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Are you keeping distance between people in your home?


klmama
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Attempting to.  

My ds came home with...something... probably a bad common cold .  

I am trying to keep at least 3 feet away (6 or more when possible) from his breathing end. (I gave a foot rub while watching a video before bed) . . 

 

He is still somewhat affected by the teachers who told the kids CV19  is no big deal— less bad than flu, ...

I don’t think he likely has CV19, but I don’t want a bad common cold either.   

Ironically it’s his first cold or whatever it is of the year.  I suspect close time with buddies, too much sugar, too little sleep, and too little good nutrition.  Anyway assuming he wants to live at home, he’s On CV19 “lockdown” for who knows how long.  

And I’m giving as wide birth as I can in a small house. 

It looks like a fair bit of stepping out of the way. 

 

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No. 
We are almost always in the same room as each other (by choice). Right now we have 3 laptops and all of our work on the dining room table, where we are spending most of the day.  DS has his schoolwork and DH and I are working from home.

DS and I were talking about this yesterday, that we are lucky because we are already accustomed to a homeschool routine (though he’s been at the public high school for 3 years) so it’s familiar, we are all introverts, and we all genuinely like each other. 😊

While we do have private areas in our house, it really isn’t set up for isolation. 

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No. It's not possible. I have a 2yr old who would cross contaminate the rest of us even if we all tried. Like Hadley's, my oldest is doing a great job of self isolating, but that's his normal behavior. Even he might get bored soon enough. 

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I would try and quarantine an exposed person if need be. We have a split level, so I suppose I'd make the basement the sick area.

Day to day otherwise? No way. The latest I've heard indicates that the vast, vast majority of cases spread through aerosol. 6 feet is not enough space. Anyone in the same room can be infected. Trying to distance in the home is not even kinda worth it.

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My two youngest siblings have been self-isolating in our basement apartment since coming home from abroad last week, but the rest of our family is not keeping any distance from one another. It doesn't seem possible long-term with five school-aged kids. We will split up (upstairs v. downstairs) if someone becomes sick or comes in close contact. 

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Not presently.


DS and I had (confirmed) Flu A a week ago, and we stayed separate.  DH and DD slept until the basement rec room, and we used separate bathrooms.  Food was brought to our rooms, and we wore masks.  79 yr old mother stayed in her room.
 

If one of us becomes ill again, we will probably do the same.

 

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No. We've all been the same places. If one of us came down with symptoms, we would isolate that person in a bedroom. I am cleaning and disinfecting more. We are all mostly healthy. I am concerned about dh who has asthma and he is the only one who is out and about as he delivers groceries/food through delivery services. 

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No.  My boys have not been out since Thursday, me since Sunday, and DH since Monday.  We are all hunkered down, but we spend a lot of time together.  If one gets sick, we will isolate them in a room and bathroom.  But...until then, they want to be loved on and we are playing games and watching shows in our free time.

My dad lives 10 minutes from me.  I took him supplies Sunday and am Facetiming with him everday.  Hoping he is staying in his apartment.

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No.  If anyone came down with something we would try.  But little kids don't do that well in my house.   Dh goes out for food but that is it.   The rest of us haven't seen anyone for a week.   Other than neighbors who are out and about on walks and things.   And then we take a 6 foot swing of them. 

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Nope. I just don't see the point. Dh is still going to work everyday so he is likely to be the one to bring it home. If we were to keep him separated from us then I'd be taking care of 6 kids by myself, which includes a newborn. I'm already sleep deprived I don't need to make life harder for myself

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No, it's not really possible in our house.  750 square feet and only one bathroom.   The kids each have their own rooms and they spend the majority of their time in there on a normal basis, but they come out to the kitchen and bathroom.   Everything opens into the living room so that can't be isolated at all.   If someone got sick, they'd stay in their rooms except for trips to the bathroom, but someone would be bringing them food.

It's just the four of us at home.  Dh is in his 60's and I have mild asthma, but none of us are really high risk. 

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Not yet, but we're adjusting.  (It's normally just three of us here now.)  But, I'm assuming that we'll all go into some type of lock-down in a week or two, and at that time, we're hoping to take in an extended family member.  He is elderly with very compromised health, and my dh has serious complex health issues.  I'll be the one going to the grocery store, picking up prescriptions, making dinner, etc..  Assuming things start picking up in our city/state (they already are), then I'll probably start distancing myself a bit from extended family member and dh.  I've already been warning my dh that by next week, we may not be able to kiss anymore!  🙁  We do have a king size bed, so it's easy to sleep far apart.  

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6 minutes ago, Happymomof1 said:

 

So in my case, should I not worry about it? That is what bugged my daughter most, that I won't hug her or get close to her.  

That seems a bit weird to me.  I'm sorry, but it does.  You're breathing each other's air and touching all the same surfaces.  If it's in the house it's in the house.  I don't say this lightly.  I have a high risk special needs kid.  If you are all on lockdown together, you should be fine.  If a family member is still going out and getting exposed every day, you share that risk.  I think of the family as a unit.  That said, I'm also not hugging my own daughter, but she stayed in her college apartment and, for the purposes of quarantine, is a unit unto herself. 

You really should hug your kid.  She needs it right now.  Your home is her safe place.

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Somewhat. We are four adults in a place with enough space to spread out. DH recently came back from a business trip, my son just came back from a college dorm, and I am the one going out for groceries. We have my 83 year old mom here. 

 

 

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2 minutes ago, Happymomof1 said:

 No we are not for the most part.  I am the only one allowed to touch things.  I make and bring food.  People are limited to certain rooms.  3 times a day I don gloves and wipe everything down and change towels, though I'm the only one using the dish towels.

 

You're gonna stress everyone out and that's bad for your immune system.  That doesn't seem sustainable and you've gotta pace yourself for a long haul.  Is your DH still leaving the house for work? I'd focus on a routine for him when he comes home and live normally within the house.  

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We are not distancing at home. It wouldn't work here; our house is small and we all have things to do. I am the one going out the most, but that will stop after tonight when I start working from home. We are being as careful as we can; at this point we are all healthy and have no underlying issues. I know that is not a guarantee and I am not being arrogant about that; just saying how it is in my home.  If one of us has symptoms, we have an isolation plan in place. But realistically I don't see how we could manage it and not have everyone crazy.  I am also concerned about my college kids' mental health, this was their first year away at college; they loved it and like so many others, are so sad about the way their semester has ended. I know many many people are missing a lot of things; my kids are not unique in that way!  Just giving my reasons that we are not distancing at home.

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2 hours ago, Happymomof1 said:

 No we are not for the most part.  I am the only one allowed to touch things.  I make and bring food.  People are limited to certain rooms.  3 times a day I don gloves and wipe everything down and change towels, though I'm the only one using the dish towels.  Hubby and I sleep in different rooms.  No one uses the same bathroom, etc.

Wow that seems really extreme! 

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To answer questions about "how long" - in our home, our plan is two weeks after we started isolating. Kid 1 and my sister will be able to hang out with my mother in a week. Kid 2, who had to go pick up a school laptop, a week after that. And we're all taking our temperature every single day and self-assessing for symptoms - which IS crazymaking, because we all have allergies and/or chronic migraines.

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On 3/20/2020 at 7:11 AM, medawyn said:

No.  I have four kids ages 7 and under. Our concept of social distancing is to wipe your nose on a tissue, not me.

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. 

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No, I don't see a realistic way of doing this. My kids are 12, 9, and 7, and their world already feels unsafe with all of the things going on. I want our house to be a refuge of love, affection, hugs, snuggling on the couch with a book and a cup of cocoa. If we had a grandparent living with us, we'd find a way to make it work. But knowing my parents/in-laws, they wouldn't isolate anyway. 

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You've gotta use your own best judgment based on your individual situation. In our home it makes sense to try to put forth a little extra effort towards my mother because she's high-risk. Maybe you'll figure that you're all low-risk and you might as well act normally.

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8 minutes ago, Happymomof1 said:

So I should go ahead and cuddle with hubby and daughter who are coughing and feeling crappy?

 

When one of us is sick, we don't necessary cuddle but the virus / bacteria are in the house. We can take other precautions like disinfecting but I see no point being 6 feet apart versus 2 or 3 feet since it's been proven that miniscule droplets (airborne) travel farther than that. If someone is immune compromised, very young or elderly, additional precautions are necessary but you cannot really keep 6 feet distance from a newborn.

As I said, this is my opinion and you do what you are comfortable with.

Edited by Liz CA
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