Probably I should have done this earlier, but today was the day I told the kids to stop eating lunch at school, since they have to take off their masks for it. It’s worse than eating in a restaurant (SO MANY MORE not-in-the-same-household people, sitting SO MUCH CLOSER), but I couldn’t think of any way around it. But last week I heard on NPR it’s estimated that 92% of in-school spread is happening in the cafeteria, and today was the day I thought “It is not COMFORTABLE or PLEASANT or NORMALLY A GOOD IDEA for children to go 7 hours without eating, but it is absolutely DOABLE and SURVIVABLE and IT IS PAST TIME.” I hate this. I am trying to think of a way I could make this better/easier, like maybe cooking something that would be ready for them to eat as soon as they got home from school—something they really like, like chicken nuggets or pizza.
(Incidentally, our school is using a “connected cases” concept for identifying when they need to level up precautions, and that is interesting to think about in the context of most of the spread perhaps happening at lunch, when the school wouldn’t be aware that the cases were connected.) [Edited to add: Today the school, which in the past has been extremely specific about the EXACT number of connected cases that justify an increase in precautions (or, more often, the EXACT number of connected and unconnected cases that let them NOT do any increase in precautions), sent an email that “due to the number of clusters” (unspecified), they would be increasing precautions, and thanking us for our understanding as they continue to do their very best in these uncertain times. Oh, yes: their very best. Yes. By not requiring masks, let alone vaccines. By redefining “social distancing” so that it was three feet instead of six, so they did not need to make ANY CHANGES to classroom set-up or population. By continuing to hold in-person EVERYTHING, including things that did not need to be in-person. By caving in every way to the angry parents who wanted complete in-person schooling, absolutely as normal, with absolutely no modifications of any kind to allow that to happen more safely. Their. Very. Best.]
We heard from the principal that both twins were identified as close contacts of people (it’s a different person for each twin) who tested positive for Covid-19. [Edited to add: Today we found out they are both the close contact of another person, and it’s someone Edward eats lunch with, so my precaution, which this morning felt paranoid and over-the-top, is too late.] They are not supposed to stay home; they are not required to get a test (though the school mentions that they CAN do so 5-7 days after the exposure); they are just supposed to keep going to school, and at lunchtime keep taking off their masks and breathing over other people. If we were trying to come up with the Covid-19 equivalent of a Chicken Pox Party, we could not do better than this.
Paul took the twins and also Henry for PCR tests this weekend. The testing place (a 35-minute drive away, but they take walk-ins, unlike the pharmacies which are appointment-only and have no appointments in the next week) says we can expect to get results “within 72 hours after 5:00 p.m. on the day of test.” When we had Edward tested by this same place back when he had pneumonia, we FURTHER discovered from customer service that “within” means “after” and “after 5:00 p.m.” means “the next day.” So for example, if you get a test on Monday, you start at 5:00 p.m. on Monday and you count 72 hours so now you are at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday—and then you go to THE NEXT DAY, which is Friday, and that’s the day you can expect to get your test results, unless they are really busy with all the tests they’re doing for air travelers, and then it might be later. THIS IS NOT A WORKABLE PLAN, IN A SITUATION WHERE TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE.
Henry is now eligible for the booster shot. Did our state spring into action with giant, efficient, easily-accessible clinics, since we had PLENTY OF WARNING that this step was coming? Did they hell! The earliest appointment I could get him was two weeks away, at a pharmacy. I took it, thinking I could maybe find something sooner as places added more appointments, but no; I check every day, and there is nothing. Our state’s vaccination website is worse than unhelpful: it didn’t even find the one that was 2 weeks out, and gave a search result of only one appointment, three weeks and more than an hour’s drive away. At this point there is no justification for this level of disorganization.
I drove Rob back to his college. I was glad to see a higher percentage of people wearing their masks in the Masks Required For Entrance rest stops: when I picked him up, it was maybe 50%, and many employees weren’t wearing them; when I took him back, I would see maybe one or two people without masks, and all the employees were wearing them. (I don’t count people eating at tables in my mask-noticing, only people standing in line, in restrooms, etc.)
I paid more for the motel this time and got a room that had been cleaned, which was nice. In fact, it looked to me as if they’d replaced some things such as faucet handles, which can LOOK kind of scruffy/unclean as they get older, even if they ARE clean. I still sprayed/wiped everything down, but I believe I’ll probably be doing that for the rest of my life. I believe I will also be leaving Housecleaning a big tip for the rest of my life.
I’m almost alone in the house today, for the first time in quite awhile: everyone was home for winter break, and then Paul’s workplace advised everyone who could work from home to do so (his workplace has a vaccination requirement, and in-person limits throughout all buildings, and weekly testing, and cases are still going up). But I took today off from work when I thought I’d be driving Rob Sunday/Monday, and when we switched to Saturday/Sunday I didn’t change that plan, and now I think I will also do THAT for the rest of my life: it was very nice yesterday to come home from a somewhat harrowing drive (wet roads and temperature kept dipping below freezing) and think “No work tomorrow!” And Paul had to go into work today to deal with some equipment issues that had been piling up over the holidays, and also to get his required Covid test—and, as much as I have been urging him to stay home whenever possible, I am…not sad that the day he HAS TO go in is the same as the day I am staying home. And the kids are in school, and Rob is back at college, and William is still asleep. Even the cats aren’t in the same room with me. It’s nice.
So our kids have to sit in assigned seats at lunch for the first 15 min while they eat so contact tracing can happen. After the 15min they can put their masks back on and go find their friends and hang out.
Lunch is my biggest worry, especially for my high schooler. She gets so hangry, I don’t think she could make it from 8-4 without lunch. She says she goes off “as far from people as possible” to eat and then sits with friends after eating. I hate this more and more each day.
I wonder if there is something your kids could eat via the “poking chunks of it under the mask and into the mouth,” such as cereal bars? I know Nature’s Bakery bars just sit in my stomach like lead. In a good way. They were my chosen road food for a summer car trip through the COVID belt.
Between bad decisions by government at all levels and whiny citizens, I am struggling to maintain my grip on goodwill towards my fellow humans. Except veterinarians. I love them.
The extra day! It’s KEY. Any time we take a vacation, I plan to be back the day before I actually need to return to work (sometimes two days!). It’s lovely and feels like extended vacation.
The cafeteria – I hadn’t even thought about that. Good to know.
When my kids returned to school last week I found myself thinking some wild-eyed thoughts about lunch. Like, “Maybe they could take cans of Ensure and poke bendy straws under their masks! No, wait!! Maybe they could get IV nutrition at lunchtime instead and keep their masks on the whole time!” This is ridiculous; I know it is ridiculous. But there is so much COVID right now, and they are just shoehorned in the cafeteria with bare faces.
Enjoy the alone time. I could really use some of that. Last week was the first week back from break but my youngest barely went to school because of snow days (3 days off plus a 2-hour delay) and today they’re home because of booster after-effects and my oldest is still home from college and my wife works from home nearly all the time. I’m not eager for the boy to go back to school, but I wouldn’t mind if he left the house occasionally, say at the same time everyone else did. Seems unlikely, though.
I should be glad the booster is pretty easy to get here, I guess. And that mask wearing is mandated at school (though my kid’s math teacher doesn’t wear one, apparently with no repercussions). I suggested eating outside to my kid, because they are allowed and there are tables, but they weren’t open to it because it’s cold. And realistically, if I’m not there to see I can’t say you have to do this to a 15 year old.
As a teacher, and a parent, and a human, you should report that math teacher. If masks are mandated, they’re mandated for all. Principal, superintendent, board of ed, local news would be the chain of command I would follow.
We are not there yet in our district (and also, we are in California, so outside lunch is much more of an option), but one thought I have had if we do get there is that, if push came to shove…the school really can’t stop me from coming and picking my children up at lunchtime every day. We could eat in the car, and then they would go back. Mine are in elementary school, but for high school students maybe special permission to leave campus without a parent could even be possible. I know our local high school lets students leave campus at lunch as just a normal thing (not sure how the pandemic has changed that…before it seemed like a convenient arrangement for the fast food restaurants across the street from the school). Furtively eaten granola bars in stairwells seem vastly preferable to the everyone-eats-lunch-at-once model too. Or maybe people in snowy places can still go outside for minutes at a time, even in January?
No lunch is possible – I have a younger brother who for various reasons would not eat at school. A protein packed breakfast is key. (Eggs, ham, Greek yogurt, whatever high protein food they like best.) While at school, chocolate milk and/or Gatorade to drink at some point, (like at their locker, NOT in cafeteria with The Unmasked). And then a big lunch when they get home instead of an after school snack.
I can only dream of a day when everyone will leave the house again. I haven’t been home alone for almost 2 years now.
Maggie2, I was just thinking the same thing about drinks. Maybe kefir or yogurt smoothies with a straw? Or just drinking a lot of water can help with feeling hangry. A couple of almonds.
Also basking in the empty house for the first time in over a month. It feels amazing.
I’m also worried about covid spreading in school cafeterias. My kids just returned to in-person school after doing virtual school this whole time. I wonder if kids could wear a mask with a straw hole in them during lunch and drink a smoothie or pureed soup through a straw? Aren’t there masks like this? I doubt they’d be N95s though.
I never even thought about lunch in the cafeteria. :( My school has half the kids eat in the classroom and half in the cafeteria, so at least they’re spaced out a bit, I guess? There’s no way my son could survive 8 hours without eating, I already have to throw a snack at him the second he gets in the car or he’s miserable, and that’s with a morning snack and a snack at after care.
As far as alone time. My husband just started a new job, and I never have any alone time now, and I HATE it. He used to work retail, so he worked some nights and weekends. Now he works M-F, the same schedule as me, we get up at the same time so I don’t have a few minutes of quiet while I’m getting ready. He calls when I’m driving home, so I don’t get to listen to the radio. We go upstairs to get ready for bed at the same time, so he’s in the bathroom brushing his teeth while I’m showering. I literally don’t even have 5 minutes to myself. I might scream.
Are you able to ask him to wait to brush his teeth? Are you able to say, “I no longer feel comfortable talking on the phone when I’m driving, given the over-run ER situation”? Are you able to go for a walk early in the morning?
You need your alone time. It’s important.
Thanks, Liz. ❤
I already get up at 5:30 and can barely function, so getting up earlier to get some alone time is … not gonna happen.
I do ask him to wait to brush his teeth, and he will do that for a couple weeks, but then go back to wanting to get ready early. I’m just sick and tired of having to ask, and ask, and ask…. But when he wants alone time, it’s completely understandable that OF COURSE everyone needs some alone time!
We’ll figure it out, it might just take awhile. Thank you for the suggestions.
“I’m just sick and tired of having to ask, and ask, and ask”
Roger that.
Could you tell him that you’re going to stop answering your phone on the drive home so that you can treat it as your time? Or would that be too alienating? Are there other ways to put yourself out of reach here and there, like by just stopping and sitting for 10 min on your way to a grocery pickup?
I currently get up at 4:15 in the interest of getting alone time without having to hurt feelings…but I don’t recommend it. I need the time badly enough to short myself on sleep, but it’s not a great way to get it. (I am clearly no example when it comes to actually putting myself out of reach.)
I am glad you have some time alone. Everything else… uuurrrrggghhhh.
After two years of constant vigilance, the (fully vaccinated) kids brought covid home from school this week. No idea if it was cafeteria or the dumb kid who always pulls his mask down and sits next to my daughter. But there ya go. It’s so frustrating. We should be virtual.
Our schools just went back in person despite soaring case numbers. I’ve decided to keep our kids home one more week with the hopes that numbers slightly go down. I know another mum who has kept her youngest home too until she can get her second dose but her two older kids are returning to school as she feels they can keep their masks on better. She is driving out to them every day for lunch though. And they will eat their lunch in the car. I know that’s not possible for most but I thought it was interesting.
I think not eating at lunch is a good idea. I’m sure it will be hard for the kids, but I do believe that the masks are helping a lot. Everyone I know who has gotten Covid recently (and it’s a TON of people, including my own family) got it from either an indoor gathering where some/all of the people were unmasked or got it from eating with other people. I’ve yet to hear anyone say they got infected in a situation where they were masked the entire time. (I’m sure it’s possible, it just seems way less likely.)
My kids’ elementary school has a 20 minute total lunch period. So, 5 minutes or so in line getting food (masked) and then 15 minutes to eat. In a normal year I’d be sort of horrified that they only have 15 minutes to gulp down a meal, but this school year I feel like the short lunch period is a great thing because the less time they have their masks off, the better. They’ve also done their best to social distance the cafeteria. Only one grade level eats in the cafeteria at a time so the kids are able to spread out only 4 to a (very large) table. And they have assigned seats so they can do contact tracing of close contacts.
My youngest goes to a preschool where the kids all eat lunch together. My family all had positive Covid tests last week. I could have sent her back to school by now, according to the CDC and our local health department’s current isolation guidelines, but I opted not to. Since she eats lunch with a bunch of other unvaccinated 3-year-olds I want to be 100 percent sure she’s not contagious before she goes back. So I’m keeping her out of school for a full 2 weeks. It’s not a burden for me to keep her home (she goes to preschool for socialization and fun, not because I need it for childcare) so I’m trying to do my part and be absolutely positive she doesn’t spread Covid to anyone else.
Adding data points to your “where people got it” – for a couple family members including myself it was also while eating, at my grandma’s 95th birthday to be precise.
We were in a pretty empty restaurant that had the tables with people on them far away from each other as per the Covid-guidelines at the time (in Germany). Masks when moving around, not when sitting. Since all family members who got it fell ill at about the same time and everyone else got tested then, we know no one from our group was an asymptomatic carrier. Since the people who got it were all people sitting off to one side of the long table, I’m pretty sure it was some person sitting on the next table over, that was a bit divided from us, but more decoratively than anything else.
I’m also pretty sure I was the one who infected my neighbour, whom I saw for under ten minutes the day before I felt ill (no masks). If not me, then it was a masked handyman who was sent to her place to fix something and was there for about an hour, and *supposedly* tested. Not sure how reliable that was considering those were self-tests at that time, on people who were mostly sure this was nothing to worry about anyway.
That was 1.5 years ago, so the “original” Covid-version that was far less aggressive with its infection than those going around today, and sharing the same air over an extended time was still enough to get it in the restaurant, and in shorter time in a smaller space.
It absolutely blows my mind just how blasé people are today about wearing masks, and more precisely about how they treat kids’ safety. No one seems to either know or care what “spreads quickly” actually means.
@Swistle, your comparison with chicken pox parties is extremely apt.
It took 4 days after winter break for my vaccinated 5th grader to bring home covid. I thought I might be a little relieved when we finally got it, being that my entire family has fairly recent vaccinations or boosters, so no time like the present. But no. I am not relieved.
I went through the entirety of high school not eating during school hours because I didn’t want to deal with the cafeteria, so it’s doable. But I was ravenous by the time I got out– it wasn’t great for my concentration during the last 2 periods every day.
The high schools around here have open campuses, and my usual grocery store is across the street from one. I often see groups of high school students walking around during grocery pick-ups. If your kids can exit the building during lunch and if you trust them to do so without gathering in a clump with their friends, you could ask them to bring something portable and go away from the building to eat.
The trust part comes in on trusting them to do it the way you’d want them to. Every high school student I’ve seen walking outdoors has had their mask off/on their chin, yet were pretty close to each other. My feeling is that unmasked/outdoors is lower risk, but masked/outdoors is even lower risk. And that you might as well go for the lowest risk possible. I think that even silent peer pressure would push a lot of kids to be unmasked with their friends even if they weren’t already so inclined.
The testing situation here is COMPLETELY POINTLESS. You stand in line for 2 hours to get tested, but then what? You can’t stay home for five days without a positive test, and mostly by the time you get your results back you have recovered. SO FRUSTRATING. People go back to work because they can’t prove they are contagious.
Here in SoCal, my kids’ enormous (2000+ students) high school doesn’t even have a cafeteria — the kids eat outside in the huge quad, so that is a bonus for us right now. I can’t imagine your frustration at the testing/vaccination woes. We have so many clinics around us — at the YMCA, at the Universal Studios parking garage (where my 15-year-old got boosted three days ago, no appointment needed), every night at a different school in our district. Also, PCR tests are becoming an issue here: they are so much more sensitive than the rapid tests that you can expect to test positive for at least four weeks after you’re recovered. Our district use to require a clear PCR test to come back to school after a positive covid, but they’ve had to drop that requirement. Not to mention the turnaround times — clearly the labs are slammed.
But mostly, I am just SO SICK of all of this. For the love of god. Can we please go back to wondering what stores have our favorite Valentine’s candy??
My youngest is in middle school so they still all eat in the classroom and they’re supposed to stay seated and no talking while eating – they can talk after they’ve finished eating and have their masks back on.
My oldest is in high school and each grade is seated in a different area of the school to eat lunch. Her grade happens to be in the cafeteria, but the other grades are in their own zones elsewhere. Even then, and even given the mask mandate that everyone follows at school, I’ve seem some parents speculate about taking their kids home at the end of the morning so they can eat lunch away from school, or bringing them in after lunch and not attending the mornings, depending on what can be done sufficiently well away from school. (Our high schools currently only do one long class in the morning, then switch to a second subject for the long class in the afternoon.) Like, if a kid has a subject that they’re struggling in and need to be in person for, that’s the one they go to, but if their other class is an easy one that can be done at home with the support of the teacher, they’d miss that one in person.
I gotta say, I find the days my husband is at work positively luxurious. When the kids and I are all home on weekdays, they’re in their rooms doing online school (which our province has mandated for last week and this week) independently, and I only see them when they come to the kitchen for food. When my husband is home he THINKS he’s being quiet, but he wears noise-cancelling headphones and can’t hear the racket he makes clattering things around, sniffing, etc. And he always chooses to make himself food or put dishes away or some such thing right when I’ve got online meetings. It is maddening.
My husband and I often work at home together and I alert him to the times when he is to be vewy vewy quiet, because I AM HUNTING WABBITS, and vice versa. We also have an ON-AIR sign to put up when an impromptu meeting is out of the previously designated quiet times.
Even when it is cold, my daughter’s school encourages them to eat outside (courtyards, sit on the steps at the various entrances, the stadium, etc). They can also spread out into the indoor concourse (like a huge, international airport lounge—it’s a gigantic school). Anyway, the kids do spread out, and most do go outside, so the cafeteria is pretty empty (and probably the least interesting place to eat). Anyway. I don’t know if any of that is possible for your kids, but even dipping outside for a protein bar and banana and some water would be nice.
Oh and I meant to ask about the hotel situation. I’ve not traveled much these past 2 years, but when I have I’ve stayed in the big chain hotels (Marriott, most recently). They were understaffed, but I the housekeeping was fine—the usual standards for that level of hotel. The front desk staff was harried and the line for coffee in the morning was long but I wonder if the larger companies are better equipped to maintain staffing because employees are full time/get benefits? I don’t know. Pure conjecture, but if it’s a smaller boutique or independently owned place, maybe they’re struggling more with staff??
You’ve probably checked this, but I got all my shots (initial 2 + booster) at Walmart and always found reasonable appointment times that were not two weeks away. My Walmart was actually taking walk-ins. Just a thought.
My husband has come down with “something” so we went for tests yesterday; I was searching around and found a drive thru testing site about 30 mins away that had an opening 1 hour from when I was looking. I was Punching.The.Keys SO HARD to grab that appointment. Now, do I really trust a test I did myself, in the car, with 17 seconds of instructions? I don’t know, but it’s better than nothing, I guess?
Vaccination capacity is very state-by-state and region-by-region. (but yes, in addition to variably-abysmal state vaccination scheduling websites, also check Walmart and drugstores for it, plus a nearby university if you’ve got one; our local university will vaccinate anyone who’s got an arm, but that’s partly because it’s a college town, so the more everyone is vaccinated, the smoother everything will be, and, uh, we are… not… living in a heavily vaccinated state, to our dismay.)
I found out on Sunday that my 3rd grader’s class is in modified quarantine – the positive child attended Tuesday through Thursday!!! – when my friend texted me to have me check my email. Except I had no email. 😱🤦♀️
I still haven’t received an email about it, but the principal did confirm that our class was impacted and sent an email to the covid coordinator person to make sure that I’m on the distribution list for our class. We’ve only been at the school since K and I’m the room parent this year, but 🤷♀️🙇♀️.
I am enraged on your behalf.
Yeah, it’s really hard to maintain the cognitive dissonance that they’re doing a good job with what’s happening right now. Granted, CA passed a stupid bill in July 2020 about how if you have a distance learning program, there have to be synchronous minutes and somehow that screws everything. Although the school bought connected whiteboards or something like that for last year so that they could teach the kids who were in person and at home together so how did this bill screw up offering distance learning/remote. /shrug
But yeah, it’s now Wednesday and I still haven’t received a response from the email I sent Sunday, or the email the principal sent Monday, or the email I sent Tuesday back to the principal’s chain asking to be forwarded the class notification email from last week’s exposure. *crickets* We’ve also had 2 more classes go into quarantine or change the type of quarantine this week so there are more in-school-exposed cases, but no updates to the dashboard that’s updated “within 24 hours”. Mmmmhmmm.
My kid’s class is not on any sort of quarantine, but we received an exposure notification today.
The school said last week that if the spike continues, they’re going to stop sending messages to individual families because it’s overwhelming their covid19 notification team. In the same message, they were insisting that they were going to continue in person classes and only do temporary virtual based on thresholds that–if they’ve been defined internally–they aren’t communicating.
It seems to me that a logical person would say that if you have so many cases, you can’t even communicate about them, PERHAPS YOU SHOULD GO VIRTUAL. For everyone.
If I had any confidence in my ability to provide a decent education at home on my own while also working, I would pull her out. As things stand, I’m feeling really forced into a corner where I don’t want to be.
My school hasn’t sent any notifications about covid exposure in the class (because it’s not considered an “exposure” since they’re all wearing masks and presumably social distancing). They’ve always sent emails for pink eye, strep, etc…. but no covid email. Make it make sense.
My 8 year old has had 2 people in his class with covid, and I only know about them because he told me.
Right?! Why is it so easy to tell the class there was a case of lice, but somehow we can’t tell you that there’s been a positive kid in class who shares air with every other kid in that classroom but so long as they weren’t within the magical 6′ distance the aerosols that have permeated the entire room will not be inhaled by any child outside of that 6′ radius and thus we do not have to notify you because your kid was not a close contact.
Yes, masks help, but has anyone looked at elementary kids wearing masks? There is at least one in every class who has the mask falling down or they don’t bend the nosewire or there are gaps all over the place. That’s totally stopping aerosols from getting from one kid to another in a 6-7 hour day.
*facepalm*
I told my daughter (5th grade, public school in the US) that she’s not allowed to take her mask off in the building. Period. And if a teacher or staff member says she needs to for some reason, she can tell them they have to call me because she’s scared I’d be mad at her. (I wouldn’t be mad at her. I’d be mad at them.)
I have confirmed that her classroom teacher will let her step outside (classroom has an exterior door) to use her water bottle. And although the vast majority of students eat in the cafeteria, the school will allow the handful of students who chose it to go eat outside in the rain. Sorry, kid. You’re eating in the rain from now on.
Is there any way for your kids to eat a granola bar outside at recess? Or scarf down some trail mix while walking outdoors between classes? Or privately ask a sympathetic teacher to let them eat for 5 min in an empty classroom instead of going to lunch? I know schools are probably much stricter than they used to be about all sorts of things, but there’s got to be a way to sneak some calories in during the day.
I work in a middle school our school opened up fully in my state this past fall ( masks are required for everyone, 96% staff vaccinated and boosted) however social distancing is a thing of the past in the cafeteria. Students sit every other seat and have assigned seats for a month at a time to make contact tracing easier. They talk, yell, laugh and cough all over each other unmasked while eating. They also try to visit other tables and have to be told to go back to their assigned seats over and over. We require them to re-mask when done eating but a lot of good that does, honestly. I have been wearing KN95 masks since the beginning of the pandemic and I swear that is the reason I haven’t caught covid yet as I am in a large room (former gym) with over 125 unmasked kids supervising two lunch periods. We are starting to see more cases every week and prior to Omicron most of the lunch table groups were so far NOT catching it, but that will most likely change overnight. I see more kids in KN95s and N95’s too. Lots of parents are extremely worried. Just wanted to share my insider view.
I also wanted to add to my comment that our school used to offer outdoor lunch which is now closed due to frigid winter conditions (northeast) BUT they still offer a “Quiet lunch” option in a classroom with like max 5 kids spread out (windows open) so perhaps that is something they could do for students with parental request? Worth asking.
Could you ask the school to make a different lunch arrangement for them? My mom is a school principal and she says they’ve done this for families who’ve asked. A shared table in an empty hallway for a group of siblings in one case, eating in the library for a single student in another.
I am so angry at the failures of government and business at almost every level. We’re two years into this now.
I drink water under my mask with a metal straw in my classroom, and if I was worried about taking my mask off at lunch I could do the same with a protein shake. Might be worth seeing if the kiddos want to take something like that, or even just a box of chocolate milk with a straw?
My kids go to a small private school so this might not be an option for yours, but worth mentioning. Right now my kids are eating in their classrooms, but earlier this year we had a few students who were not comfortable eating in the cafeteria. They were allowed to eat in a certain teacher’s classroom alone, or in an office alone. Yes, lonely, but at least not sharing air with everyone else. Maybe ask the principal or someone at the school if your three could sit in an empty room for lunch together?
I made it about halfway through the comments before opening up a new tab and ordering my kids some better masks. (They’re great about wearing the cloth masks, I just want something more effective). Then I came back and finished reading. So thank you to everyone who suggested good quality masks!
Me too!
Ugggh. I don’t have anything constructive to contribute, so I’m going to do some bitching instead. The whole shot appointment availability thing drives me NUTS. Could this not be centralized somehow? I appreciated that we don’t have to pay, but it was way too hard to get my seven year old a reasonable appointment. First, I checked the grocery pharmacy website, nada, then I made too many calls to our pediatrician, where they seem to be offering shots on a limited, boutique basis. Then, oh glory, the school district is working with the pediatrician to have a clinic! But only for 400 kids and it’s all booked up. Back to the grocery pharmacy website, where I snag the first appointment I can get for when she’s not in school- on the other side of town, during rush hour. I ask hubby to come home early to stay with our three year old, and make the hellish drive. I managed to get her the second shot a bit closer to home, but they were running an hour behind. Like a lot of things lately, it was crappy, but I’m grateful.
I switched my kids to KN95 masks when they went back to school in January (should have done it earlier). They are both HS athletes and really cannot skip lunch, so I also have a lot of anxiety around lunch.
No solutions, just solidarity.
My husband has switched to KN95 masks at work, and my kids will also be wearing them when and if in-person school resumes (right now scheduled for next week). We bought 60 of them at Costco, but I’m hunting online for a good source in Canada as well since delivery of a flat of them at Costco sparks a scene like the moment when contestants emerge in The Hunger Games.
Canada Strong Masks is in Ontario and makes great 95’s and usually has good stock. I was tipped to them after following Ryan Imgrund on twitter
Thanks for the suggestion! I have been keeping an eye on this website for about a week and checking their Twitter feed. Their feed is full of people replying with complaints about how fast the stock is gone and even they tweeted “28k masks sold out in exactly 4 minutes.” last week.
I’m finding the best thing is to do a search with the size and mask maker’s company name – this morning I turned up an obscure supply place near Toronto that had lots of the same Canada-made CA-N95 boat-style medium masks that Canada Strong is out of, and at a better price, so I ordered some from there. I’ve also got an overpriced sample box coming of 10 of a Korean KF94 brand that Health Canada recommended to test them for fit before trying to find a larger quantity.
Admitting up front that this is more information than anyone wants to know about my kid’s situation but I’m so irritated and I need a place to put it so here is our covid story:
Youngest’s school has been doing an amazing job with covid – everyone is required to be vax’d, everyone masked everywhere all the time, all lunches are eaten outside no matter the weather (they put up tents at the beginning of the year), they do at school testing for everyone when they return from a long break (like the winter break) and they do at school testing for any kid who has had a close contact notification. In short it has been the absolutely safest experience I could ask for in a school AND THEN…. Youngest plays basketball – her entire team, coaches, and parents have to be vax’d and masked and until last week every team they played had a similar situation so I felt ok with it. Then last Wednesday Youngest had a game at a school we hadn’t played yet. Her team played in the second of two games so H and I did go until her game started. We walked into a gym that looked like it was 2019: not one of the other team’s players, coaches, or spectators wore masks and Youngest’s entire team had been there for over an hour watching the JV team play. I was so upset that the teams just went ahead and stayed through two games under those circumstances. Of course the chickens came home to roost when Youngest tested positive yesterday (she was symptomatic) and this morning every other player in her grade also tested positive (several of them were completely asymptomatic and got tested only because of a different basketball player close contact notification). For all I know a bunch of other players tested positive too but Youngest doesn’t know them well enough to ask. So, because Youngest’s coach didn’t pull the team as soon as he saw the lack of masking situation they can no longer field a team for the next 10 days (Youngest’s school kept the 10-day quarantine requirement) or even longer.
Much too long story short: At least 1/3 – 1/2 of Youngest’s team got Covid even though they were fully masked by being in the gym with unmasked people. I can’t help but wonder how many of the other school’s players, coaches, and families have covid now and I am once again (still, always) fed up with anti maskers.
How do the tents help anything in rainy/snowy weather? Are they not fully enclosed also? Or do they not have sides and if it’s windy and rainy kids just get wet? I’m really curious. I don’t think it’s something my daughter’s school could do because they would also have to heat the tents in the winter and that would be quite pricey. Her school does let them eat outside when the weather is nice which I kept mentioning last fall.
We live in the Pac NW so it very rarely gets below about 40 degrees but it is rainy. The kids wear outdoor gear and get a little wet when the wind really blows the rain around. The tent idea would likely have real issues someplace where it snows often and/or gets very cold (or really hot) but we’re pretty boring and temperate here and Pac NW kids are pretty used to doing everything in the rain so it works.
Ooof, @Maggie. I am so sorry to hear that happened. That is outrageous. I hope your youngest will recover quickly and fully from the virus.
I got my 16 year old her booster over the holiday break and I am so happy I did. She was really good about wearing the KN94 mask last year before she could get vaccinated. But I know she much prefers the cloth masks. I go back and forth about having her wear the KN94 now. Her school does screen the students as they walk in ( supposedly) and masks are required. But! They aren’t really disclosing much this year about Covid cases.
There was much discussion on the parent run Facebook page about the new CDC guidelines with a rather worrisome number of parents hoping the county Health Dept. and the school would go with the shorter isolation times because their families had spent So! Much! of the break isolating already and mom was ready for the kids to get out of the house. (insert eye roll here). Awesome. You want your infected kid to infect others. Nice. (I know people are most contagious in the early days and these kids *probably* wouldn’t be contagious if they went to school).
My daughter and I were supposed to have dinner and see a play with my mom last week. But we had a huge snowstorm on our side of the state the day of. I can’t say that I was too sad that we had to cancel. I think for the next one, I’m going to suggest we get fast food and eat in the car. Fortunately the Performing Art Center is requiring proof of vaccination and masks. And aren’t selling any concessions so the masks *should* stay on the whole time.
Also, I thought y’all might appreciate this. This pretty much sums up how I feel.
http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2022/01/09/the-great-surrender-how-we-gave-up-and-let-covid-win
I work at an elementary school, since going back in January of 2021-they eat breakfast and lunch in the classroom. They have plastic shields up, and are supposed to face forward and not talk during meals. That is fun to enforce, but I try to fight the good fight!
These are impossible choices that no one wants to make.
These hard situations and sacrifices will make memories for this generation, although not necessarily warm fuzzy ones. Today’s kids one day will be reminiscing about the crappy pandemic times, similar to how older generations talk about the Great Depression and war times. My dad tells stories about rations and how his household did practice drills in case of enemy airplanes attacking his city during WWII. This line of thinking is a little comforting to me in that it reminds me that other people have endured hard times and that as a family we’re pulling together and still making memories.