My daughter is entering her senior year and she will going back to school 2 days in 2 days online. I am stressed on how i am going to protect myself! Yes mask are going to worn at school but we all know mask will fly off when existing. Suggestions would be helpful…should i wear a mask and shield around her?
1 Like
So my first question is whether she can do fully online. I know that in my area it is an option, but it’s also her senior year, so I do get it. As you already know, masks on both people are what is most protective, and shields alone are not effective.
With all that in mind, you’re not going to be able to avoid her all year, and you will likely have a hard time keeping a mask on her 24/7 in common areas of the house. What about an N95 mask for you, which will protect you? I can’t remember. . . Do you have a history of frequent illness? Are you particularly compromised?
I know that when my daughter comes back from college at Thanksgiving I’m going to have to put some serious thought into how we manage her arrival. She has been out in the community working at a grocery store through this whole thing, and we haven’t taken extra precautions. Should we be more concerned about college? I’m not sure. She’ll be in the northeast also, where the rates are now under control, and the governors are very responsive to changes in rates, slow reopening, etc.
1 Like
Home should be the “safe” place to come to for all children and if you are anxious about her bringing Covid home, that can be hard on relationships. And if she did bring home Covid and you got very ill from it, she could have a horrid time with feeling guilty. Many are in the same difficult situation as you are and this virus likely won’t be the last of the pandemics. It takes much wisdom as to how one should maintain relationships without compromising health. I think that many parents are actually hoping for a reason to move society back a few steps so that the decision to re-isolate is made for them. We have seen how easily this virus spreads and unlike other typical flu bugs, a change of season doesn’t seem to affect it very much. I really thought that it would just go away with spring changing to summer. With @sybil I would encourage online education. Children are children and can’t be expected to be completely safe and responsible. One rebellious child who carelessly contracts Covid can shut down an entire school and a community. Being the senior year isn’t enough reason to take unnecessary risks.
She does have the options to do online but she chose the hybrid system which is 2 days in three days out and she wants to go the first two weeks to see how it works before she makes the decision about online. If we choose online then we might not be able to get her back if the numbers go down because the high school is going to run at 50% capacity. I am on Enbrel and I have not been sick once in the 9 years that I have been on it. I feel college life will be easier for the families because the students do not go back and forth to home and classes. They are coming home after Thanksgiving which gives time for people to quarantined for a number of days to see if there are symptoms.
I do no have access to a N95 and if I did I would want it for the the health care workers. I will just double up on my mask and hope for the best.
In a departure from the norm and I have struggled with this, we (ben’s Friends) will soon be making masks availble with exchangable filter that are the near equivalent of N-95. One of our Mast Cell Moderators who FWIW was/is (now retired) director of Biologic/germ warfare mask development for the DOD is leading the evaluation. I am finalizing arrangement for donation of masks for our members unable to afford from the company offering these masks. I hope to have this all done in the next week. BTW being careful in the home does work. As most of you know, I have been pretty much absent having gotten the Covid myself. NO ONE else in the home did. When I was working at the Health Department (where I got it) I simply changed clothes in the Garage when getting home. Its not THAT hard to maintain some level of social distancing in the home.
6 Likes
The hardest part of this virus and being a mom is the guilt the child feels if she is the one that causes you to get sick. She is choosing to do online but the burden of this is costing her childhood along with all children in the same boat. With the constant struggles of todays world, mental health is also important.
2 Likes