We’ve only been doing outdoor meetups since we emerged from total lockdown in late June—both play dates and adult gatherings—but weren’t consistently masking when we were just with friends. We did a playground meet up two weeks ago where we knew 3-4 other families and everyone was masked because it was fairly busy with other people. One of the families came down with COVID less than 24 hours later but no one else we knew at the playground caught it. (We all promptly quarantined and tested.) It was definitely a wake up call that it’s prevalent again in our community and it’s time to suck it up and start consistently wearing masks even when it’s just two families running around a backyard. But we will continue to see people while it’s permitted outside—just masked.

I'm poor by DCUM standards. Please tell me "the help" isn't a commonly used term.

It's so offensive

I'm not sure. We did nothing until late June, but have done masked and outside and (mostly) distanced Playdates since then, with families that exclusively or mostly work from home etc. I think the decision will be made for me in the near term-- December we will either be strictly quarantined (not leaving our house or yard) for 2 weeks in anticipation of visiting my parents in late December, when we will be there. So December is out. Then we will see. Not sure how I feel about the next two weeks.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you live in an affluent area the numbers are low but becareful of your help

The help isn't the problem, the affluent families who are socializing are.

The help is what brings the covid into the home. I have heard of nannies giving the family covid.

Our housekeeper got covid but thankfully it was during a time when we put a hold on her services.

Well, thank goodness YOU were okay!

We have 2 friends we see indoors. Everyone else is outside only. I don’t plan on changing anything. I am a first responder ans spouse is essential so we need help with childcare. These two have helped out so we reciprocate.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Still doing some, outside and with masks.

+1

Which is what we've been doing all along. Masks and outdoors. Including kids.

Same. When it’s too cold to play outside, that’s when we are done. But I also invested in good outdoor gear plus fire pit plus patio lamps. I’m hoping it will be enough for a while.

Same. As an upstate NYer I think "too cold to play outside" is colder than it gets for most of the winter here - I'm more worried about weeks and weeks of cold dreary rain. When that happens i guess it's back to blanket forts and Legos.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Still doing some, outside and with masks.

+1

Which is what we've been doing all along. Masks and outdoors. Including kids.

Same. When it’s too cold to play outside, that’s when we are done. But I also invested in good outdoor gear plus fire pit plus patio lamps. I’m hoping it will be enough for a while.

Everyone around me pretty much gave up. A friend who is a nurse threw a huge indoor birthday bash.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No but I was considering doing masks even outdoors.

Considering? Just wear the damn masks. Jeez.

We don’t do indoors at all. It might have accidentally sounded like we did the way I phrased it.

Anonymous wrote:Still doing some, outside and with masks.

+1

Which is what we've been doing all along. Masks and outdoors. Including kids.

No, not stopping play dates or friend gatherings so long as it's outdoors, at least while the weather lasts.

If it isn’t outside, we haven’t done it since March.

And stop blaming COVID on “the help”.

We’ve had a few outdoor play dates but no adult gatherings since March. My parents lived around the corner for 5 months and they were our social life and our kids playmates. But they headed south and we really miss them and they just cancelled coming back for Thanksgiving and I’m sure the same will happen at Christmas.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you live in an affluent area the numbers are low but becareful of your help

The help isn't the problem, the affluent families who are socializing are.

The help is what brings the covid into the home. I have heard of nannies giving the family covid.

Our housekeeper got covid but thankfully it was during a time when we put a hold on her services.

And, the families can give it to them too. Not all of us have help... so its a non-issue.

We're still doing outdoors and masked, and I try to avoid anything that would put them right on top of each other (for instance, no watching videos on a shared phone even with masks, no whispering in ears, even with masks, etc.).

My impression is that people we know are being very careful about even family exposure -- so, for instance, we had a kid get sick with a 24 hour stomach virus or food poisoning and we isolated not only that kid, but the whole family for a week.

I think I'd also be more cautious if anyone I knew were traveling for the holidays, but I don't think I know a single person who is going anywhere.