What do they expect people with infants/toddlers to do?
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Anonymous
Yeah, mine has always been in a very safe environment from an infection control perspective--a tiny group with three kids who are the same age (within a month of each other) including mine, the other parents all work in low-risk occupations. |
Anonymous
Please - your very young children have zero "mental health needs" regarding daycare. Your child needs a safe and loving family. A few playdates - find another family and hike in the woods. I don't care if you send your kid to daycare or not, but this narrative that extremely young kids are experiencing some kind of mental health hardship because they are not going to daycare is absolutely ridiculous, especially in the face of real mental health concerns that other are facing. |
Anonymous
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https://www.propublica.org/article/what-parents-should-know-about-coronavirus-as-kids-return-to-babysitters-day-cares-and-camps
There’s also a hopeful nugget of information out of New Jersey. We called the state’s Department of Health to see if COVID-19 had been spreading within the child care centers that had opened April 1 to serve children of essential workers. There have been no reports of outbreaks of two or more cases, an official said. “That’s more than interesting, it’s absolutely entrancing!” said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor and infectious disease specialist at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. “That will encourage us to open the schools. It’s in line with other countries that have not closed their schools, or have only modified their school attendance somewhat.” |
Anonymous
Clearly you did not read OP’s post. Daycares in MD are currently only available to essential personnel. |
Anonymous
...And her spouse is a healthcare worker. |
Anonymous
OP here. And not that it matters, but I'm the dad. My DW is the health care worker. Either one of us could qualify as essential personnel. We're both teleworking, although fairly soon expect to have to start going in in-person. Staying home doesn't really solve the problem, though. It's not like we can do telemedicine visits and teleconferences while simultaneously watching infants/toddlers. To be clear, I'd really like to see them basically just let daycares open up, with parents and providers being allowed to accept the risks based on their own circumstances. I understand some additional rules may need to go in place, but it shouldn't be nearly as arduous as the regulations and processes they've set up. As I mentioned in a previous comment, I think a lot of the rules being put on essential personnel daycares are largely for show, with a lot of effort going into cleaning surfaces when that's not even thought to be the primary means of transmission. The simple fact is that child care will be relatively risk situations, since there's only so much control you have over small kids. But it's a necessary evil unless you want to devolve into a months-long version of The Purge. Accepting that the above is probably unlikely, what I'd alternatively like to see is greater flexibility on informal care arrangements. Right now they've largely deregulated child care for up to 5 unrelated, school-age children. I'd like to see them eliminate that age restriction in some way. I recognize you wouldn't want someone watching five infants. So, if you don't think you can just leave that to parents to deal with, they could say something like 5 kids, with no more than 2 under the age of 3. Or something like that. Alternatively, just temporarily lift the 20 hour/month restriction on other forms of unlicensed care already allowed under existing regulations. |
Anonymous
| I agree, OP. So much of this is public health theater that I can't believe will protect kids or teachers very much. Very sensible recommendations. |
Anonymous
Are 4 year olds “extremely young”? These ages are stuck in the middle of infants who don’t need external (to family) socialization and those older kids who can enjoy socialization benefit from zoom and the like (which, though not ideal, is something). To act as if these children will be totally fine just socializing with their family until we have a vaccine that may never come is absolutely ridiculous. |
Anonymous
It’s the best they can do to avoid acknowledging that teachers are in a high risk position. The rest of the country is considering whether or not it’s going to be safe to open schools and colleges this fall, primarily because of the risk to teachers and staff. Meanwhile, many childcare workers have been working the whole time, often without masks and never with distancing. If the country drops all precautions and deems large groups of unmasked children to be safe, all schools must go on. |
Anonymous
+1 Any kid that is in a setting where they are doing hybrid live/online is probably in a 4s class. That's old enough where kids do enjoy and benefit from socialization with a cohort of familiar peers. it's also an age where kids are starting to prep for the routines of kindergarten, which is a harder adjustment to make around here because the days are really long. |
Anonymous
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I have a 4 y/o. Both DH and I have been teleworking and splitting the childcare. For March and April his was doable, but we were limping along feeling like both terrible parents and terrible employees. We had been paying for our kid's preschool, which has been sending daily video lessons and obviously doing their best under the circumstances to still deliver value. My daycare recently announced they are reimbursing 50% of the cost for the remote months, which I appreciate but has not yet materialized.
In May we broke down and have been hiring a college kid to come from 10-3 3x a week at $20/hr to just let us get some dedicated time on work projects and give our kid a break from TV as a babysitter. A lot of the former modest travel budget and gasoline budget has been reallocated to the extra childcare. These are ridiculous times, but we are better off than most: 1) we have jobs that can be done from home and our employers have been understanding and flexible 2) my daycare has promised to bear part of the financial pain 3) I have previously vetted college kids who are willing to provide care 4) we are not overextended financially and there is room in the budget to cover extra childcare costs 5) DH pulled his weight and covered AT least 50% of the childcare in March when my job in finance was insane There is a major lack of satisfactory policy response on how to handle a shutdown while helping working parents. It's ridiculous but here we are. |
Anonymous
Nobody is saying there is some kind of mental health crisis with these kids. But a 4 year old's wellbeing is enhanced by being around and learning from his/her peers. |
Anonymous
Everyone’s is...from infants to adults. The current situation is not ideal, but it is temporary |
Anonymous
Maybe, maybe not. Changes every week. Even if everything opens this summer I suspect we will be right back in shutdown mode in the fall, unless everyone just gives up and accepts a higher degree of illness/death. |
Anonymous
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Just want to point out that the risk for fall is not simply Covid. It’s Covid + seasonal flu and the other yucky stuff that happens when kids all return to school and are stuck indoors due to weather. Covid + all that other illness = terrifying crapshow (total FUBAR).
So, you are not preparing communities and schools to return to operations under Covid, you’re returning to operations under Covid and everything else that happens to public health in the fall. |