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HSmomof2

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Posts posted by HSmomof2

    Helping teen survive the social isolation of the pandemic

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    Thank you for your replies......I know we aren’t the only ones struggling right now, and I am hopeful that the vaccine continuing to roll out will eventually let us return to a normal life. February is always hard, and just feels so much worse this year after such a long year. We should start having a little better weather in the next month or so, and will try to set up some more outdoor things. We did let dd return to her dance class in the fall, masked and distanced, which helped her a lot.....but due to increasing cases, the dance studio returned to virtual classes in January. She ‘attends’ online, but can’t see the other students.  She was also really involved in youth group, but our church dissolved last summer (this is actually a good thing after seeing some really unhealthy behaviors going on there, even pre-pandemic), so we’ve been virtually attending a new church but don’t know anyone there yet, since it hasn’t been in person. They just very recently returned to some in person services at a very limited capacity, masks required, no congregational singing, etc. We will need to decide if we think we should try going in person, since they are being very careful and following the public health guidelines. It’s so tiring to be constantly having to weigh whether or not daily normal activities are worth the risk.....overall we aren’t in an anti-mask area, but our group of previous church and homeschool friends/acquaintances are pretty much all anti-mask, Covid conspiracy/hoax type of people, which really did surprise me. 

    Thanks again for the responses.....we’ll all get through this......at least we have some sunshine today, which we haven’t seen for quite awhile.🙂

    • Like 3

    Helping teen survive the social isolation of the pandemic

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    32 minutes ago, Farrar said:

    Hugs to you and your dd. My teens' friend group is more like your ds's - they are online together watching movies and playing videos games every single night. I've wondered if this is a little gendered... while there are girls and nb kids in their online hangout Discord group, it's a very boy-centric crew. I've wondered if the stereotypical males playing video games thing has translated better to online for kids.

    I don't know if there are any easy answers. Are there connections that might welcome her into more online circles?

     

    It may very well be a more boy-centric thing....my sister says my nephew is staying way more connected to his friends online than my niece is......I don’t know that there is a solution except keep hoping the vaccine keeps on rolling out. 

    • Like 1

    Helping teen survive the social isolation of the pandemic

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    This is probably mostly just a vent and sadness for dd(16). Dh and I are higher risk for Covid and have been very careful along with our dc. We’ve allowed dd to have outdoor distanced and masked visits with a couple friends. This wasn’t too bad over the summer but with the cold, wet weather these visits have become fewer and further between. They text and FaceTime sometimes, but this also seems to be less and less. Unfortunately, her friends and their families, in typical Christian homeschooler fashion (yes, I’m bitter), are not being careful at all and just living their best lives.....as if we aren’t in a pandemic. So, dd sees their posts on social media of them doing things together, and she’s just drifting away from all her friends as they continue to live their lives and she “sits alone in her room forgotten”. I don’t know how to make this any easier for her and hate seeing her getting sadder and lonelier. She has her brother, ds(18), and they go for walks daily, go pick up coffees or takeout, but she really believes she’ll have no friends left when things get back to some kind of normal. How are other teens surviving if actually following public health guidelines? I think it would be better for if her friends and their families actually cared about the pandemic, but they don’t. Ds’s friend group is completely opposite, and their families are probably even more careful than we are. He has a thriving online/Zoom/FaceTime social life going and visits outside with 2 friends a couple times per week masked and distanced regardless of the weather. 

    • Like 1
    • Sad 3

    I'm going back to work. Again.

    in The Chat Board

    Posted · Edited by HSmomof2

    43 minutes ago, hippymamato3 said:

    I think it's going to be very difficult to set boundaries with these people. Is there some reason you can't look elsewhere for a part-time job?

    I’m glad to hear your treatment is going well, and I do hope your coworkers will be respectful of your boundaries. From what you’ve said, though, I don’t think it’s likely that they will. Possibly looking for a part-time job somewhere else would be healthier for you.....I’ve worked at many jobs over my lifetime, and can’t think of anytime a coworker would have fixed me a plate of food and been offended if I didn’t eat it. In my experience, that is not typical workplace behavior. 

    • Like 2

    Am I doing the right thing? Kids not masking in my DD's Sunday School class.

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    8 minutes ago, kbutton said:

    There is one or two I know of that have been reasonable, but not as cautious as we are. I might be able to attend there later, though I don’t know if they are making an effort to include the typically involved folks that pulled back to go online.

    I think what bothers me the most is that the non-maskers or sort-of maskers feel persecuted—they act like they are in the minority, and it’s just not true! Our local health department has completely stopped communicating on FB, and I am pretty sure they aren’t enforcing mask mandates because people are posting all kinds of indoor events with no masks. While churches have been allowed to opt in vs. being required to take precautions here, other businesses are not exempt.

     

    So much the bolded above!! I am so over that attitude. Our church is truly being cautious and carefully following health guidelines, and I am so thankful for that, but they are one of the few local churches doing so. 

    • Like 2

    Am I doing the right thing? Kids not masking in my DD's Sunday School class.

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    You are doing the right thing, and I’m sorry you’re having to deal with it.
     

    I cannot express how frustrated and disappointed I am in many churches, Christians, and homeschoolers. Their behavior concerning the pandemic is despicable and very far from how I believe God wants us to love each other. What I have seen is anything but loving or caring for others. Thankfully our own church is carefully following public health guidelines, and I’m looking forward to being able to return in person once vaccinated. I’m also thankful my youngest will start dual enrollment at the community college in the fall, so I never have to be involved in a homeschool group ever again. 

    • Like 3
    • Thanks 1

    Kids, covid, and anxiety

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    55 minutes ago, MissLemon said:

    My 12 year old has expressed he does not want to do any sort of event with other people "until it's safe". I think he'll feel better once our household is vaccinated, but I have an eye on the situation. 

    I’ve had the same with dd(16). I think we’ll all feel better once we’re vaccinated. But it will take some time to reintegrate into ‘normal’ life after being pretty locked down the last year. 

    • Like 2

    Tell me I’m not a failure

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    You are not a failure. Having a healthy mom is much more important than being homeschooled. Making the best choice for you and your family is never a failure. I’m sorry to hear the struggles you’ve been dealing with and hope you start feeling better soon! 

    • Like 1

    Why must people be so incivil? Venty-vent-vent.

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    16 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

    Other regional quirks:

    1. Do you greet the checkout clerk?

    Yes, always 

    2. Do you thank the checkout clerk when they hand you your receipt?

    Yes, always 

    3. Are you obligated to empty the cart of trash even if you didn't put it there before returning it to the corral? ie--you inherited a cart with receipt tucked into the frame at the bottom--what do you do?

    I’d choose a different cart without trash in it. I would definitely clear out my own trash.

    4. Do you ever aid someone else who is trying to pick out produce?

    Not unless asked.

    5. Do you feel guilty for not letting someone with 1-2 items behind you go ahead of you in line when you have a full cart? 

    I do let people go ahead with 1-2 items. 

    6. Do you make eye contact with strangers in the aisle and smile?

    Yes

    7. Do you small talk with people in line (strangers)? 

    Not usually. 

     

     

    • Like 1

    COVID vaccine concerns

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Corraleno said:

    Why are you discouraged?

    If you're concerned about the issue of transmission, the fact that the manufacturers didn't specifically test for that doesn't mean the vaccine won't significantly impact transmission, it just means that we can't yet quantify what the impact will be. Even the vaccines that don't achieve complete "sterilizing immunity" still greatly reduce the spread of the disease. 

    I don’t have the article link but got this quote by an immunologist from a friend and found it encouraging. I’m a little nervous about the vaccine but really will be happy to have my turn to get it. 
     

    “Theoretically, a vaccine should stop both the infection as well as the transmission and spread,” said Dr. Purvi Parikh, an immunologist with the nonprofit Allergy & Asthma Network and a co-investigator on the Pfizer vaccine trials.

    But we don’t know yet if that is true of the COVID-19 vaccines, she told me. That’s because the focus of the clinical trials was narrow. It had to be because of the time constraints. Scientists wanted to know whether these things prevented illness. They wanted to know whether the drugs were safe. And they got those answers.

    But getting those questions answered fast came at the expense of answering other questions — like whether vaccinated people can still spread the virus. “With a lot of other vaccines, you have years of data to analyze that,” Parikh said.

    So, experts are being careful — balancing their excitement and relief with caution that you can’t just switch off 2020 Mode and return to a normal state of being. They need a little more time to know for sure. 

    “If you have a vaccine that’s 95 percent effective at reducing symptoms, there is no universe in which it wouldn’t also reduce the likelihood of transmission. It’s just not possible,” she said. “So we’re not talking about whether it reduces transmission or not, we just want to get an extent as to how much.”

    • Like 7

    Personal covid experiences

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    12 minutes ago, kand said:

    Yeah, reading that article, you have to wonder. The fact that the costume person came in in the morning, and some of the people who got sick didn’t work until that evening, seems very strange. I don’t know how they can be so sure it was the costume rather than any number of other factors with them all working together. Especially since they didn’t start testing them until after the outbreak. Who knows when it began, in that case. Could have been the costume, or could have been coincidence. I wonder if they are Genotyping any of them.

    I agree......it seems like there are pieces of the story missing, and I don’t think it can all necessarily be blamed on the person in the costume. 

    • Like 3

    Personal SARS-COV-2 vaccination experiences

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Not_a_Number said:

    It wouldn't be surprising. The same way that political persuasion seemed to inexplicably correlate to inability to breathe in a mask in a way it never had before... 

    That’s so true! 😂I definitely feel like an oddball these days......a conservative, Christian, homeschooler, pro-vaccine, pro-science, pro-mask and social distancing......after seeing such bad behavior and conspiracy bs from so many ‘friends’ and acquaintances, we’re going to have to start over making new friends when this is over.....though it’s cleared up why we never really fit in.....

    • Like 9
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