By Sampada Anuranjanee Khatiwada

Kathmandu, Jun 1: The threat of rapid transmission of the deadly COVID-19 has locked us all inside our houses. The two-month plus long nationwide lockdown implemented by the government to curb the virus spread has severely affected our lives.
The experts say that kids are more likely to be affected negatively by the lockdown as they may find it monotonous to be staying inside all the time.
"My daughter, who is 11, is always glued up to her phone. She is either watching cartoons or making tiktok videos," said Meera KC, a banker. "Although it feels great to see kids keeping up with technology, I am worried about how maximum screen-time would be affecting her mental growth."
"As I can't get her to do more activities like she used to in school, letting her play with the phone has been the only activity to keep her busy and unaffected from lockdown," said KC.
While children are found to be bored to be staying inside their homes, the online classes, however, are helping them to make the lockdown productive.
"Kids need more care and concern from their parents and guardians during lockdown," said Sushila Sharma, 43, a teacher. "There's not much that can be done during the lockdown. Most schools are operating online classes but they're not effective," said Sharma. "As children's minds are at rest, they might as well forget whatever had been taught in school, they might get over their studying habit, which will eventually affect their learning capacity."
Thus, parents must take due care of children during the lockdown. They must make sure that their kids are learning new things or keeping their learning habits intact without wasting more time on mobile phones or other useless activities, she added.
As the lockdown has limited everyone's lives within their homes, some parents are seen to be enjoying the free time and using it to bring out the best in their children.
"I am a mother of two sons, one is 12 and the other is 9 years old. When the nationwide lockdown was announced, I was concerned about how I would keep them active at home for so many days," said Nirjala Shrestha, 37. "While the first few days were difficult for them to pass time, we later came up with an everyday routine to make our quarantine period effective."
"It is important to keep the kids running in a specific schedule so that they don't laze around at home or get over the habit of studying," said Shrestha.
She added that she used to sit in frequent meetings with her children's teachers to graph an entertaining yet productive quarantine routine for her children. "The everyday routine of my children includes studying, practising free writing, language class, learning musical instruments and playtime," she said.
"I have been able to keep my children so busy that they don’t get time to keep their minds empty, they are always learning new things and I get to spend more time with them. The lockdown has become a win-win for me," added Shrestha.
A child's mind is more active if compared to adults. Their mind is able to grasp a lot of things promptly. Thus, parents and teachers must keep them busy in some activities to keep their mind active, the psychologists say.
"The lockdown has offered a lot of spare time to children. All they are doing is chilling at home. As when things will be getting back to normalcy isn’t certain, children being far from school, activities and education might affect them in a longer run," said Dr Prakash Budathoky, a psychologist.
"Their habit of studying and learning new things must be kept intact to ensure their mental growth," he added. "Thus, parents must make sure that their children are utilising the lockdown in learning new things, doing something productive, enhancing their skills and not wasting it on mobile or TV screens."