth, except for some animals that might still have it, but if I gave it to three other people, and they gave it to three other people, and they gave it to three other people, then pretty soon lots of people might have it.”

That’s right, and that’s why we cannot go to swim practice this week. And why we are going to do school, reading books, playing games — and keeping our rooms clean.

“Daddy!! You always say to clean our rooms!”

This continued in a similar vein for a while. Meanwhile, our 4-year-old son, who is normally quite talkative during these conversations, had been busily pounding his chicken and sausage gumbo down with unseemly haste. Eventually, seeing the bottom of the bowl, and perhaps sensing the conversation was dying down, he reminded us of his presence with this memorable line:

“The moral of the story is: DON’T EAT BATS!”

We cracked up laughing, and said yes, we’ll practice social distancing for a while, pray for our doctors, leaders, family and friends, and hope that everyone, everywhere, stops eating bats. (Scientists believe the coronavirus may have come bats and jumped to humans in China.)

My wife and I will continue to remember this conversation fondly over the next weeks, even when our children’s “When is it going to be done!” requests threaten to drive us bonkers. Remember, this too shall pass, and “DON’T EAT BATS!”

Caleb Verbois is a professor of political science at Grove City College.