Anonymous wrote:Honestly, it's a crapshoot, IMO.

I know our neighbors were never really too cautious. They have 3 kids and their kids always had friends over. All three kids have spring or summer birthdays, and all of them still had birthday parties in 2020 with friends. They still did their annual FL vacation in 2020, did their normal huge family vacation in 2020 where they rented a beach house for around 20 of them (including elderly members), flew a few times for mini vacations, ate out inside of restaurants as soon as they could, went to Disney as soon as it opened, and did the huge family Thanksgiving and Christmas parties with family. No covid for any of them.

My good friend always took precautions and didn't let her kids have playdates, etc. got covid when she had to go get bloodwork in order for one of her prescriptions to continue to get filled. It's the only place/way they think she could have gotten it.

I know what you mean. Same experience in my circle. I know a few people who caught the virus and all were very, very careful. Obviously, the middle class was protected in general due to the WFH, Amazon, UberEats situation. That said, I know one family who took almost no precautions - even attended a destination wedding - and never got Covid. In my circle, how careful you were does not correlate with infection.

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, it's a crapshoot, IMO.

I know our neighbors were never really too cautious. They have 3 kids and their kids always had friends over. All three kids have spring or summer birthdays, and all of them still had birthday parties in 2020 with friends. They still did their annual FL vacation in 2020, did their normal huge family vacation in 2020 where they rented a beach house for around 20 of them (including elderly members), flew a few times for mini vacations, ate out inside of restaurants as soon as they could, went to Disney as soon as it opened, and did the huge family Thanksgiving and Christmas parties with family. No covid for any of them.

My good friend always took precautions and didn't let her kids have playdates, etc. got covid when she had to go get bloodwork in order for one of her prescriptions to continue to get filled. It's the only place/way they think she could have gotten it.

Agree.

Anonymous wrote:No, of course I don’t feel guilty! Not one tiny bit. We acted in the best interest of our children and our community.

I know it’s going to be hard for my son to start school after seeing virtually no one but us and nanny for a year. But we’ll help him adjust and so will his preschool. He’ll be fine. He’s healthy and we, as a family, didn’t spread the virus to anyone.

This is the right attitude.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope. Not a bit. Having living parents was a much higher priority than anything he missed.

Are you fat or over 80?

DP. I know several moms in my online group who have long haul symptoms. Can't breathe after walking for five minutes, brain fog, exhaustion. That doesn't seem very fun.

Interesting. I know about 50 people who have had Covid and none have long term symptoms.

Anywhere between 10-30% of people infected with COVID have long haul symptoms. That's a lot. Some of them were mild or even asymptomatic, in the case of children.

https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20210219/a-third-of-covid-survivors-have-long-haul-symptoms#1

No. How many of them never tested positive for Covid? This is poorly understood.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not in this self-righteous liberal city!

Everywhere else, yes.

Why do you think the mass media stopped publishing how low symptomatic positives or hospitalizations are? or how all the catholic schools in the country have been open since August 2020? Or how all the day cares of essential workers have been open since April 2020 with no real issues?

Our Catholic school closed three times due to covid cases, about ten kids in total got it, and two teachers got it so badly they were hospitalized for three weeks and a month. All the kids are masked, plexiglass shields are between the desks and they eat lunch sitting three feet from each other outside or in the gym. No afterschool activities and no parents in the school. The drop off is timed with military precision with teachers getting the kids out of the cars.

And we still had three dangerous outbreaks. Public schools didn’t have the funds to take these precautions.

My nieces daycare closed for two week intervals several times and a kitchen worker died.

No one is hiding facts but they were Not publicized.

This. My friend's child was at a school district in Indiana where two teachers died of COVID by January 2021.

This was publicized. They caught it outside of school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

“Proud” —?? That’s so silly.





Not silly at all. Those who took all recommended precautions saved lives and slowed the mutation. And they did at at their own sacrifice. Great reason to feel proud.

Those running around pretending it didn’t exist spread the virus through their selfishness. They should feel shame.


No they didn’t. Sheltering the elderly and providing supports for essential workers would have done much more to prevent the spread of illness. Staying home did not save lives. In fact according to CDC data teen deaths increased 15%.

https://data.cdc.gov/NCHS/AH-Deaths-by-Age-Sex-and-Week-2018-2020/w56u-89fn

Drug overdoses increased 30%.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2021/...-coronaviurs-pandemic.amp.html

This is the tip of the iceberg.

Oh look. More homicides too.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/01/opinion/democrats-james-carville.html

And more motor vehicle deaths.

https://data.cdc.gov/NCHS/Monthly-Counts-of-Deaths-by-Select-Causes-2020-202/9dzk-mvmi/data


Hmm..half of the yearly increase in mortality wasn’t from Covid per CDC data.

https://data.cdc.gov/NCHS/Provisional-COVID-19-Death-Counts-by-Place-of-Deat/uggs-hy5q/data

And we haven’t even tried to quantify the long-term impact of school closures. But yeah...your restrictive policies saved so many lives, even though the poor/vulnerable had to work through the pandemic without sick leave. Gold star!

Oh, Christ, F off! We did what every advanced nation did during a deadly PANDEMIC, you fool. It wasn’t person to inconvenience you and force you to spend more time with your own kids.

Nope. Nice try. Did other developed nations have prolonged school closures that caused women to leave the workforce in droves? Did other nations tape off playgrounds, park benches, and close outdoor restaurants? Did other countries require two year olds to mask in childcare and be cared for by masked caregivers? Did other nations require kids to wear masks while exercising at high intensity? Did other countries provide no support to low income workers who had to work indoors during the pandemic? Did other nations prioritze people who had recovered from Covid for vaccination, delaying herd immunity? Nice try.

I don't feel guilty. I interviewed so many pod mates searching for the right fit of social and safety compatibility. I built a rock wall and transformed my backyard to be an outdoor kid fun zone so kids could come over. I drive my kids all over town for safe outdoor classes and activities. You didn't have to do any of that and you still shouldn't feel guilty. You did what you could and food what you had to do. Feel happy you protected your family!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. I do not feel guilty in the least. We did the right thing.

This is a truly stupid topic and thread.

This.

There are a lot of posts with very different opinions, seems like a discussion worth having... though 99% of posters seem so confident in their choice... maybe we all need to do a little second-guessing and seeing alternate perspectives, because I’m sure the truth is somewhere in the middle.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope. Not a bit. Having living parents was a much higher priority than anything he missed.

Are you fat or over 80?

DP. I know several moms in my online group who have long haul symptoms. Can't breathe after walking for five minutes, brain fog, exhaustion. That doesn't seem very fun.

Interesting. I know about 50 people who have had Covid and none have long term symptoms.

Anywhere between 10-30% of people infected with COVID have long haul symptoms. That's a lot. Some of them were mild or even asymptomatic, in the case of children.

https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20210219/a-third-of-covid-survivors-have-long-haul-symptoms#1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not in this self-righteous liberal city!

Everywhere else, yes.

Why do you think the mass media stopped publishing how low symptomatic positives or hospitalizations are? or how all the catholic schools in the country have been open since August 2020? Or how all the day cares of essential workers have been open since April 2020 with no real issues?

Our Catholic school closed three times due to covid cases, about ten kids in total got it, and two teachers got it so badly they were hospitalized for three weeks and a month. All the kids are masked, plexiglass shields are between the desks and they eat lunch sitting three feet from each other outside or in the gym. No afterschool activities and no parents in the school. The drop off is timed with military precision with teachers getting the kids out of the cars.

And we still had three dangerous outbreaks. Public schools didn’t have the funds to take these precautions.

My nieces daycare closed for two week intervals several times and a kitchen worker died.

No one is hiding facts but they were Not publicized.

This. My friend's child was at a school district in Indiana where two teachers died of COVID by January 2021.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not in this self-righteous liberal city!

Everywhere else, yes.

Why do you think the mass media stopped publishing how low symptomatic positives or hospitalizations are? or how all the catholic schools in the country have been open since August 2020? Or how all the day cares of essential workers have been open since April 2020 with no real issues?

The lack of testing and contact tracing ENSURES that no issues can ever be found, PP. It's so convenient for all the business-as-usual people to forget that this pandemic is driven by asymptomatic cases. Community spread has to reach the vulnerable, elderly and sick among us before anyone realizes it's too late... unless we implement systematic pooled testing and contact tracing, which the USA (and many other countries) refuses to do.

my kids school has weekly testing of 1000 kids and 250 staff. Most weeks it's zero positives. One in awhile there is 1 or 2 positives and they will pull out a 10 kid pod. Guess what? Never any positives in the "exposed" pod either.

the data speaks for itself. THe media and gov't aren't showing you that data.

and the schools, sports, activities that do no testing also show no issues, spread, etc.

you can keep harping on test everyone all the time. at the end this will just look like the flu in the data. Sick unhealthy people who caught the flu fared badly.

Know how many ER doctors I know who own and operate testing gigs and urgimeds now due to the sheer easy profit of doing so now?

This is the case in our schools too -- but one kid had a school that was able to break them into pods of less than 10 students, the other has had outdoor classrooms whenever possible and good ventilation indoors. I think in schools that lack those facilities and resources have not faired as well. Not to mention the selection bias... if your child goes to school like this, you're very likely to see a lot of parents WAH in white collar jobs and able to afford delivery of food and supplies during peak infection waves, hence putting them at lower risk for exposure.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope. Not a bit. Having living parents was a much higher priority than anything he missed.

Are you fat or over 80?

DP. I know several moms in my online group who have long haul symptoms. Can't breathe after walking for five minutes, brain fog, exhaustion. That doesn't seem very fun.

Interesting. I know about 50 people who have had Covid and none have long term symptoms.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope. Not a bit. Having living parents was a much higher priority than anything he missed.

Are you fat or over 80?

DP. I know several moms in my online group who have long haul symptoms. Can't breathe after walking for five minutes, brain fog, exhaustion. That doesn't seem very fun.

Hindsight is 20/20, OP.

Between March and September 2020 the only people our two kids played with in person were each other and a cousin who quarantined before we met up. We WAH, used delivery only, and did a handful of playdates outdoors and masked.

Fast forward to fall 2020, our our oldest (6) started in person in September and youngest (3) was still at home. Younger DC has stayed home until recently starting preschool a few times a week in person. However we did do playdates starting in the fall, because we felt it was so important for socialization. We only met up outdoors/masked with a few other families who were COVID cautious.

Spring 2021, we are both vaccinated. We are starting to open up from our circle of ~5 families, which is great, but we will still only do outdoor/masked socializing until the kids are vaccinated. I think you can strike a balance between keeping the child home all day and going all out with any kind of socializing. My kids have a ton of fun and don't even mind the masks. They wear them all day at school also. This is going to end pretty soon -- I expect vaccines for their age group will be approved by November. A bit of caution to spare them any longterm issues from a poorly understood disease is warranted in my view, especially because it is possible to play without doing indoor dining and socializing.

I have also wondered about some of the choices we made, but ultimately, there is no point in feeling bad about the past. Can't change our decisions regarding homeschooling and removing DS from activities, so why feel guilty about it. Where we live, schools have been back in session full time since March. I had a lot of guilt about DS missing out. But now vaccine rates are high and while there was an initial surge of Covid cases when schools went back in session, cases have been steadily declining. So we are arranging out door playdates, taking DS to the playground, signing him up for outdoor activities. And he's thriving. The weather is getting nicer and so I'd sign your kid up for outdoor activities and take her to the playground where she can play with other kids. Don't beat yourself up with decisions you've made this past year. Just figure out how to move forward safely.