Is everyone socializing now in larger groups?

[Anonymous]

Never stopped. Most of my friend got covid sometimes during the past year, randomly, so no need for vaccine. If I had to go to the office I could go visit my friends.

[Anonymous]

Starting to. Not all of us (adult friend group) are fully vaccinated yet, some in between doses. But we are making plans for larger gatherings in the next few weeks.

[Anonymous]

To the OP, have you asked your pediatrician how to handle the current situation? We are fully vaccinated and will get together outside with groups of up to 10 or so (including fully vaxxed adults and unvaccinated children). Our kids are young elementary. We will hang out inside or outside with larger groups of fully vaccinated people, but not bring our children. We are not worried about transmitting to our children because our pediatrician has advised that the risk is incredibly low.

[Anonymous]

We have been extremely locked down the whole last year. But we have started to see people now. Still mostly outdoors, but also occasionally indoors. Not sure what constitutes a large gathering for you, but we had three families over for brunch the other day. We sat on our screened porch, without masks and it felt great!

[Anonymous]

Yes. We have. All our friends are fully vaccinated and I'm not to worried about DS (had Covid over a year ago after I got it at work). The benefit of seeing friends again and being social far outweighs the risk of Covid for us.

[Anonymous]

We are basically back to socializing like pre-Covid. DH and I are fully vaccinated, as are all our adult friends and all our adult extended family. We have a 2 and 7 year old who are obviously not vaccinated, and most of our friends also have preschool and lower-elementary aged children; cousins are in this age group too. We allow the unvaccinated children to play together when we get together, both inside and outside. Honestly, I'm just not any more concerned about my healthy children catching Covid than I am about them catching the flu, and I don't alter my behavior for that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have been doing masked outdoor play dates this whole time. Haven’t started indoor ones because the weather is so nice, so why risk it?

Vaccinated people will be safe no matter what they do, so relaxing is science based at this point.

Our children are not yet vaccinated. That’s why I’m asking on here.

I am sure adults without kids or adult children can move on. I have 3 kids.

My DH and I are fully vaccinated, but we're still being cautious for the moment until our 14yo is fully vaxxed as well. I'm not worried about getting COVID myself, because I know I wouldn't get very sick even in the unlikely event I did get it, but I don't see the point in risking bringing it home to her. Not when she's so close to being vaccinated as well.

For us, "being cautious" now means sticking to indoor dining only in homes with other vaccinated people, not restaurants. We're now going to more indoor places where everyone is always masked, but anywhere you need to take off your mask has to be with only people we know are vaccinated.

Outdoors, pretty much anything goes now, other than large gatherings where we can't reliably maintain a reasonable distance. Before, we'd been doing outdoor dining in restaurants, but with only our household at the table. With other households, we'd stuck to our own backyards, where we could sit spaced and staggered, and not feel like we were breathing directly at each other every time we laughed. I'm not worried about that anymore, now that we and our friends are all vaccinated.

I figure we've come this far, and we know our kid is just over a month from being fully vaccinated, why take chances at this point? There's a lot more we can do now, and the weather is nice so DD and her friends are doing more outdoor socializing anyway, so it makes sense to keep our guard up until we're all vaccinated. We can do this.

[Anonymous]

Yes. The weather is also perfect right now. Plan a BBQ for this weekend OP. You can do it! Invite some friends with kids you miss. The kids will stay outside, the adults are vaccinated. Win win!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have been doing masked outdoor play dates this whole time. Haven’t started indoor ones because the weather is so nice, so why risk it?

Vaccinated people will be safe no matter what they do, so relaxing is science based at this point.

Our children are not yet vaccinated. That’s why I’m asking on here.

I am sure adults without kids or adult children can move on. I have 3 kids.

My DH and I are fully vaccinated, but we're still being cautious for the moment until our 14yo is fully vaxxed as well. I'm not worried about getting COVID myself, because I know I wouldn't get very sick even in the unlikely event I did get it, but I don't see the point in risking bringing it home to her. Not when she's so close to being vaccinated as well.

For us, "being cautious" now means sticking to indoor dining only in homes with other vaccinated people, not restaurants. We're now going to more indoor places where everyone is always masked, but anywhere you need to take off your mask has to be with only people we know are vaccinated.

Outdoors, pretty much anything goes now, other than large gatherings where we can't reliably maintain a reasonable distance. Before, we'd been doing outdoor dining in restaurants, but with only our household at the table. With other households, we'd stuck to our own backyards, where we could sit spaced and staggered, and not feel like we were breathing directly at each other every time we laughed. I'm not worried about that anymore, now that we and our friends are all vaccinated.

I figure we've come this far, and we know our kid is just over a month from being fully vaccinated, why take chances at this point? There's a lot more we can do now, and the weather is nice so DD and her friends are doing more outdoor socializing anyway, so it makes sense to keep our guard up until we're all vaccinated. We can do this.

PP here again: I will say that I might feel differently if I had younger kids. They're much less likely to be very sick, or have longer-term complications, than my 14yo, who is practically an adult, at least physically. And if there weren't a vaccine on the horizon for my kid in the very near future, I might make a different risk/reward calculation going into the summer.

[Anonymous]

Going to a barbecue with around 20 people on Saturday. Not the first time we've done that, either. About half and half kids and adults.

You should do what you feel safe doing. Different people have different risk tolerances.

[Anonymous]

Not back to normal, but getting there.

I'd be fine with a group of adults in our house as everyone who chooses to be vaccinated has been. I'm a bit more cautious with children, but am fine with 1-1 indoor play dates, or larger outdoor playdates.

Still not comfortable with indoor dining or movies or flying, but also none of those are a priority for me right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Never stopped. Most of my friend got covid sometimes during the past year, randomly, so no need for vaccine. If I had to go to the office I could go visit my friends.

Right?? The vast majority of COVID cases are mild, which is why almost nobody died.

Oh, no, wait-- that's exactly *why* so many people died-- because the vast majority of cases are mild. Otherwise it wouldn't have spread as easily.

[Anonymous]

With our ES kid, we have seen vaccinated adults inside and unmasked-- which has been awesome! Otherwise we stay outside and often also masked, though the mask part is easing.

I am going to see my unvaccinated denialist side of the family and am not bringing my kid. It sucks, but that's on them-- they won't stay outside and I'm really trying to see my grandmother, who can't really go outside or stay there long anyway.

I have almost no concern that my child will have a severe case if she gets COVID. But as it's always been, I'm more concerned with the effect of my and my kid's behavior on others moreso than on ourselves. I don't want my kid to get a mild case, spread it to a friend who has a mild case who spreads it to their aunt, who dies.

In fact, that's exactly how my uncle died-- and that side of the family is still in denial. They figured they had COVID, so even if they get it again, oh well, it's not that bad... apparently forgetting how they gave it to their mother, who was hospitalized, and their brother-in-law, who died.

But back to the question-- I think a lot of people in general are revealing how much they think of their children as extensions of themselves, and how little they either understand or care to understand how their actions affect people they may never meet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With our ES kid, we have seen vaccinated adults inside and unmasked-- which has been awesome! Otherwise we stay outside and often also masked, though the mask part is easing.

I am going to see my unvaccinated denialist side of the family and am not bringing my kid. It sucks, but that's on them-- they won't stay outside and I'm really trying to see my grandmother, who can't really go outside or stay there long anyway.

I have almost no concern that my child will have a severe case if she gets COVID. But as it's always been, I'm more concerned with the effect of my and my kid's behavior on others moreso than on ourselves. I don't want my kid to get a mild case, spread it to a friend who has a mild case who spreads it to their aunt, who dies.

In fact, that's exactly how my uncle died-- and that side of the family is still in denial. They figured they had COVID, so even if they get it again, oh well, it's not that bad... apparently forgetting how they gave it to their mother, who was hospitalized, and their brother-in-law, who died.

But back to the question-- I think a lot of people in general are revealing how much they think of their children as extensions of themselves, and how little they either understand or care to understand how their actions affect people they may never meet.

Before anyone asks why my kid can't see people who had COVID, 1) we don't know how long natural immunity lasts, 2) not all of them either had COVID or got a positive test, and 3) they obviously never stopped engaging in risky behavior and will not stop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With our ES kid, we have seen vaccinated adults inside and unmasked-- which has been awesome! Otherwise we stay outside and often also masked, though the mask part is easing.

I am going to see my unvaccinated denialist side of the family and am not bringing my kid. It sucks, but that's on them-- they won't stay outside and I'm really trying to see my grandmother, who can't really go outside or stay there long anyway.

I have almost no concern that my child will have a severe case if she gets COVID. But as it's always been, I'm more concerned with the effect of my and my kid's behavior on others moreso than on ourselves. I don't want my kid to get a mild case, spread it to a friend who has a mild case who spreads it to their aunt, who dies.

In fact, that's exactly how my uncle died-- and that side of the family is still in denial. They figured they had COVID, so even if they get it again, oh well, it's not that bad... apparently forgetting how they gave it to their mother, who was hospitalized, and their brother-in-law, who died.

But back to the question-- I think a lot of people in general are revealing how much they think of their children as extensions of themselves, and how little they either understand or care to understand how their actions affect people they may never meet.

This is how I felt before the vaccines became widely available. But now I don't need to be concerned about "the aunt" anymore -- if she is vaccinated, then she's protected. And if she chose not to get vaccinated, well sorry auntie, not my problem.