Originally posted on Boston 25 News.
At a time when parents are experiencing heightened stress and isolation in quarantine, an organization that provides parenting resources is seeing a spike in online traffic. The Children’s Trust, which partners with the state, reports five times more web traffic on One Tough Job than before the governor’s coronavirus emergency declaration, and 12 times more traffic on All Babies Cry.
With the mission of preventing child abuse and neglect, the Children's Trust empowers moms and dads with the tools they need to provide nurturing, stable environments for their kids. The websites consist of videos and articles with information and advice.
Intended to prevent head trauma to newborns, All Babies Cry provides stress relief and calming techniques for parents of infants - tips from how to hold and soothe babies to breastfeeding and sleeping advice. Part of the increase in web traffic is likely due to free access to All Babies Cry. The Children's Trust began providing a free access code to videos and information when the pandemic began.
But the spike is indicative of a much larger need for parenting support in these unprecedented times, Sarita Rogers, Deputy Director of Programs for the Children's Trust, told Boston 25 News. The increased interest isn't alarming, Rogers said; it's encouraging. It means families are doing their best to get help, especially without their usual support system while in quarantine.
"What we are encouraged by is that, even when families don't have access to neighbors, their friends, whomever they might have gone to in the past for support, they know or can find a resource that is starting to fill that need for them," Rogers said. "More than anything, parents want to know that what they are experiencing is normal, that they aren't the only one who has just about reached their limit in terms of frustration with themselves and how they're interacting with their child."