September 2020: Are your kids seeing friends?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes! Masked, playing outside. Sheesh, what are we doing to our kids? Let them see their friends, it's been 6 months. Have them sanitize their hands before and after playing.

"Sanitize their hands?" Have you been asleep since April? The predominant transmission risk has nothing to do with their hands.

NP, yes, this is true AND the time "fomite" transmission does come into play is when they touch their faces or eat something right after. With younger kids, especially, there's risk of them touching their faces (eyes/nose/mouths) more and not thoroughly washing hands before eating with them, etc. In terms of sanitizing or thoroughly washing before play-- lots of kids might have just eaten something or picked their noses or whatever before leaving the house.

Sanitizing hands really couldn't hurt, and could help *in a global pandemic*.

Like... there's a difference between thinking you need to treat all of your groceries to a bleach bath (we now understand this is overkill) and making sure your young child's hands are very clean before/after a visit to a playground with friends.

[Anonymous]

Yes, at school, at sports (outdoor, non-contact ones), and outside. We also do indoor playdates with the one girl in the other family we are teamed up with and carpool with.

[Anonymous]

Yes, encourage social activities as much as possible. Happy for children to play outside and inside without masks.

[Anonymous]

Yes. Indoors without masks. Sleepovers trips to the mall/fast food (those are masked). Senior in HS

10th grader is doing distance learning at friends houses. No masks. Also sleepovers.

[Anonymous]

Yes.

Masked and distanced for tennis or kicking the soccer ball back and forth or playing nintendo switch games together outdoors (evenings usually).

Unmasked for (separate) picnic dinners or lunches, usually before or after the above.

We have two same-aged neighbors on our street, and several times per week the kids will see each other outside and have a chat, appropriate distanced (meaning 10'+), sometimes masked.

These are middle schoolers so they're not climbing all over each other and they are good self-monitors.

[Anonymous]

Mostly no.

My kids are playing outdoor sports and will soon have the opportunity to attend school on a limited basis. We are prioritizing sports/physical activity and school over purely social gatherings. We do occasionally let them see one friend at a time, mostly outdoors.

[Anonymous]

Yes, only outdoors. No masks, but they’re actually good about keeping distance (10 and 12 year olds).

If we are in this for the long run, total isolation won’t be good for their mental health. And I’m one of the cautious ones in my circle.

[Anonymous]

Yes.

[Anonymous]

Socially distanced with adults to make sure of it, yes.

[Anonymous]

We let my son have two friends over for a backyard birthday party. We have one friend who we see regularly, and we limit it to that one friend.

[Anonymous]

Yes but outdoors only. Once Winter hits, they won’t be able to see their friends for a few months until spring. We will not allow indoor play/hanging out.

[Anonymous]

We play outside with friends for short periods of time each day. There are 5-ish families in our neighborhood that we see on our nightly dog walk and the kids play together, unmasked. Most days I would say for about 10-15 minutes, 2-3 kids total, all under age 5.

We had one of these families over for dinner a few weeks ago and the kids were on different sides of the playroom most of the time. Not intentionally, that's just how 3 year olds play I guess. No one else has been inside our house since March aside from one HVAC repairman in June.

[Anonymous]

Yes, outdoors. Follow the science, there is no data to support outside transmission. We are an active family and sitting around in front of a screen is not how we live our life. Our friends are the same. My daughter also goes to soccer and tennis. Zero issues with COVID outbreaks at the day camp she attended, her in person school and activities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, outdoors. Follow the science, there is no data to support outside transmission. We are an active family and sitting around in front of a screen is not how we live our life. Our friends are the same. My daughter also goes to soccer and tennis. Zero issues with COVID outbreaks at the day camp she attended, her in person school and activities.

DP,

Why do you think the only 2 options are either seeing other kids or "sitting around in front of a screen"?

There are kids who do not meet up with other kids and still play in their own backyards.

[Anonymous]

We have been organizing outdoor/backyard/park playdates for our son who is 5 with a handful of other families (5 families total). No masks if they're outside. We only let him on the playground if there are 2 families or fewer also playing on the playground.

We are letting DS into the house of one other family for school and indoor playdates.