The Importance of Creativity During Covid-19 for Single Parents
Who would have believed it? There is no doubt that the Coronavirus pandemic has taken us all by surprise. Even those who should have been better informed on the risk of a pandemic sweeping the globe have been caught out! (Coronavirus: World must prepare for pandemic, says WHO).
Single parents who are busy trying to navigate the challenges and trials of everyday life in normal circumstances, have been hit hard by Lockdown. The loss of important support networks of family and friends makes them even more isolated and lonely than normal. It is an intensely stressful experience being a lone adult on constant duty with no relief. Lockdown has been an emotional and logistical rollercoaster; worrying about how to manage shopping, your child’s social isolation, trying to deal with home schooling, the demands of work or no work… and of course the challenges of co-parenting if you can’t trust your ex to do the right thing. Here are some comments from single parents who took part in the SPW ‘Creativity in Covid’ workshop:
“It (Covid-19) has left us feeling more isolated than ever before. We have struggled, feeling quite sad and lonely.”
“I am incredibly isolated as a lone parent with no support. Not only that but I’m self employed so my income has been massively affected. The one parent one child dynamic is intense and the lack of being able to have down time is impacting on my responses as a parent.”
“My daughter has missed her friends and cousins very much. I’ve continued to work throughout as a Keyworker so managing childcare has been a huge struggle. I feel incredibly guilty that I don’t do much home schooling as my daughter goes to a hub”
The Mental Health Foundation has published some useful guidance on parenting during the Covid outbreak. A study of the psychological and social experiences of Covid-19 , involving over 90,000 respondents across the UK, has found that the biggest negative impact on mental wellbeing is on those under thirty, people living with children, those living in urban areas, those with lower income levels and people living alone. Those with pre- existing mental health conditions have been hit the hardest. Their website features arts-focused resources that are aimed at helping us cope with the isolation of Lockdown and is well worth a look.
Creativity in Covid
There is plenty of evidence that taking part in creative activities can have a positive benefit to our mental health and wellbeing at all ages. Research has shown improvement in Children and Young People’s self-reported mood and self-esteem. It can help build confidence, explore identity and develop coping strategies in our youngsters. For adults, taking part in creative activities together really does help reduce loneliness (which can have a massive negative impact on our physical and mental health – even more than smoking!).
Single Parents Wellbeing (SPW) established “Creativity in Covid” to provide online support during the Lockdown. Funded by National Lottery Community Fund, the creative activities aim to build connections between parents and their children and with other single parents whilst restrictions make it impossible to take part in face to face groups. People have enjoyed making superhero worry dolls, a mini bug haven, painting fish and creating origami hearts, to mention just a few of the wide range of creative sessions over the past few months. So far there have been:
DURING LOCKDOWN MAY-JULY 2020
253 parents and children signed up to the online workshops
214 art packs were sent out to families
80 individual families took part overall
20 creative workshops took place over 3 months
SUMMER CAMP AUGUST 2020
We ran 3 FaceBook Lives where families were shown how to build a den, making positivity stones, build a bug haven, learn about astrology, calm jars and origami hearts.
Viewed on average 218 times
AUTUMN SEPT- NOV 2020
Kite and Yoga Beach Session
7 families attended Barry Isalnd Beach (others planned had to be cancelled due to Covid)
Halloween Crafts was attended by 9 families
CHRISTMAS ADVENT OF ACTIVITIES DEC 2020
59 families attended 12 workshops
Average of 6 families per workshop
YouTube videos created around crafts and cooking
Members took part in a Christmas joke video
3 Facebook Lives
Creativity in Covid Survey
Thirty eight single parents completed an online survey for SPW, all women and mostly aged between 30 and 49 (87%). Most of the parents had just one or two children although there was a brave parent who attended the sessions with three children!
Thirty one parents said that it was important or very important to take part in a fun activity with their children and join other single parents in a creative activity.
This was followed by reducing feelings of loneliness and isolation (N = 29).
Wanting to learn new crafting skills was important or very important for twenty seven respondents.
Twenty six parents thought taking part was important to help improve their mental wellbeing and twenty two thought that taking part was important to helping distract them from their worries.
The Creative in Covid sessions have made a real difference to coping with Lockdown. Families have been isolated, if support networks are limited then lockdown can be stressful and have a negative impact on mental health;
“We have been isolated from parents and other children. Our contact with the outside world to start was with people that have a negative impact on my mental health and this impacts on my children. SPW's workshops and community has really turned this around.”
The creativity sessions have allowed parents and children to spend time together outside of their normal roles;
“Gave the children a chance to see me doing something that wasn’t just about “Mum” they teased me about my craft and told friends they liked it etc, so ended up holding the picture up to the fence lovely memories”
Parents who have had to shield for health reasons the sessions have been particularly helpful both for them and their children;
“We have been shielding so the Internet has been our contact with the outside world, as a single parent I can go days at this time without adult conversation or interaction so it has been invaluable both the Facebook group and the craft workshops which I have been able to get on (some I missed out on as were full)
“I’m shielded, therefore I’m the only person my children have contact with. It’s lovely to see the joining with the activities with other children”
“For my health reasons I was isolated in March. So not allowed to go out to work or shops. All my family live further than 5 miles away. So being able to see and do things with other grown ups has really helped.””
In normal times, getting out to socialise and accessibility of activities can be difficult, so the online element was a bonus for single parents;
“It has had the positive of being together. And one of the positives is all the online stuff like this class which is great for being able to do fun things without worrying about transport etc”
SPW has been responsive and resourceful in offering online support with a variety of activities. As single parents themselves, they have personal experience in understanding the issues that make it difficult to maintain strong support networks in normal circumstances. This I believe has given a head-start to developing online activities that go some way to meeting the challenges of Covid 19. Other single parents think so too…
“It’s very lonely and stressful being alone with 2 children at home and trying to educate them, it was nice to have the zoom meeting with others in the same situation. It’s nice to know single parents Wales are trying to help single parents when the rest of the world had forgotten about them”
“Best activity in lockdown”
Thinking ahead Wales is slowing coming out of Lockdown but is still a long way from returning to normal. People are cautious about meeting up in large groups at close quarters, and with no prevention or effective treatment in sight for the virus, it is likely to return – at least in clusters. Everyone is learning a new way of ‘being’. One of my favourite programmes during Lockdown has been ‘Grayson’s Art Club’, hosted by celebrated artist, Grayson Perry, which showcases art made by people trapped at home. Grayson believes that everyone should do some sort of creative activity (art) regularly for the benefit of their health and wellbeing. He said in a recent interview;
“Any professional artist would tell you it’s very difficult to be very good, but that doesn’t matter. We should all go for a jog, but we’re not going to win an Olympic medal.”
Creativity in Covid is definitely something we should keep doing and something SPW can continue to offer – perhaps we can think about changing the name though!
In Wales, the Arts Council has been supporting activity in this field for some time. It was particularly gratifying in May 2017 to hear the Director of the Baring Foundation say that Wales ‘leads the world’ in Arts for older people. But Arts in Health work, so powerful in relation to dementia and the care home experience, is having beneficial impact across the full ranges of age, class and geography in Wales. And we need to do more.
https://arts.wales/our-impact/how-we-reach-wider-audiences/arts-and-health
https://vimeo.com/430381462/3479b074d6 Grayson Perry in the New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/22/arts/design/grayson-perry-artclub- coronavirus.html