Photo credit: Unsplash, Priscilla Du Preez

Questions…. What I have right now in life are questions… So many questions:

How long is this pandemic going to last? Is the next pandemic a year behind? Two? Ten?

Are we ever going to go back to normal?

Is this the new normal?

Since March, our life has been dictated by staying home and social distancing. Now that things are starting to open up, and I am left with more questions:

Should I take my kids to the pool?

Should I take my kids to the botanical gardens? Can I safely take them?

What about an indoor museum? Is that the same or higher risk?

Why are people hanging out at a bar like nothing is happening? Don’t they get it?

When will my kids be able to see their grandparents again? Is it safe? Will it ever be safe again?

Is our school going to open in August? Do we need a backup plan?

I feel as if we are in a season of wait. Wait to see what happens. Wait to find out what is going to happen. Wait for the results of our current social experiments, seeing which cities and countries get it right and which pay a higher price.
And we wait some more. We wait for answers. We wait to get sick, fearing and dreading that moment. We wait for new effective therapies and we wait for a vaccine.

I HATE waiting. Honestly, I loathe waiting. I thrive on efficiency and Re-evaluating decisions. Waiting feels paralyzing.
Yet, here I am, waiting…along with everyone else. I keep looking for new resources, new guidelines, new data to help me make decisions and move forward - in any direction. I know that COVID is real. I watched my son struggle to breathe in the hospital while fighting COVID-19. At the same time, I strongly believe that my kids’s mental health matters, and that we can not live well with severe social distancing and social isolation long term. We can survive, yes, especially if this is short term. But we won’t thrive, and neither will our kids, if this is long term.

How do we weigh the risks of contracting and spreading COVID with the impact limiting social and family interactions can have on childhood development? Isn’t that what we are all trying to muddle our way through here in 2020? How do we measure where the scale tips to favor one side or the other, especially considering the scale is different for every person, group, place, and city. As the country begins to re-open, we have decisions to make about who to see and where to go. As we gain more experience with this virus, and with treating people who are sick with this virus, we will be able to make more informed decisions. For now, I am looking at these resources:

The Americal Academy of Pediatrics. They have information about COVID-19 geared toward medical professionals (www.aap.org) and information geared towards families (www.healthychildren.org). The AAP recently wrote a statement on the Considerations and Guidance for School Re-entry for the fall of 2020. They state that “schools are fundamental to child and adolescent development and well-being and provide our children and adolescents with academic instruction, social and emotional skills, safety, reliable nutrition…among other benefits.” It is not a one-sided argument, and they lay out strategies that would be necessary and concerns that have yet to be addressed.
COVID Explained - www.explaincovid.org - A team of researchers and students at MIT, Harvard, Mass General and elsewhere are committed to getting information about COVID out to people. They have a page dedicated to Kids and COVID-19, where they summarize new studies and publications, give information about kids and disease risk, discuss kids and COVID-19 spread, and provide information on school transmission. Keep checking back to this site as more information is published.

Bottom line, it is my life and my decision. And the same holds for all of you. It is your life and your decision. Whether we have a family BBQ, head to the zoo, or go hiking in the mountains are choices that we make as a family. None of us will make the same choices, and that is 100% the way it should be. However, we all need to be respectful of others when we are out in public. Wearing a mask is not an infringement on individual rights - it is merely an act of respect and courtesy for higher risk community members.

COVID and Kids: A Season of Wait.