Preparing Your Child to Wear a Mask at School

For many moms, our kids have been at home with us throughout the spring and summer, which means they haven’t had to wear a face mask for an extended period of time. But this will all change once school starts back up since many schools are requiring masks. This is just one of many changes we can anticipate for the upcoming school year. Fortunately, pediatricians, counselors, and teachers have all come up with great tips to make it easier for kids to wear masks at school.

Talk About Why Masks are Important

First, you need to explain why they have to wear a mask. Kids know this is different from the past, so you need to explain why this new rule is in effect in an age-appropriate way. For example, explain that wearing a mask is something we are doing for safety like how we wear seat belts in the car.

Childrens.com explains, “COVID-19 spreads mainly from person-to-person through respiratory droplets from coughing, sneezing or talking. A cloth face covering acts as a barrier to help prevent the spread of those respiratory droplets […] The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that everyone 2 years and older wear a cloth face covering, with the exception of anyone who has trouble breathing or is unable to remove their mask without assistance.”

Practice Wearing One Starting Now

Don’t wait until the first day of school to start having your kid wear a mask for a long period of time. Start practicing wearing a mask for long periods of time now. A good trick – have your child wear a mask anytime she uses a screen. Trust me, their love for screen time will quickly trump their hate of wearing a mask.

Play Pretend

Another way to encourage your kids to wear a mask at school is to let them play pretend. Allow your kids to put masks on their stuffed animals and dolls. Pretend to go to school and act out wearing a mask in class. This is also a good opportunity to demonstrate how to put on and take off masks. Your child may also like explaining to her toys why wearing a mask is important.

Have Family Members Model Mask Wearing

The best way to teach your child how to wear a mask is to wear one yourself. Kids will notice if you fail to wear a mask in public and will be ready to question why they have to wear one to school and you don’t. In addition to modeling it yourself, ask some of your other adult family members to model their masks for your kids. For instance, ask grandparents, aunts, and uncles to send photos or videos of them wearing their masks.

Allow Your Child to Choose the Mask

At this point, there are tons of masks options available. Let your kid pick out a mask pattern that she likes, and she will be more likely to wear it. Who knows? Mask fashion may be a real thing for students in schools and kids may want to have a “cool” mask like they want a “cool” backpack.

Get the Right Size and Fit

Last but not least, make sure you get a mask that is the right size and fit. If the mask doesn’t fit, your child will be uncomfortable, and it will make wearing it for long periods even worse. You may want to invest in some mask toggles that allow you to adjust the masks behind kid’s ears to fit them comfortably.

What tips do you suggest?