Be A Hero! Protect your grandchildren and yourself from COVID-19!

As a grandparent, whether you are the full-time caregiver for your grandchildren or are helping out while after-school options are closed, you are already a hero!

To make sure you can do all the things that your children and grandchildren count on, you need to take care of yourself.

Be close, but be safe

• Wear a mask, even indoors, whenever you are around your grandchildren or other family members who have been out in public.
• Stay home as much as you can. If possible, call on others to pick up and deliver your groceries, prescriptions, and other things you need.
• Don’t visit other people or invite them inside your home. Connect with family and friends on the phone or online.
• Wash your hands often. Make sure that grandchildren coming in from school wash their hands as soon as they come inside. Adults who come in from work or shopping or other activities should wash their hands, too!
• When your grandchildren come in from school, get them to change clothes immediately. Put their school clothes in the laundry basket right away. Adults who come in from work or shopping or other activities should change their clothes, too.
• When your grandchildren want to talk with friends, help them connect on the phone or through video chats. Or get them to teach you how! Don’t set up playdates or have friends come over in person.
• When your grandchildren play outside, teach them to stay at least 6 feet away from anyone who doesn’t live with you.

Be strong

One of the greatest things about having children is having grandchildren one day! As a grandparent, it’s natural to want to spoil your grandchildren a little—or a lot.

But it’s vitally important to make sure your grandchildren follow the rules that will keep them and you safe from COVID-19. No exceptions!

Be a role model

Your grandchildren look up to you, so it’s important that you wear a mask and follow all the rules to prevent COVID-19, too.

Even if you have negative feelings about requirements from school or government, don’t complain about them when your grandchildren may be listening.

Talk to your grandchildren about the reasons for these guidelines and why it’s important to follow the rules to keep themselves and others safe and healthy.

Be consistent

Learning new things is hard—hard for adults and hard for children, too.

Following all the rules all the time will help you and your grandchildren get used to doing them. You’ll be teaching them healthy habits. Habits that could save their lives—or yours.

It will help your grandchildren do them consistently, even when you’re not around to remind them!

Be a hero!

Your grandchildren are precious, and you want to keep them safe.

When you and your grandchildren follow the rules to prevent disease, you will be keeping them safe from COVID-19 and they will be keeping you safe, too.

Because that’s what heroes do.

M2367 (POD-08-20)

By David Buys, PhD, MSPH, CPH, FGSA, Extension State Health Specialist; Alisha M. Hardman, PhD, CFLE, Extension Family Life Specialist; Melissa Tenhet, Instructor and Director, Child Development and Family Studies Center; and Elizabeth Gregory North, Head, Agricultural Communications.

Copyright 2020 by Mississippi State University. All rights reserved. This publication may be copied and distributed without alteration for nonprofit educational purposes provided that credit is given to the Mississippi State University Extension Service.

Produced by Agricultural Communications.

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Extension Service of Mississippi State University, cooperating with U.S. Department of Agriculture. Published in furtherance of Acts of Congress, May 8 and June 30, 1914. GARY B. JACKSON, Director