Man, when I saw the subject of your post I burst out laughing because I thought you were about to recount a hellish Touch a Truck experience. We took our 3 and 1-year-olds once, and it was indeed hot, hellish and crowded, and we vowed never to do it again.

I actually agree with OP - not sure about this particular thing, but I do think people are getting a new understanding of how much human contact we have with strangers.

In the flu season, I'm planning to keep up -- no handshaking, using more hand sanitizer, not even sharing drinks or food, etc.

I do think we can do better and it will help with flu and colds, to say nothing of more serious viruses.

I think these things will happen again eventually once there's a vaccine and/or antibody testing but people will be a lot more paranoid moving forward and will do things like wipe down the truck before letting their kids sit in it and give them hand sanitizer afterward. As for the indoor play places, I think some (most?) are going to go out of business unless they can somehow hang on for the next year or so. Even if we get to a point where there isn't a ton of community spread I think people will be anxious about going to places like that for a long time. Which is a shame because kids love those places.

Anonymous wrote:As long as the truck can give consent, it will continue to happen.

Ok this made me lol.

Nor will Colonial Day...

Once there is a vaccine (a year or eighteen months from now) I think this will start to look up. But I think we're in it for the long haul with multiple waves of this until then.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As long as the truck can give consent, it will continue to happen.

<3

Anonymous wrote:As long as the truck can give consent, it will continue to happen.

Oy

Anonymous wrote:As long as the truck can give consent, it will continue to happen.

You’re nuts. Take a deep breath

As long as the truck can give consent, it will continue to happen.

WTF?

You're delusional.

Eventually this will pass and we will get back to a normal life. What I hope comes out of this is research for a more permanent solution to coronavirus and flu outbreaks (research is already happening on that) and healthcare reform.

I do not expect--or hope--that normal events, like allowing kids to climb into a firetruck, will cease to happen.

I stopped taking the kids to those types of places a while ago because they'd always end up with some type of cold afterwards. Now I will most certainly never go to one again. Hard pass. I'm ok with people thinking I'm a germaphobe or whatever.

Unpack your reasoning, please. Avoiding things during an outbreak != never doing things again.

I was just thinking of what our Spring/Summer plans used to be, and one was Touch a Truck where kids could climb in trucks and blow the horns. Used to love the one in April at Lake Braddock. I can’t imagine that ever returning, even after this ends. Not sure how indoor playgrounds like Busy Bees etc will survive in the upcoming years.