As a senior member of the family, staying with your children and grandchildren, during this pandemic, you might want to help out your kids in running the house, but don’t know how or where especially since given your age you have physical limitations. Your son/daughter might be attending more to you during the pandemic to keep you safe and healthy, but with limitations on movement and social distancing, it might get a bit boring to be sitting and resting indoors.  

There are many articles that talk about how to care for the elderly people but not many to help you out with suggestions on how to be more helpful to those around you. So here are a few suggestions that might enlighten you with some ideas on how to involve yourself productively. 

 1. Be master of your chores: Continue doing your own chores, be it as simple as managing your medicine schedule, keeping away your clothes, settling your room or managing your wardrobe--once you start doing things on your own, you help your family with one less task on their to-do list. 

2. Be your grandkids tuition teacher and friend: Connect with your grandchildren by taking charge of their homework, playing board games with them, having meals with them or keeping them occupied with stories or teaching them crafts you know. This way, you can help the parents by taking these chores off their shoulders, giving them some couple time and also helping the kids stay intelligently occupied. It will also relieve you of your own negative thoughts as children tend to lighten up everyone’s mood. 

3. Be a sous chef: It is usually a thing that when your daughter or daughter-in-law is at home, she would be doing the cooking. But with restrictions on domestic help, everyone being at home through the day, including children, limitations on stepping out or ordering food, help them with simple kitchen chores. You can always pitch in to help in something as simple as chopping the vegetables, making cool drinks, cutting salad, or making tea for everyone whenever possible. This will help everyone at home feel relieved and less burdened. 

4.Spread kindness: It might get difficult for you to be locked up in the house. The growing death rate and severity of the situation might end up making you also anxious and scared. But try and focus on the little positive news and things around you. When you focus on these, it reflects in your approach and the vibe indirectly spreads to everyone at home. A simple thing that you can do to spread kindness and positivity at home is to appreciate. Make sure you appreciate your son/daughter or son-in-law/daughter-in-law for everything that they do. This will help them push through the difficult times more easily.