I think whoever gets sick would just sleep in the master bedroom which has a bathroom attached & TV. The other person I guess would have to sleep in the basement on the pullout couch. We don’t have a spare bedroom. If sickness wasn’t the issue, I would have two of my kids double up in a bedroom and take one of their rooms - but I think in this case I would want to keep us all apart as much as possible to try to keep as few people as possible from getting it.

Similar to you (11 month old, 3 year old, 8 year old), both working from home. It's complete chaos, and you seem much more on top of things than I could possibly express! But if one of you got sick, that person would isolate, and the other person would tell work they're 100% on parenting duty, and everything other than feeding and keeping alive would go out the window. No one needs home schooling in that situation. If I get sick, I fully expect DH will serve breakfast 3 meals a day, with TV in the morning and a movie in the afternoon. But that won't permanently damage anyone for a couple of weeks.

Our nanny would take DS to her house (she lives alone) and my mother would fly in.

If you got the virus and needed to be hospitalized, there is no way in hell they’d let you see your kids or even your husband.

I’m a single parent. I’ve already checked with my plan A (sister), plan B (my cousin) and plan C (my aunt). None of these families are high risk. And my kids are very familiar with them all.

I’ve been teaching my kids how to make basic meals. They are in 4th and 5th grades.

I have thought about this as DH works in a hospital. If he gets it, I’d just make him stay in our master bed/bath area for a couple weeks while I sleep on the couch. Although imagine if he got it, we all would and we would just quarantine in our house and survive off of Mac and cheese and bread for a couple weeks.

Anonymous wrote:I was up in the night last night thinking about this and mentioned to DH this morning that we should discuss and he is unconcerned. We don’t have family nearby. If we both end up sick and one/both of us end up hospitalized I think we’d have to ask the youngest healthiest set of grandparents or my brother (who has 3 kids of his own but is not at risk) to come get our 4 and 1 year old. But it would take them a day to get here, so I assume CPS steps in? And they’d have to take the kids back to their home state?

We have paper plates and easy foods on hand anyway. As far as isolating in the home, I’ve read conflicting information on whether that is necessary or effective and so that is a decision we’d make based on medical advice at the time.

Do you have a neighbor or friend to take them for a day? I am isolating but in a situation like that I’d take a friend’s small kids till the gparents arrive..I’d do it for nearly anyone I knew.

Back off homeschooling the 4 year old. This needs to be sustainable and you need to take care of your physical health foremost.

Anonymous wrote:I was up in the night last night thinking about this and mentioned to DH this morning that we should discuss and he is unconcerned. We don’t have family nearby. If we both end up sick and one/both of us end up hospitalized I think we’d have to ask the youngest healthiest set of grandparents or my brother (who has 3 kids of his own but is not at risk) to come get our 4 and 1 year old. But it would take them a day to get here, so I assume CPS steps in? And they’d have to take the kids back to their home state?

We have paper plates and easy foods on hand anyway. As far as isolating in the home, I’ve read conflicting information on whether that is necessary or effective and so that is a decision we’d make based on medical advice at the time.

I've also read conflicting things about whether it is really necessary to quarantine in your own home. We are in a 2 bedroom condo so it's not much of an option for us

I was up in the night last night thinking about this and mentioned to DH this morning that we should discuss and he is unconcerned. We don’t have family nearby. If we both end up sick and one/both of us end up hospitalized I think we’d have to ask the youngest healthiest set of grandparents or my brother (who has 3 kids of his own but is not at risk) to come get our 4 and 1 year old. But it would take them a day to get here, so I assume CPS steps in? And they’d have to take the kids back to their home state?

We have paper plates and easy foods on hand anyway. As far as isolating in the home, I’ve read conflicting information on whether that is necessary or effective and so that is a decision we’d make based on medical advice at the time.

If one of us gets sick then they are moving to the guest bedroom, or the healthy one is more likely. Then they have their own bathroom, bed, internet, and television. Food will be dropped off at the door. Both of us will take sick leave, and we will hopefully manage. If we are both sick and end up in the hospital I've got local siblings that would step in for my kid.

Would Social services/ foster care be an option. That’s our last resort if we go down.

As for food, I'm not letting us get into the boxed mac and cheese yet. Frozen pizza, mac and cheese, cereal, and PBJ can keep people fed for a few weeks with minimal effort. If Trader Joes is your grocery store of choice, they have frozen microwavable rice that can be mixed with a can of beans for a healthy, minimal effort meal. Maybe get some paper plates and utensils just to have in case?

And if you're both sick, you obviously can just give up on the home schooling and put the big ones in front of the TV for as long as they'll watch.

OP I've wondered about this too. All of our family lives far away and our nanny is due to give birth in a couple weeks.

If we both end up in the hospital, I honestly don't know what we'd do. I'm assuming we both wouldn't go in at the exact same time, and if one of us goes in, we'll have to come up with a plan asap.

You could prep meals now to freeze them so whomever is home alone just has to heat things up.

DH brought it up this morning that we should have a plan if one of us happens to get sick and needs to quarantine and/or be hospitalized. Just curious if others are having these discussions too and if you have made any specific arrangements. I think if one of us needs to be hospitalized there isn't much to prep for, and we have to do whatever is needed, but I am curious especially for those with young kids how you would handle being away from your kids for 14 days if sick and in quarantine. Will you actually stay away from your kids for two full weeks? And, what happens if the other parent gets sick at the same time?

We have 3 kids - an 11 month old, 4 year old and 7 year old... and we are barely hanging in there with two healthy parents working full time, home schooling two of the 3 while also and dealing with a baby and serving/cleaning up from 3 meals per day for all.

Is there anything we can do to "prep' to ease the burden for whomever becomes the default parent?