Prior to the pandemic, one of the biggest trends in 21st century childhood was the increasingly busy schedule. Kids’ after-school hours were crammed with soccer practice, art class, and piano lessons. Weekends were booked with dance classes, swim classes, and robotics club.
The result: kids had very little free time.
All that changed in March 2020 when the world effectively shut down due to the emerging COVID-19 pandemic. Parents and kids traded in their on-the-go lifestyles for online school and a homebound existence.
In qualitative interviews conducted by MLN Research in early 2021, parents said they were surprised to realize that their kids often didn’t know what to do with all their newfound free time and that during the first few months of being home day-after-day, a learning curve existed among kids when it came to how to fill their free time. Without some help from their parents, many kids automatically defaulted to technology to fill their time: “They need a lot of guidance with what to do with their free time. They always resort to technology first, wanting to go on their phones or iPads even if they only have 5 minutes of down time.”
For parents, this was an opportunity for new and different solutions emerged.
Many parents found success by gently helping their kids. “They need some prompting to get creative, but once they do, they always have a lot of fun.”
Some parents created new routines to give kids structure and consistency. “I have found that if I don't guide their free time and control the amount of screen time, they would mostly be parked in front of video games.”
Some embraced the time and used it as opportunity to change habits and develop closer familial relationships. “Before the pandemic, we were going to the math and reading learning center twice a week, Taekwondo twice a week, and taking swimming lessons once a week. We were always going somewhere. Now, we are learning to stay at home and focus on relationships and friendships.”
Still others let kids figure it out for themselves—and were pleasantly surprised by the results. “During the pandemic, I've noticed my daughter expand her imagination. She has more chunks of time throughout the day to stop and play, as opposed to a rushed afternoon after school and between activities.”
Despite different approaches, one thing was clear: more free time is a silver lining for what has been an otherwise hard year for kids. “My kids enjoy free time to do the things they don't always get to do. Their imaginations can run a little further than they did when we had limited time each day between school and after school activities.”
And how are they running further? In our research, kids said they were spending lots of time outdoors; they were honing new skills, like baking and sewing; they were educating themselves with resources, like Curiosity Stream; they were learning how to play new musical instruments, teach tricks their new pandemic pets, and so much more!