Has Coronavirus Affected Your Family?
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Earlier this week on Corporette, we asked readers whether their jobs have been affected by coronavirus, and today we’d like to find out about the impact on CorporetteMoms readers — so, please share: Has coronavirus affected your family so far? What are your kids’ schools doing to keep students safe? Are you worried at all about your kids getting sick, or your kids infecting grandparents or others?
Do you and your partner have plans for childcare if your child’s school or daycare is closed? (Has it changed your spring break plans or Easter travel plans?)
The latest update from CNN shows that COVID-19 has infected more than 115,800 people worldwide and has killed over 4,200 — but interestingly, the virus seems to affect children less severely than adults. The BBC reported that children and teenagers are less likely to die of coronavirus than people over 80, while Parents listed a few theories to explain kids’ lower rates of transmission and milder symptoms. Experts are still figuring things out; the latter article quoted one doctor as saying, “[We] are completely stymied as to why we’re seeing this phenomenon.”
Still, schools all around the country are closing, and many colleges are transitioning to online-only classes. Schools that remain open have been busy keeping parents updated regarding coronavirus policies; we’ve gotten three detailed emails from our district’s superintendent already.
Yesterday, my son told me that teachers at his elementary school are asking kids to wash their hands before lunch (among other measures), though he added, “But none of us washed our hands before lunch.” (Sigh.)
Lately, I’ve been vigilant in getting him to wash his hands when he gets home, partly because we were notified that a kid in his class tested positive for strep throat. (Another sigh.)
The advice we shared on Corporette from the World Health Organization bears repeating on this site, so here it is:
- Clean your hands frequently, either with soap and water or a hand sanitizer. (Please do not try to make your own hand sanitizer out of vodka.)
- Keep a 3-foot distance between you and someone who’s coughing or sneezing.
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth.
- Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or your bent elbow when you cough or sneeze (also called “the vampire sneeze).
- Stay home if you’re sick. If you have a fever, cough, and difficulty breathing, go to the doctor.
- Stay informed on the latest developments about COVID-19.
Readers, has coronavirus affected your family in any way? How worried about COVID-19 are you, and what precautions are you taking? Have you canceled any upcoming travel? If your family was asked to self-quarantine after being exposed, what would you do?
Further Reading:
- 8 Questions Parents May Have About Coronavirus [NYT]
- How to Give Your Kids Stability When Coronavirus Closes Schools [Quartz]
- How Working Parents Can Prepare for Coronavirus Closures [Harvard Business Review]
- How to Talk to Children About Coronavirus [Harvard Health Blog]
- Just For Kids: A Comic Exploring The New Coronavirus [NPR]
- Coronavirus Preparation: 7 Hand-Washing Songs to Teach Kids [Fatherly]
Not to go all doom and gloom on everyone, but I would start preparing now for a change in lifestyle. I’m in Seattle the first city to get hit and the city has made a big push to WFH and Seattle Public Schools just announced today they are closing for 2 weeks (which I’m sure means my toddler’s daycare will be closing as well). We’re lucky here because the CDC’s response has been lackluster (testing through them is still difficult), but we lucked out that UW was developing their own test so people here are actually able to get tested. That said, this is coming to a city near you and who knows if your local health agencies are ready. The response here has been across the board. I have coworkers who are going about business as usual and are convinced this is no big deal, but I would say most people (at least most businesses when forced to make a decision) have acknowledge that there is a big risk out there and are taking preventative measures. I go back and fourth between panicking (I’m at the end of my first trimester and there is basically no data on what the risk to pregnant women is, but the CDC is categorizing us as high risk) and trying to be reasonable and just do what I can. I would start getting in the habit of washing your hands more often and not touching your face (it’s way harder than it seems). If you have littles, practice with them. I would suggest you add a little extra canned/frozen food to your grocery list just to be safe (and go at a down time…social distancing people, social distancing). I would also stock up on activities for the kiddos. Honestly, I don’t know how we are going to survive having a 2 year old at home and both trying to work full-time (and honestly there is more pressure on me than my husband because I have billable hours that track how much I’m working). And realistically, it’s probably already in your communities you just don’t realize it (they now have evidence through the Seattle Flu Study that it was floating around here weeks before our first reported case) so it’s not a bad idea to start avoiding large events. The more we can slow down the transmission of this thing the better off we all are off. Even if you’re not high risk, someone you know is. Let’s all flatten the curve…
I’m a college professor, so I’m figuring out how to teach the rest of my semester online. It’s a bit of a trip, but I’m trying to give myself some grace – I’m not going to do a perfect job, and that’s fine.
Otherwise, life continues on as usual. I don’t know what we’ll do if/when daycare is closed. My parents are our usual backup care plan, but they are both in their 70s and I don’t want them around my adorable disease vectors at all these days. But we’ll cross that bridge later. My husband and I are both working from home full time for the foreseeable future, so there will be an adult in the house. They’ll probably watch a lot of TV. We’ll all survive.
My son has read books about the 1918 pandemic and the yellow fever outbreak in 17whatever. He recently remarked 1918 must have been a crazy time to be alive, because they had a pandemic and a war! Just wait till he realizes the US history he has lived/is living through right now…
I work in a field that focuses primarily on pandemic/bioterrorism preparedness and response and my husband has a similar job so it’s basically destroying my home and marriage right now? We are both very burnt out and sensitive and stressed and tired and there is an underlying unspoken “my role is more important than yours” in some of our interactions. We’ve had 2 fights our whole marriage before this. So…. that’s fun. I’ve hired some extra help to keep us all afloat.
Also, I receive immune-suppressing treatments so I’m high risk. I think that is mentally affecting me more than I’m recognizing or admitting. I’m much more unnerved by some of this than I expected as someone who thinks about these things for a living. I guess because a lot of the measures we always talked about as “worst-case scenario” are happening now. We always imagined things like university closures happening in more dire circumstances, but I think we also expected them to listen to their public health officials.
I’m avoiding the grocery store etc. and am trying to get things in a position where I can telework (luckily we have a lot of redundant communication methods in the emergency preparedness and response world!). My chronic condition is flaring from the stress so that’s the cherry on top of the poop sundae.
We did stock up on some basics, as discussed here in past posts. We’re bracing for school to let out. My son is almost 10 so honestly that won’t be a huge deal, I’m more concerned about if our in-home daycare closes.
Speculation is that our school district (close-in, middle class suburb of Columbus, OH) will have kids move to online learning for at least a week or two after spring break (which starts next week). Most colleges and universities in my state are doing the same.
I know this is a very first world problem but my DD was supposed to transition daycare rooms in May. I feel like the odds are good her school will close in the next couple of months and remained closed through May, so I don’t know what the transition will look like – will she just go straight to a new room after this break without saying goodbye to all her teachers and friends? Won’t that be hard coming back to school after a long break, plus going to a brand new room? I KNOW that if the worst problem we have from all this is a rough daycare room transition, we’re incredibly lucky, but I can’t help but feel sad and anxious about it. And she will miss her little buddies so much while school is closed! The ironic thing is that when she was an infant I wanted so badly to be a SAHM and not have to send her to daycare, and now she’s going to be home with me full-time and I’m sad that she will be missing out on time with her wonderful friends and teachers. The grass is always greener, I guess.
I am having major anxiety about whether to cancel my daughter’s 4th bday party. It’s at our house and only invitees are kids in her preschool class (like 12 kids). Her school is still open but I suspect not for long. My original thought was we’d cancel if school closed; but now wondering whether that’s necessary, are we actually not going to do playdates or any socialization for 3 months, and wondering if we should go ahead and just tell people that we really will not be offended if they choose not to come…?
My BIL is the main caretaker for my elderly in-laws and usually sees them 3-4x per week. He works in an area heavily impacted by the virus, so he’s not visiting them until the situation is under control. My in-laws will be fine, but it’ll be a bummer not to have his help and support.
We were supposed to go on a house-hunting and daycare hunting trip to another heavily-impacted area next week, because we’ll be relocating to that area over the summer. We haven’t officially canceled our plans but likely will. Although it’s definitely a “first world problem,” I’m annoyed that Airbnb isn’t offering any cancellation flexibility other than for reservations in Italy, China and S. Korea, so we’re out $1200. We were already iffy on using Airbnb (and decided to do it so we could “live” in our target neighborhood for a week, where there are no hotels), but this is one more reason not to use Airbnb in the future. Also, the thought of buying a house, sight-unseen, which we’ll now need to do, is stressing me out.
We’ve been telling my 5 yo daughter to wash hands as soon as we get home. Her daycare has instituted a wash-hands policy as soon as you enter, and parents now have to stay in the entryway. When I dropped her off this morning, I reminded her to wash her hands before playing. She squealed, “PANDEMIC!” and ran excitedly to the sink. At least it encouraged her friend to wash hands with her.
My family, including my mother, have a trip to the Galapagos scheduled in 3 weeks. Right now the CDC isn’t recommending cancellation of travel to Ecuador, but I’m still concerned. Hopefully there will be more data coming in the next 2 weeks to help us decide if we want to go or not.
So far, biggest impact is that we can’t go visit my elderly, ailing grandpa, which I had been planning to do this month. My mom probably will not visit my family for a while, because she needs to be able to visit her parents. There are no cases in her area or my grandparents’, yet, but there are in mine. I’m pretty upset at the idea that the only way I’ll get to see my grandpa is if he tests positive for covid-19 and I don’t have to worry about us giving it to him. I don’t think he would survive it, and the whole point of us planning a visit was that we’re not totally sure he’ll still be around at Thanksgiving.
Remote work is very common for my team at work, and I usually wfh a few days a week anyway. We have company-wide stress testing for remote work this week, but it’s already part of the culture for many functions & locations. No public transit in my commute. DH works exclusively from home. We are not changing our day-to-day activities at all, at this point, but we’re not big out-and-about movie or restaurant people anyway.
Our Spring Break plans next month include a domestic flight and Caribbean cruise. We’re in wait and see mode for that. If we go, I will definitely wfh exclusively for a couple weeks after, and minimize time in public spaces. If schools are still open we may keep the kids home, too. I suspect they will be closed by then anyway, or that a remote learning period will tag on for a couple weeks after Spring Break. Thank goodness this is happening in the Spring and self-quarantine can include our backyard.
My husband’s work instituted a WFH policy for all employees in his office and mine has so far not mandated this, but that could change. My dad cancelled a trip abroad that he was supposed to go on next week. So far daycare is open but if it closes, we are all going to be spending a lot of time together at home.
My 70 year old parents are visiting us (driving here) next week. DH and I are both working from home as of today and are religious about washing our hands, but the biggest source of infection in our house is normally our toddler, who goes to full-time daycare. Would you keep the toddler home while my parents are here? My parents aren’t acting very concerned about this (they’re both professors who were still teaching in-person classes through the end of this week and my mom is currently in an airplane on her way home from a conference, so I know my toddler isn’t the only possible source of infection). But I just feel like kids are such petri dishes and I would hate to be responsible for giving them something that could be so serious. There are no cases in our county yet, but several in neighboring counties and I know it’s generally believed there are way more cases that haven’t been diagnosed yet due to lack of widespread testing.
I haven’t done anything at home in response to the virus. Obviously we wash hands frequently, etc.
Ugh, it’s all a bit up in the air. We have local wedding and have to travel to a funeral on Tuesday. My mom is coming in on Friday from the east bay, hoping all okay as she’s the childcare for wedding and funeral. Suspect my husband’s work will close before mine, and not sure about nursery. Just trying to figure how to get work done with a 2.5 year old at home.
We’ve cancelled Passover plans to have my dad fly in and visit. He’s 83 and definitely a vulnerable population. I’m trying to push at work to talk about working from home, teleconferences instead of big (30 people) meetings, etc, but we’re a huge organization so not much will happen until something comes down from on high. I work in a big office building and over 90% of employees here probably take transit to get here so I’m mildly concerned about that. Our school has sent out notices saying they’re talking to the kids in an age appropriate way, keeping in touch with local public health, etc, but I would not be surprised if and when schools close and move classes online for a month. Not sure how I’d juggle that with working from home as well..
Overall I was super calm and unconcerned until I started reading the first hand accounts from Italy.