PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – Dr. Jacqueline Del Rosario is a former educator and experienced relationship counselor whose internationally acclaimed Youth Program, “Recapturing the Vision” helps at risk youth get the tools to realize their dreams.
She spoke with Local 10 News’ Neki Mohan Sunday morning and provided some good advice on relationships surviving in quarantine while families face job losses, illness and children being home schooled.
Here are her tips to surviving these times.
1) The challenges of being quarantined with your spouse or significant other?
A) No space or alone time. I suggest separating and working in different rooms for a certain segment of time each day; to set a routine that replaces/mirrors your regular work days of Mon-Fri. This may be a little tricky, however when you are living in a smaller home, have children being home schooled or with multi-generational family home this tip helps to deal with the situation at hand.
B) Dealing with differences in how each person deals with the Corona pandemic stress and fear. I suggest talking about how you are feeling. A tip is broaching the conversation after watching the news or simply as you recap your day.
C) Roles may have changed to support the burden. You may have a parent now dealing with everything at home during the quarantine while the other is essential personnel or a front-line worker out all day and exhausted when they come home. This will require maximizing the time that you have together talking through what can be done to support one another as our needs may be vastly different now from what they were normally.
2) Opportunities to work on your relationship during this time.
A) Shift your energy from nervous anxiety to focused productivity. Take time to work on relationship and personal goals. If you aren’t sure of what they are it’s not too late to make a list and begin to map out tactical steps to achieve them. All you have is a lot more time now.
B) Still have a date night or romantic time together where you are not just in the same room, but together intentionally to love and nourish one another.
3) Some things that we all can do to make our relationships better now and before we get back to our busy lives.
A) Maintain the boundaries that you have set up now. It should be easier to keep it in place than to start afresh when things are back to usual.
B) Take the time to invest in your relationships now that you have the time. Break down the walls that have been built up over time and heal the wounds.
4) How do you support someone that is going thorough financial difficulty or job loss?
A) I always say doing instead of speaking is best when someone is in need in other words, “What can You do to make their plight better?” It could be dropping off a goody basket, a week of groceries, acts of kindness. Sometimes it’s as easy as giving information of resources that they can avail themselves.
The key thing is to act more than you say.
Click here for more on Dr. Del Rosario.