Based on ongoing longitudinal research in families with young children, we investigate parents’ changing everyday experiences and health care practices of dealing with COVID-19 policies in the Netherlands from March to June 2020. We identify four key themes developing over time. In relation to evolving COVID-19 prevention policies, (a) the lockdown interrupted life and experiences of temporality. (b) Following the lockdown, risk management changed from fear to insecurities and (c) simultaneously, emotion management transitioned from solidarity to fragmentation. (d) Increasingly, pragmatic considerations allowed parents to tackle uncertainties and created room to normalize everyday life. We studied “change” by using a novel conceptual model for temporality and found distinct temporalities in parents’ accounts. In sum, we interpret this as a shift from danger to uncertainty, induced by policy shifts and pragmatically translating those to the lifeworld.

Based on ongoing longitudinal research, this article makes intelligible changing everyday experiences and healthcare practices of dealing with COVID-19 policies in the Netherlands. The article shows changing practices of emotion management regarding health risk constructions which are conceptualized and interpreted as a response to the political and policy context. We found various ways in which parents pragmatically interpret COVID-19 policies to fit their healthcare needs in all households. Our research brings various changes to the fore, which we differentiate conceptually using a novel conceptual model for temporality. During the ten weeks we studied, breaks or disruptions, gradual increases/decreases, cycles, phases, and uncertainties were visible. Negative emotions were initially managed by conforming to the call for solidarity in light of the construction of COVID-19 as a danger. The easing of restrictions provided justification for managing emotions differently and heralded different uncertainties. During this process, the perspective shifted from danger to risk.