15yo are hard. They have Opinions! Honestly, if you're fighting with him about what you want him to do vs. what he is requesting to do, I would probably just go with what he wants to do. We all have ideals and ways we want to see it done, but getting it done, and having a good relationship with your son, are probably more important than ideal. Perhaps you could make some of the shows/movies as family supplements in the evening or something.

WIC only runs for kids up to age 5, so mostly it quits before school age, precisely because kids who qualify for WIC also likely qualify for free or reduced lunch. I think food stamps also assume that school age kids are getting free or reduced lunch. I personally like the idea of a good, nutritious lunch just being part of everyone's school day. (Not the fast food junk that seems to be what my local school serves.) That seems like it would be more efficient in general than figuring out who gets free or reduced lunch, and far less emotionally damaging. I would very much support involving kids in preparing food too as part of their curriculum. In elementary school, it folds in easily into a practical math/science/civics program, and in high school, it can certainly count as elective credit in food science, home ec, institution management, whatever. I know places around here do offer summer lunch for kids, and I have heard that they encourage anyone, even those who don't normally get free/reduced school lunch, to take it in order to keep their numbers up. They're offering lunches for any kids under 18 right now, regardless of whether or not you go to their schools. We haven't tried them, because getting everyone loaded up is more than I feel like doing, and we aren't at the point where we *need* it, but I think it's nice that they're offering. I do think parents probably would figure out ways to feed their kids, at least most of them, but I'm ALL for making things a little easier on parents who need a boost. I don't love the quality of school lunch right now, but if it saves a single mom or a couple working multiple jobs a little stress, I'm okay with that because I have had times when things were really tight, and "it just takes five minutes" adds up fast. Feed the children.

My husband is now working from home, so that in itself is special, although we also took off a couple of days from bookwork to get things set up for him. We are mostly business as usual, so our usual school work takes up the days. I've been trying to take advantage of some of the fun free stuff that's been put out, like Mo Willems's lunchtime doodles. Last week we binge watched all of the current LegoMasters show. The kids miss karate (although their instructor is making videos for home practice), and my one little guy misses his art class, but they have each other, a yard, electronics, schoolwork, art supplies, and a ton of board games, so we are definitely not hurting for things to do. The hardest is that my middle guy misses his BFF, whom he usually plays with every week or so for several hours, so I've been more lenient about online minecraft. But in general, things haven't changed too much for us.

I've seen more neighbors out walking than usual but nobody breaking the rules. My husband said Home Depot was packed with kids tonight (why???), but the grocery store was empty.

My hospital canceled all non-elective surgeries, and also, if your hysterectomy was to be done by an OBGYN (my GYN did my ovarian cyst and one tube removal) that's also one less chance for the doctor to be exposed to the virus so that he/she is there for a laboring mama. (I've also read that some OBGYNs are canceling all GYN patients in favor of the pregnant mamas right now.) So yes, I think you did the right thing.

I think PA has done okay. Schools and non-life-sustaining businesses are closed, and I'm glad they went to that quickly. Our governor seems to be pretty on top of communicating. The two hospital systems around me have gone to very strict "no visitor except for a handful of circumstances" policies, have canceled a lot of elective stuff, and are making alternate arrangements for routine visits. I don't know that closing school for just two weeks was the right thing, because I'm afraid people will be more angry when their kids don't go back to school in a week, but gradual might be better. I anticipate announcements this week about long term school decisions. Now we just need a consensus and some answers for the homeschoolers in the state. I'm expecting MD to follow with the non-life-sustaining businesses being closed.

Exactly. PA has made a clear list and has clarified what that means. First they said essential, and gyms were excluded, but construction counted as essential. When they went to life-sustaining, construction got excluded, except for emergency repairs and construction of healthcare facilities. It doesn't seem to take livelihood into account.

Quill, DH and I are wondering about all of that too. What exactly IS the difference between "only go to life-sustaining businesses" and "shelter in place?" We are at only life-sustaining businesses here in PA right now, and IDK what would actually be different if we went to shelter in place.

Thanks -- sorry it is up today though, but I guess that's to be expected.

Really!? Link?

Yeah, this. Teenage son and daughter say they're doing their parts, thanks to phones and internet, but we have eight people and a puppy in a moderately sized house, and several people share bedrooms. There's only so much we can do. We aren't especially at high risk; I'm probably the highest risk due to asthma, and nobody stays away from me, lol.

I get what you're saying. My solution has been to have at least a couple of books going at once. For kids who can read, they are typically assigned historical fiction that corresponds to history studies as independent reading, and readalouds of classic literature are bedtime/lunchtime family books that we enjoy together. My one son is currently reading Tales from Ancient Egypt on his own, while I'm reading The Moffats to him and his brothers. For non-readers, I may just have a couple of readalouds going at once. And we also always have a book of poetry going too.

Yep, Flovent is what I use when my asthma starts flaring and needing albuterol more often. The spring allergies and warm air have made it flare now, so I've been using the Flovent, in the hope that keeping the asthma better controlled is better for covid-19 than a risk from steroids.

Really liked these ideas -- thank you!

That one is true.

I am so sorry.

I lived in Montgomery County over in SE PA. I lived pretty far out in a small town, and it was okay. Closer in to Philadelphia is more expensive and crowded. Chester, Delaware, definitely crowded and expensive, plus Philadelphia. Bucks is expensive too, I think, but I'm not as familiar. Lancaster, York, Berks, Adams, Franklin, Cumberland, Dauphin (that's where Hershey is, and I can personally recommend their hospital/children's hospital), Perry, um, what else is around here? Centre is where Penn State is, and it is also really pretty, probably more expensive, but maybe the surrounding areas aren't so much? We went to school up there but haven't lived there in two decades, just visited. Basically, I think it depends on how close you need to be to a city of any type. We have a snow shovel, and yes, we have to scrape the cars sometimes because no garage. This winter was very mild, though. I think we pay around $3000 total in property taxes, plus a little more in the per capita and occupational assessment taxes.

Ours doesn't have a separate l&d entrance, but in a few months l&d will move to their own floors in the children's hospital, and that does have its own entrance, so they could restrict access. They've currently gone to one visitor per patient, two visitors per pediatric patient, and nobody under 18 at all. (This from a hospital who let siblings of all ages in the NICU during flu season, as long as they weren't sick, so this is a big change.) I've heard that some OBs are having mamas call in when they arrive for appointments and then will get a call when it's time for them to come in, straight back to an exam room, no checking in or waiting in the main room. For low risk mamas, home is a reasonable option, but for high risk mamas, many of whom also have conditions that make them high risk for covid-19, there is not much choice.

Lol, so are we! Most of us are introverts, and six kids means there is always a sibling available for interaction. My one little guy has been hanging out with his BFF a lot in the last year, so he will be missing that, but they'll play online games together at least.

Our local public schools are completely off for at least the next two weeks. They'll be exempt from their 180 days. We are not, and because of the way our schedule runs otherwise, with a couple of partial days every week, we need the time to cover the material we wanted to cover. The only time I'm really getting extra is the the day I usually take the kids to karate class, which, with drive time, takes half a day. So that's at least cool. (The other half day a week won't become appreciably different because that's when I do grocery shopping, during one kid's drop off class, which is canceled, but groceries obviously aren't.) We are going to try to take advantage of some of the fun stuff being shared around, especially for the youngers, but my high schoolers still need to do their regular work.

I lived two years in southeastern PA. Crowded, expensive. Would not want to do that again. I've lived over a decade in rural south central PA. I hope never to move. It is beautiful here! The weather is pretty balanced -- hot summers are never as bad as the south, snowy winters aren't ever as bad as the northeast, and spring and fall are like slices of heaven. Cost of living seems pretty decent here, but that's in comparison to outside Philadelphia or DC. I pay more than I'd like in school taxes, but I think it's still pretty reasonable for most areas. There are some dumb small taxes, but our county ones aren't bad, and at least our libraries are good. We are 20 minutes from a grocery store or library, so there are just no quick trips anywhere. You get used to that. It forces you to choose only the most important things to do because it's a minimum of two hours out for every activity or class. Otoh, super social kids may find that hard because you can't do everything. But, we are 30 minutes from anything major, and 1-3 hours from major cities, high level healthcare, culture, etc. Nobody delivers pizza, but Amazon Prime arrives in less than 24 hours sometimes. Our area has almost entirely friendly people. Like, cashiers at the store are just nice. Lots of small businesses who treat you like their only customer. Very family friendly. People love the kids! There is a ton of stuff to do; even being rural, we could spend every weekend doing stuff if we wanted to. Our state parks are free and beautiful! Lots of stuff for homeschoolers, and it is well accepted.

None of them drive on their own yet, but I can send them in to buy a few things if need be. But that also comes with the risk of having two potential people exposed instead of just one. I did a massive WalMart pickup Friday, and that should last us close to two weeks. And then we shall see how it goes.

I "only" have a family of eight, but a little. I worry that if they continue to see panic buying, they'll put limits on staples, which is hard for large families. Five dozen eggs might be stocking up for some people, but it's barely a week's worth for my family.

I do have a question. My family of eight all had a nasty respiratory virus back in January. Several of us were sick for a good week or more, sore throat, cough, etc., and a couple of us actually appeared to get better and then had another peak. I didn't end up taking anyone in because none of us were bad enough to need medical attention, no signs of bacterial infections, breathing troubles beyond what a little inhaler use could fix, no severe fever in the tiny ones. We all had confirmed flu A four years ago, and I think that was the big one this year too, so I don't know if it was a different strain of flu or something completely different. When we had flu A, the seven of us got sick in rapid succession, and all total, our family was out for about ten days. With this respiratory virus, we were out for a solid three weeks before all of us were better, twice as long, even accounting for the fact that we have an eighth person right now (who got it pretty mildly, hopefully thanks to nursing). So my question is: are they developing a way to tell if you've been exposed and are now immune, as opposed to exposed and having an active infection? We will still be doing the recommended social distancing, but from my own anxiety standpoint, I'd love to know at some point if we actually have had this virus already.

Of all of us, I'm probably most at risk for complications, which kinda scares me a lot, and I'm also the one who comes in contact with the most public spaces while shopping. I'll be using online pickup as much as possible; usually I do a mix of that and aldi for cost savings. I'll just be even more vigilant about hand washing and sanitizer. I've been more insistent about people washing hands when they walk in the house; I normally do that myself, but kids, ya know? I already wipe cart handles during flu season, especially if my baby will be sitting in the cart (hurray for the Ergo though so I can wear him when I need to take him out). Husband works for a tiny company and will probably have to go to work as much as possible to keep jobs going, but he will WAH if need be. We only do two outside activities; my one kid will continue his small art class until and unless things really escalate, and we will just keep an eye on the martial arts class situation. No library trips for a while. I dislike these during cold season anyway, especially with a walking baby, because even colds just get annoying. We had one nasty cold in January that lasted about three weeks total by the time all of us got it (for all I know, we had Covid-19 then), but that's all we have had this year. I've been sitting in the car with the baby during MA class mainly because he is a pain to chase around. Probably won't do a lot of group stuff for a while. I am going to plan for 10-14 days' worth of food but other than that, just a little extra vigilance. Sleep, fluids, etc. as usual. Part of me wants us to get it now in case it mutates and comes back worse in the fall, but I do want to slow down its spread, and part of me also wants to avoid it completely. We have a pretty good track record at not getting a lot of what goes around unless we do co-op type activities.