Social Distancing and my kids' sanity: what are you guys doing - honestly?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I seriously feel bad for some of you. The level of anxiety disorder you must have to be borderline shut ins must be hard to live with.

All these kids I know hanging out and no one has corona yet. Lol

Why do you assume anxiety?
We prefer to be cautious.
There is sure to be another spike and we have no wish to contribute to it.
The vaccine will be distributed early next year. I’m a research scientist in a related field and am confident of this.
It’s all rather simple, really.

So your plan is to completely quarantine your family until there is a vaccine plus the time it takes to distribute the vaccine across the country?

I'm not that PP, I'm a new poster who works in the Covid ICU and stands there with patients while the die alone after they're taken off life support. I've been doing this for months, in a heavily hit area of the East Coast.

Yes, that's actually our plan, snarky PP. Like the scientist PP, I have no need to contribute to additional infections, and deaths, so that my teen can eat pizza in person with his buddies.

Have you told your teen you've decide he'll have no life or education for the next 3 years? Or maybe ever?

And it's the more cautious people you're calling hysterical?

[Anonymous]

Loads of magical thinking here to bargain with risk.

[Anonymous]

We have a 6 year old, a 4 year old, and a 2 month old. We are only doing outside play dates with masks on with one family. Kids have been trained not to touch each other and keep masks on. We also do playgrounds if the playground is empty (will go to a field if not. I have 3 friends who come by once month in my driveway outside and we stay more than six feet apart and wear masks. Otherwise the kids and us are totally and completely social distancing. Husband goes to grocery store once every two weeks. At this point we’ve been doing this for close to 5 months. I feel bad but I don’t want to contribute to the spread, nor do I want to die alone in a hospital. Or even be alone in a hospital for a week.

[Anonymous]

PP here. To clarify it’s three different friends that come one on one, and we stay probably a bit more than 12 feet apart.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a 6 year old, a 4 year old, and a 2 month old. We are only doing outside play dates with masks on with one family. Kids have been trained not to touch each other and keep masks on. We also do playgrounds if the playground is empty (will go to a field if not. I have 3 friends who come by once month in my driveway outside and we stay more than six feet apart and wear masks. Otherwise the kids and us are totally and completely social distancing. Husband goes to grocery store once every two weeks. At this point we’ve been doing this for close to 5 months. I feel bad but I don’t want to contribute to the spread, nor do I want to die alone in a hospital. Or even be alone in a hospital for a week.

Your kids lives are over. Please go tell them this is their existence for the next 18 months, and see how they react.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a 6 year old, a 4 year old, and a 2 month old. We are only doing outside play dates with masks on with one family. Kids have been trained not to touch each other and keep masks on. We also do playgrounds if the playground is empty (will go to a field if not. I have 3 friends who come by once month in my driveway outside and we stay more than six feet apart and wear masks. Otherwise the kids and us are totally and completely social distancing. Husband goes to grocery store once every two weeks. At this point we’ve been doing this for close to 5 months. I feel bad but I don’t want to contribute to the spread, nor do I want to die alone in a hospital. Or even be alone in a hospital for a week.

Your kids lives are over. Please go tell them this is their existence for the next 18 months, and see how they react.

Please seek help. You are off your rocker, and a bully.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are following the VA guidelines but that still lets us have Outdoor play dates, indoor play dates with one friend, little league, swim team lap swimming, soccer camp in two weeks, etc.

Same. We are following our state’s guidance - playgrounds are open as is other outdoor activities. They can meet up with individual friends outside. No big groups. Kids are 11 and 9

Look how that worked out on Texas and Florida. Be smart.

Yes, it's that playground-spread that's driving Texas and Florida's numbers.

It's too bad we can't have a mature conversation. If you have information that COVID avoids playgrounds, share it. I've been to parks and playgrounds recently because we have been going stir crazy, and people are idiots. From what I can see, yes, it is likely there will be COVID19 spread at playgrounds.

[Anonymous]

My 15 yr old is an introvert. He talks to friends via discord. He has not asked to see any friends yet. My 13 yr old has seen two friends so far. She is masked and outside only. It’s been twice for about an hour. That’s all we are allowing. It helps that that’s all her friends parents are comfortable with and allowing as well.

[Anonymous]

We are being very careful in general (i.e. we haven't been to any store or restaurant or in anyone else's home since March), but we are letting our children (ages 6 and 9) get together with friends outside while wearing masks. We insist that all the children wear masks, and we encourage them to stay 6 feet apart. We feel like the combination of outside (always), masks (99.5% of the time), and distance (85% of the time) is enough that the risk is low. And of course we and the other parents all keep a greater distance from each other and wear masks 100% of the time since it seems that we adults are more likely to get it or spread it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our kids are allowed to play with other kids only if all are wearing masks and continue social distancing. Only a few kids are willing to abide by those rules, and those are the only playdates (outdoors) allowed.

This is a sound strategy. If the kids are desperate enough to meet in person, they will abide by the conditions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a 6 year old, a 4 year old, and a 2 month old. We are only doing outside play dates with masks on with one family. Kids have been trained not to touch each other and keep masks on. We also do playgrounds if the playground is empty (will go to a field if not. I have 3 friends who come by once month in my driveway outside and we stay more than six feet apart and wear masks. Otherwise the kids and us are totally and completely social distancing. Husband goes to grocery store once every two weeks. At this point we’ve been doing this for close to 5 months. I feel bad but I don’t want to contribute to the spread, nor do I want to die alone in a hospital. Or even be alone in a hospital for a week.

Your kids lives are over. Please go tell them this is their existence for the next 18 months, and see how they react.

I just told my 9 and 6 year old and they laughed and kept playing together. Quarantine is easy at this age. But if I had teens like OP, a different story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our kids are allowed to play with other kids only if all are wearing masks and continue social distancing. Only a few kids are willing to abide by those rules, and those are the only playdates (outdoors) allowed.

This is a sound strategy. If the kids are desperate enough to meet in person, they will abide by the conditions.

Twice in the last week I've seen tween/teen girls sitting on the grass, ten feet apart, chatting and looking at their phones, etc. They were clearly able to follow simple rules.

Also seen other kids with no masks, not socially distancing at all. They look like no one has told them we're trying to beat a pandemic. They and their families are the weakest links.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a 6 year old, a 4 year old, and a 2 month old. We are only doing outside play dates with masks on with one family. Kids have been trained not to touch each other and keep masks on. We also do playgrounds if the playground is empty (will go to a field if not. I have 3 friends who come by once month in my driveway outside and we stay more than six feet apart and wear masks. Otherwise the kids and us are totally and completely social distancing. Husband goes to grocery store once every two weeks. At this point we’ve been doing this for close to 5 months. I feel bad but I don’t want to contribute to the spread, nor do I want to die alone in a hospital. Or even be alone in a hospital for a week.

Your kids lives are over. Please go tell them this is their existence for the next 18 months, and see how they react.

8
I just told my 9 and 6 year old and they laughed and kept playing together. Quarantine is easy at this age. But if I had teens like OP, a different story.

Well, you do you. My kids are playing with friends at the park before our house and having the time of their lives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I seriously feel bad for some of you. The level of anxiety disorder you must have to be borderline shut ins must be hard to live with.

All these kids I know hanging out and no one has corona yet. Lol

I have a friend who is a nurse at INOVA. She is exhausted. I think it’s insanely rude to our local medical staff to take silly risks. My older kid is allowed to bike with the neighbor kids, but nothing indoors, or within six feet. When we go on
hikes, we wear masks when within six feet of others. We have double bubbled with my parents, so we don’t wear masks around them. Yes, it’s sad for my kids. But it would be sadder if my nurse friend caught Coronavirus and suffered major organ damage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a 6 year old, a 4 year old, and a 2 month old. We are only doing outside play dates with masks on with one family. Kids have been trained not to touch each other and keep masks on. We also do playgrounds if the playground is empty (will go to a field if not. I have 3 friends who come by once month in my driveway outside and we stay more than six feet apart and wear masks. Otherwise the kids and us are totally and completely social distancing. Husband goes to grocery store once every two weeks. At this point we’ve been doing this for close to 5 months. I feel bad but I don’t want to contribute to the spread, nor do I want to die alone in a hospital. Or even be alone in a hospital for a week.

Your kids lives are over. Please go tell them this is their existence for the next 18 months, and see how they react.

8
I just told my 9 and 6 year old and they laughed and kept playing together. Quarantine is easy at this age. But if I had teens like OP, a different story.

Well, you do you. My kids are playing with friends at the park before our house and having the time of their lives.

Yes, this is our community, too. I live up north. Everyone playing and swimming and laughing. It is going to be a good summer for these kids.

My son is so much happier and relaxed now that he's out.