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[quote=Anonymous]Before the pandemic, I had a stable group of good friends in DC. I also had close friends elsewhere in the country, but by and large, none of them really knew each other other than the DC ones. During the pandemic, we left DC. I have 3 close friends in our new city: one is my sister, one is the mom of one of my older kid's friends, and one is someone I work with. I do not mind the more limited social life most of the time. It was hard around my birthday last year (I turned 40) because I kind of wanted to do something splashy and special and it was during that time in the summer before Delta, but at that time, I really only had 2 friends and it felt like a very sad birthday party so I didn't do it. The rest of the time, it hasn't really bothered me.

My kids, on the other hand? My oldest is in 6th grade. She made one good friend right away when school started after we moved, but because school was virtual, it had to be facilitated by me, the girl's mom, and the teacher in ways that just wouldn't have been necessary pre-pandemic. She has definitely made other friends, but the anxiety of being the new kid during a pandemic is getting to her. She has close friends whose faces she has never seen in person because they only hang out at school and are basically never allowed to take their masks off. That is sad - and I'm pro mask.

My youngest was 2.5 when the pandemic began. She lost 100% of non-family socialization between 2.5 and last September when she started preschool. I was anxious that it would be a difficult transition for her, but it was fine. For what it's worth, I never had a huge problem with her hanging out with other kids during the pandemic. The issue was more that once we moved here, I had to meet new people and people just are not socializing as much as they used to. Where I live, the ones who are socializing like normal are also generally anti-mask anti-vax COVID deniers of one sort or another and I don't want to hang out with them anyway.[/quote]

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