Covid and your kids

[Skidog]

My wife and I just started this conversation, one of my kid's ski racing buddies wants to have a sleepover. We're not interested until we're fully vaccinated, but when we're there, what then?

Definitely trying to figure out what makes sense moving forward. So curious to hear what others think and what the data says.

Have had at least 30 sleepovers since covid started. I'm my small control group, kids aren't the issue

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[Danno]

What is the collective thought about how to handle unvaccinated kids with vaccinated parents getting together with other unvaccinated kids and vaccinated parents. Kids wear masks still when outside? Or just inside?

My wife and I just started this conversation, one of my kid's ski racing buddies wants to have a sleepover. We're not interested until we're fully vaccinated, but when we're there, what then?

Definitely trying to figure out what makes sense moving forward. So curious to hear what others think and what the data says.

I'm hoping we can get more people to weigh in. I know where my thoughts lie but I don't get to make this decision unilaterally, so maybe some science-y people can weigh in with some sense of the risks.

[uglymoney]

We let our daughter go to a friend's for a maskless dinner. It is her bestie. Her parents are careful and fully/partially vaxed. We are a month out from Moderna 1.

We put her back in indoor gymnastics. It is all masked and a big facility. Early in the pandemic the knuckleheads that run it didn't require masks and it was indoors so we pulled her.

We are continuing outdoor soccer. Continuing to ski.

She will be on the water ski show team this summer. All outdoors. I assume we will be allowing her to be in ski boats with others this summer in a limited basis.

She is continuing in person 5th grade. Masked with strict protocols.

We continue to travel. No indoor dining. Almost no indoor anything except hotel rooms which we try to book with an outdoor entrance or camping. No real sacrifice.

That is it for now. Feeling our way forward. Waiting for the numbers to drop. If they do...doubt we'll hesitate to stop worrying about her.

[dtown]

Not a science-y response but here’s our POV w/ 3 kids under the age of 11:
1) my wife and I are both vaccinated
2) we follow the SD and mask rules while in public
3) kids have been playing team sports for 10 months, we’ll keep playing those sports
4) we have started to expand our bubble, happy hour or dinner at a friend’s that we’re close with and adults vaccinated. Grandpa and grandma’s are now in play too as they’re vaccinated
5) we’re not concerned at all about the kids’ health and folks we’ll hang out with indoors will still be fairly small but we’re not going to continue to live the way we have for the last year. We’re also not going on cruises or bowling 3 nights a week.

Again, not science-y but we’re comfortable with that approach.


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[bagtagley]

Un-sciency opposite end of the spectrum. Our daughter may or may not be high risk. Her cardiologist said "prrooooobably not?", but big ? with her vasculature. One of our friends said something like "how many kids do you know that have a cardiologist". So, we're being more careful than most.

My daughter hangs with her friends, always outside, and sometimes masked. My son plays with the neighborhood kids, only in small groups, always outside, and sometimes masked. The first half of this year is going to look pretty similar to last. Nothing indoors, no large groups, etc. Until they're vaxxed, that isn't going to change. Not worth the risk, however small.

[EWG]

I'm hoping we can get more people to weigh in. I know where my thoughts lie but I don't get to make this decision unilaterally, so maybe some science-y people can weigh in with some sense of the risks.

Not saying I'm a sciency person but I was trying to calm my daughter's fears a bit and pointed out to her that of the half million deaths so far in America about 250 of them are to people under 17. In the 2019-2020 flu season there were 430 deaths 0-17.

On the other hand, from ages 50 and up it is about 500,000 deaths from covid vs 19,000 for 2019-2020 flu.

Take that data where it makes sense to you, but I think it helped my daughter feel better. But she's 16 so she's getting Pfizer.

[bodywhomper]

As more adults get vaxed, the importance of unvaxed children as a main asymptomatic vector will increase.

Here are some of the questions that we discuss in our household.

What’s the potential that the kid has been exposed/infected?

What’s the age of the child? I do not consider teens similar to younger kids.

“High risk” seems pretty subjective and not always easy to determine, especially for children at the lower end of the spectrum if “high risk.” A child who gets croup every time they’ve been sick for the past 11 years (one of my kids), or a teen who has recently started to have difficulty breathing (wheezy) after strenuous exercise... are they “high risk” in the covid “high risk” sense that the cdc warns about?

Will denier-types be present? Do the children’s young friends live in a household with deniers? Will that complicate the activities?

How likely is it that the child has been infected with a variant that has low (or unknown) efficacy to a vax received by an adult that could be infected? Is that adult a known high risk of developing a severe infection? How will you have the child alter their behavior around that adult? E.g., the South African variant (b.1.351) supposedly has 57% efficacy to the j&j vax and ~10% efficacy with the AZ vax.

[Danno]

The varying perspectives are appreciated.

I'm inclined to allow sleepovers if the other parents are also vaxxed and seem responsible (of course, "seems responsible" should be a sleepover precondition anyway), and to allow inside play. Unmasked seems really weird after a year of this shit, but maybe?

But like I said, not a decision I can make unilaterally.

[bodywhomper]

“responsible” has changed for us over the past year.

[yeahman]

No easy decisions about this stuff. Lots of luck involved too. I know people who have been way more careful than us who have ended up with the whole family getting covid. We fall in the middle somewhere and I feel like we've been running a gauntlet and have just gotten lucky so far. Now my 17 yo already has her first shot, my wife and I are scheduled for April 20, and hopefully we can avoid stumbling right before we get to the finish line. The 15 yo has no vax options yet but hopefully that's coming sooner than later.

[bodywhomper]

Here’s the in the bubble from today with an interview of Paul Offit. He mostly discusses kids and covid in the US at this point in time: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas...=1000516103607

[funkendrenchman]

4 yo is pretty much maskless most of the time because preschooler. 7 yo is maskless outside but masked inside. She's pretty good about it and thinks that wearing a mask is no big deal. If you find a good mask they like, buy 5 of them. My kid likes Blackstap.

4 year olds can be better at masking than other kids. Our 4 year old wears it all day at preschool and whenever else we ask her to. No complaints.

[Sirshredalot]

The varying perspectives are appreciated.

I'm inclined to allow sleepovers if the other parents are also vaxxed and seem responsible (of course, "seems responsible" should be a sleepover precondition anyway), and to allow inside play. Unmasked seems really weird after a year of this shit, but maybe?

But like I said, not a decision I can make unilaterally.

We've had these discussions recently, too.

Both my wife and I are vaxxed. We've had a visit from the vaxxed grandparents and an outdoor birthday party where most attendees were school classmates and most were not masked (not required on the playground at school).

We are planning on resuming summer camps and team sports this summer, we've had them in restaurants a couple times recently.

I think we'd allow a playdate that involves going in the home of another family with vaxxed adults and little kids at this point. We've been reintroducing this stuff gradually.

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[geomorph]

4 year olds can be better at masking than other kids. Our 4 year old wears it all day at preschool and whenever else we ask her to. No complaints.

I don't disagree, and the 4yo wears it when we do something inside other than daycare, which isn't often. It's just that daycare doesn't require masks, and it's a bit hard to expect her to be the only one masking among the kids. I wasn't thrilled when the daycare reopened with no masks, but not really many other options.

[old_newguy]

Does anyone have any information on child deaths, incidence, etc relative to other common causes for illness in kids?

That would seem to be the metric for me. Is exposing my kid to this disease any worse than everything else that runs around in a school every year?

[Danno]

Does anyone have any information on child deaths, incidence, etc relative to other common causes for illness in kids?

That would seem to be the metric for me. Is exposing my kid to this disease any worse than everything else that runs around in a school every year?

agree that this would be useful info.

[Core Shot]

4 year olds can be better at masking than other kids. Our 4 year old wears it all day at preschool and whenever else we ask her to. No complaints.

What a sad youth.

Sure, they can be spreaders. But 99.99% chance of survival isn’t worth life changing psychological trauma. Unless their close contacts are high risk.
Ymmv. Vibes.

[mfcf13]

Have had at least 30 sleepovers since covid started.

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Michael Jackson would be impressed with your level of commitment.

[yeahman]

What a sad youth.

Sure, they can be spreaders. But 99.99% chance of survival isn’t worth life changing psychological trauma. Unless their close contacts are high risk.
Ymmv. Vibes.

Everybody has close contacts who are high risk, or contacts of contacts. Do you have school-age kids? Have you watched them deal with this shit up close? You might be surprised at their resiliency and willingness to do what's needed. These school kids have first of all proven that masks and social distancing actually work in a close, controlled environment. They don't give a fuck about wearing masks, they just want to go to school and do sports and be with their friends. And believe it or not they manage to do it all every day without whining and complaining every step of the way like all the weakass adults in our society. IMO this generation of kids will grow up stronger and more community minded than all the selfish fucks walking around this country today.

[KQ]

Everybody has close contacts who are high risk, or contacts of contacts. Do you have school-age kids? Have you watched them deal with this shit up close? You might be surprised at their resiliency and willingness to do what's needed. These school kids have first of all proven that masks and social distancing actually work in a close, controlled environment. They don't give a fuck about wearing masks, they just want to go to school and do sports and be with their friends. And believe it or not they manage to do it all every day without whining and complaining every step of the way like all the weakass adults in our society. IMO this generation of kids will grow up stronger and more community minded than all the selfish fucks walking around this country today.

I have to say I've been impressed with the kids I see wearing masks. They all act like it's no big deal and are just as loud and boisterous as ever.

[bodywhomper]

In my area, where there are a lot of covid denier adults, there are a lot of kids that ignore the mask rules.

[Flounder]

What a sad youth.

Sure, they can be spreaders. But 99.99% chance of survival isn’t worth life changing psychological trauma. Unless their close contacts are high risk.
Ymmv. Vibes.

Oh yeah the psychological trauma of wearing a mask is going to be some much worse than those lucky kids like my grandparents that only had to deal with the Great Depression. I’m glad my grandma passed before COVID, I’m sure she would have been horrified at the thought of kids masking and missing sports. So much worse than having to drop out of school at 13 to try and keep the family fed because her dad lost his store in the depression. At least she didn’t have to wear a mask, that probably would have destroyed the “greatest generation”.

[uglymoney]

In my area, where there are a lot of covid denier adults, there are a lot of kids that ignore the mask rules.

A good way to tell the parents that take the covids seriously and the ones who pretend they do but are just greenwashing. Watch their kids.

Yeahman...great post. Totally agree.

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[m6ed27]

Im thinking of relaxing it a bit, but undecided. Far from worried, but its still a concern.

It's just impossible to stay completely calm

[concretejungle]

I have to say I've been impressed with the kids I see wearing masks. They all act like it's no big deal and are just as loud and boisterous as ever.

In my area, where there are a lot of covid denier adults, there are a lot of kids that ignore the mask rules.

As someone who sees a lot of kids at work and and home my uneducated take is that if the parents take Covid seriously and have done so since the beginning wear their masks and have no complaints. It's the dick nosing fuck head parents that don't that have kids that bitch and moan. I have not had to so much as remind my daughter to wear her mask properly since this started. She does multiple activities that require it and I've never heard of any issues.

With regards to sleepovers she's had a couple that I think would have began around last summer. I was worried but in the end with my exposure at work I figured it wasn't much of an issue and just kept my fingers crossed. l'd consider that the most risky thing we've done since this started and it hasn't bitten us in the ass yet.