Are the Quarantines Good for Our Teenage Daughters?
About three weeks into our coronavirus quarantine, someone from the high school called to check on how my two kids were doing. We had received a fair number of emails from the school, but this personal outreach was nice. I eagerly shared the possibly unexpected news that my daughter, a freshman, was absolutely thriving! She is an introvert and suffers from sometimes severe anxiety, so much so that she is on medication. Since being quarantined, she has been so much happier, producing tons of artwork, reading 2–4 books a week, working beyond what is required for her classes, and rarely experiencing symptoms of anxiety.
I was surprised when the school administrator confessed that she had heard many such reports. She was happy to hear my daughter was doing well but was a bit distressed to hear so many girls were doing better at home than in school. After our call, I got to thinking about this.
Anxiety in Teenage Girls
Over the past couple of years, every parent of a girl that I met at sporting or other school events ended up revealing that their daughter was on anti-anxiety medication. Granted, we live in a small district and I am not especially outgoing, but to have 100% of those I met have a daughter experiencing extreme anxiety seems unreasonably high.
