Getting back to a new normal - which risks are you taking?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WORK - DH is working remotely and loving it. This will continue. I am SAHM.

EDUCATION - Kids are learning online. I have paid serious cash to enable online lessons for the rest of this year and next year. All other plans are a go.

SPORTS and ECs - What can be learned online is continuing. Rest has stopped.

EATING OUT - Not going to restaurants. We are doing curbside pickups occasionally and then transferring food to safe containers. Our best bet is our local chinese restaurant that is only taking online orders and will deliver food on your driveway and call you. Lots of social distancing.

CAR WASH - Maybe we will go to an automatic car wash. No detailing and cleaning inside. Using vacuum to clean up inside.

HAIR CUTS - Coloring and cutting at home.

GROCERY - Three places that we thought were safe with masks - our local Indian grocery store, korean grocery store and Costco. We are getting online orders from Whole Foods also. We were much more confident during the lockdown but we are absolutely heartsick now when people are acting like animals.

CLEANING PERSON. - Paying her but she will not be allowed to work in our house until the pandemic dies off. I am cleaning myself and it is hard.

LAWN MOWING -Person is still coming and mowing my lawn.

CONSUMER GOODS - Online.

TRAVEL - None.

SOCIALIZING - With a few close friends in open, staying far away from each other (more than 10 ft away) and with a mask. Mainly facetime and zoom.

HOME IMPROVEMENTS - Everything is frozen. Thankfully we do not have appliances that need repairing.

GAS STATION - Using our hybrid plug-in. Avoiding gas stations.

DR VISITS - None yet. Lots of stuff is overdue. We have used TeleDoc. No Vaccines are scheduled yet. We will venture out in July.

GYMS - Not renewed.

Are you paying your cleaning lady for an entire year or so and cleaning yourself?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No additional ones.

Telework, online shopping, distance learning, walking the dog, Facetime playdates, talking with neighbors from 8 ft away.

I will not contribute to a second surge.

You're welcome.

You’re welcome for my going to the hospital and all the other thousands of people providing your services. Gtfo yourself.

[Anonymous]

We are struggling with how much risk is too much. We're basically at home -- working, home schooling, ordering groceries, etc. We wear a mask when inside but not outside (walking the dog, hiking, biking).

Our mental health is at play here so we've started doing some "play dates"-- a socially distant, outside moms happy hour, kids play dates in the backyard. The adults stay 6-feet apart but the kids don't. I feel OK about that part at the time and regret it after.

But I know we can't truly self-isolate until there's a vaccine...we need to be around people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WORK - DH is working remotely and loving it. This will continue. I am SAHM.

EDUCATION - Kids are learning online. I have paid serious cash to enable online lessons for the rest of this year and next year. All other plans are a go.

SPORTS and ECs - What can be learned online is continuing. Rest has stopped.

EATING OUT - Not going to restaurants. We are doing curbside pickups occasionally and then transferring food to safe containers. Our best bet is our local chinese restaurant that is only taking online orders and will deliver food on your driveway and call you. Lots of social distancing.

CAR WASH - Maybe we will go to an automatic car wash. No detailing and cleaning inside. Using vacuum to clean up inside.

HAIR CUTS - Coloring and cutting at home.

GROCERY - Three places that we thought were safe with masks - our local Indian grocery store, korean grocery store and Costco. We are getting online orders from Whole Foods also. We were much more confident during the lockdown but we are absolutely heartsick now when people are acting like animals.

CLEANING PERSON. - Paying her but she will not be allowed to work in our house until the pandemic dies off. I am cleaning myself and it is hard.

LAWN MOWING -Person is still coming and mowing my lawn.

CONSUMER GOODS - Online.

TRAVEL - None.

SOCIALIZING - With a few close friends in open, staying far away from each other (more than 10 ft away) and with a mask. Mainly facetime and zoom.

HOME IMPROVEMENTS - Everything is frozen. Thankfully we do not have appliances that need repairing.

GAS STATION - Using our hybrid plug-in. Avoiding gas stations.

DR VISITS - None yet. Lots of stuff is overdue. We have used TeleDoc. No Vaccines are scheduled yet. We will venture out in July.

GYMS - Not renewed.

Are you paying your cleaning lady for an entire year or so and cleaning yourself?

I’m not the above poster, but I’ve been paying my cleaning lady to not clean since early March. I’ve been cleaning myself and miss the cleaning lady! I hope to have her come back sometime this summer. Not sure what the Fall will bring.

[Anonymous]

I was out this morning and the world looks different. Fully stocked shelves everywhere. More cars on the road. People socializing at outdoor shopping centers, eating outside.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Where do you stand as of now?

We plan on traveling for 4th of July.
No summer camps, but my kids have been playing with a couple of neighbors outside everyday since mid April.
No museum or restaurants yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are struggling with how much risk is too much. We're basically at home -- working, home schooling, ordering groceries, etc. We wear a mask when inside but not outside (walking the dog, hiking, biking).

Our mental health is at play here so we've started doing some "play dates"-- a socially distant, outside moms happy hour, kids play dates in the backyard. The adults stay 6-feet apart but the kids don't. I feel OK about that part at the time and regret it after.

But I know we can't truly self-isolate until there's a vaccine...we need to be around people.

100% Early on I made a decision that mine, my partner's and my 3 kids mental health would be more at risk with the isolation than the virus itself. (Mental illness background). So, kids have been playing, outside, mostly riding bikes, with other kids for some time now.

The world is full os risks, and eveyday we choose to engage in low risk activities, knowing that there's still a risk, but it's very low.

[Anonymous]

Just a note that I will be waiting for the next few weeks to see what happens in states that have already opened many things. I have coworkers in southern states that spent the recent holiday weekend having parties, going to indoor gym classes, restaurants, and even an outdoor concert. Compared to here in DC where people (myself included) feel panicky and guilty about a brief, unplanned outdoor conversation with a neighbor who is 8 ft away. I think that as a nation we are, intentionally or not, setting up a large-scale experiment about where spread occurs and from which sorts of activities. I hope there is more informative data soon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t feel comfortable with any of this... there was an outbreak at a hair salon this past week. Infected stylist infected many other clients.

We may form a family bubble with one other family who will co-parent with us for the next year. That is about it though. No stores, no socializing, work from home. This virus is going to spread like wildfire this summer. It is very sad. After 11 weeks Wuhan had pretty much eradicated it and reopened. Our state has over 1500 new cases per day after 11 weeks on lockdown. Everyone is acting like life has to move on. Not even sure what that means.

Wasn’t this on the national news? I swear some people shouldn’t be allowed to watch the news.

PP - you’ll probably get covid. It’s not going away.

Exactly. Don't live your life in fear. Everything has a risk. You drive? You can die of a car crash. Are you never going to drive again knowing how many people die every day in car accidents? Covid19 has a 99% survival rate. Certainly you can die from it, but it's not likely.

[Anonymous]

I’m going to do everything I can do if my gum or spa are open. I’m going. My favorite restaurant. I’m going.

[Anonymous]

I took my kid to a playground yesterday. There were no other kids there and it was sunny, so I figured the infection risk was low. My daughter was so so happy.

[Anonymous]

Great thread OP, thanks for starting this.

To date, we've gone to a grocery store once since mid-March, and only leave our house/yard to walk the dog on deserted streets. We have gotten takeout, but only takeout that can be reheated. We hope to bubble with another family this summer so our kids can have playdates with their kids. Likely limited to outdoors at first but we will not enforce distancing. We may let our children find one other playmate each whom they can also see outdoors but not positive about this yet.

We will continue to work from home for now. DH works at a university and it is unclear what will happen in the fall. I can WFH indefinitely.

No camps or pool this summer. We hope to drive to visit ILs (long drive) and if we are seeing anyone at that point, we will stop and quarantine for two weeks prior, as will they.

We will definitely send our kids back to school in the fall if it opens, which I really hope it will.

I'm going to ask my hair stylist if she will cut my hair in our yard for extra pay. If she won't I'll find someone else who will. We're willing to restart lawn care at some point with the service we use and we have plans to bring in a roofer to deal with a repair. I'm ok with outdoor access especially if we then stay clear of that space for a day or even half a day. We've been paying our cleaning lady and will continue to do so but I'm not sure when or whether we'll have her come back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t feel comfortable with any of this... there was an outbreak at a hair salon this past week. Infected stylist infected many other clients.

We may form a family bubble with one other family who will co-parent with us for the next year. That is about it though. No stores, no socializing, work from home. This virus is going to spread like wildfire this summer. It is very sad. After 11 weeks Wuhan had pretty much eradicated it and reopened. Our state has over 1500 new cases per day after 11 weeks on lockdown. Everyone is acting like life has to move on. Not even sure what that means.

Wasn’t this on the national news? I swear some people shouldn’t be allowed to watch the news.

PP - you’ll probably get covid. It’s not going away.

Exactly. Don't live your life in fear. Everything has a risk. You drive? You can die of a car crash. Are you never going to drive again knowing how many people die every day in car accidents? Covid19 has a 99% survival rate. Certainly you can die from it, but it's not likely.

But a lot of people who survive don't recover quickly and may never fully recover. We have a healthy 40-something friend who continues to struggle after 10 weeks. There are a lot of stories like this out there. There's more to consider than the chance of death when assessing risk.

[Anonymous]

Haircuts for the family!!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it's great for people who have such a strong conviction about how they want to live their lives for the next several months/years due to Covid - those on one side of the spectrum who don't plan to leave the house and will homeschool their kids until there is a vaccine or herd immunity, and then those on the opposite side who basically say F-it, my family isn't at risk so let's enjoy life and if we get it we get it.

Curious to know for those of us who fall somewhere in between, how are you deciding which risks you are comfortable taking and which you are not?

For us, I don't think we will send our kids to summer camp (if it does happen) just to buy time to learn more about the Kawasaki-like disease and Covid itself, but will 100% send our kids back to school in the fall if that is an option. We will take the risk of hiring a college aged sitter this summer to come entertain the kids because DH and I have to work and can't manage otherwise. If playgrounds open at some point not sure we would go since I have a 2 year old who sucks his thumb and the equipment has tons of germs regardless, but I think we would be open to playdates with a few other families who are also still being cautious. We don't have any family close by so sadly we won't see them for a while.

Right now the idea of eating inside a restaurant kind of freaks me out but I am sure I will come around one day, and at this point have no issues with take out. I can't imagine us flying or staying in hotels at all this summer, and maybe not for the rest of the year, but perhaps that will change and I truly hope it does since we usually visit my parents for Christmas and would have to fly.

On a personal note, as much as I would love to get my hair color done and a real pedicure, those are risks I don't need to take right now and I can manage without those services for a little while longer.

Where do you stand as of now?

Totally agree with everything you said.