What in-person things are you doing right now?

[mommyoffive]

School, work, lessons, sports, appointments? 

What are you and your family doing right now? 

What are you basing your choices on?  Positivity rates?  Mutant strains?  Mental health?  Needs?   Indoors or outdoors?  Small groups? 

[Ali in OR]

I've always gone out once a week to do grocery shopping. I sometimes need to add in another trip or two--go into the school building where I work, go to Costco, pick up dinner somewhere etc. I do try hard not to go out on weekends when things are more crowded.

Today I am 2 weeks past my second vaccine shot, so I now count as immunized. I'm not changing too much (will still limit trips), but probably the biggest change is that I'm scheduling more appointments. Did my mammogram, did the dentist, took disabled dd to dentist for the first time in a year and a half, took her to the DMV yesterday to get her ID renewed, etc. I could go get my haircut now. I'm still always masked, I stay away from other people, I work online, do church online, etc, but I have less fear about doing things I think need to be done.

Youngest has had school sports start up again (classes are all online). Her soccer practices are outdoors, everyone masked. I haven't been too worried about that, but now she's also immunized (benefit of living with a disabled person), and again that helps relieve worries.

Edited February 19, 2021 by Ali in OR

[TheReader]

20 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

School, work, lessons, sports, appointments? 

What are you and your family doing right now? 

What are you basing your choices on?  Positivity rates?  Mutant strains?  Mental health?  Needs?   Indoors or outdoors?  Small groups? 

I am working in person -- I teach at a homeschool co-op; I teach K, 1st, and 2nd, each one meets once/week, and I have a max of 10 kids in each class. We are not masking (our state mandate exempts kids under 10, and all but one of my families opted out), but I am otherwise following the originally released CDC guidelines to the best of my ability (as is our co-op as a whole). 

I also meet once/week with an additional in-person student, who is the great-granddaughter of a good friend. We don't mask either, but they are maintaining the same level of caution as we are. 

My youngest attends youth group in person, once/week, which we've allowed though we aren't back to in person church, because at youth group they are mandating masks, maintaining strict social distancing indoors, etc. Our church as a whole is not doing that, so we aren't going to church in person. He also attends our co-op, and as he's over 10, his classes are masked (and social distanced, etc.). So we feel pretty safe with that. 

We are grocery shopping in person, masked, at low traffic times. Mainly because the low level of time of contact seems not super risky, since everyone is masked. Per science. 

That's pretty much it. Oh, we have our kids' D&D group over 2-3 times a month, but we've set up as socially distant/safe space as possible for them. We weighed the risk of Covid for our group (it is a small group, 2 families other than ours/3 kids not ours) vs the mental health aspects for the kids/teens/young adults, and all parties agreed the benefits outweigh the risks, as long as we maintain precautions like we are. So far so good (they've been doing this since about May-ish/June-ish). 

Overall -- our county positivity rate is high, has been, still is, so we look at the risk/benefit of each thing and go from there. Are masks being worn? Social distancing? How long will the exposure be? Are there non-in-person options? Can we mitigate the risk other ways, if masks aren't being worn? (ex: if I don't teach my classes, we don't have that income; I can't require masks, but I can and am implementing other measures, and I shower the second I walk in the door, put those clothes in the wash, etc.)

We're also gauging how cautious other people are being, as to how much contact to have with them. If we lived somewhere else, with fewer cases/lower positivity rate, we might be comfortable doing more. 

[regentrude]

I teach in person. All students wear masks, are 6 ft from each other, I am masked and more than 10 ft away. School does aggressive contact tracing.

I shop for groceries at times when store is empty, once a week.

Occasional outside walk with friend. 

That's it. 

[prairiewindmomma]

Doctor, dentist, and orthodontist appointments...

Our cases/100,000 people have dropped significantly in the last three weeks so we might get some errands done in this little window of time. I think we will see another spike soon due to the UK strain and other variants, so trying to use this window wisely.

Once we get vaccinated, we will do more, still masked.

[Elizabeth86]

Nothing. I still need a haircut, pretty sure I'll donate to locks of love when I get it cut. No Dr appointments or dentists. I know for a fact our dentist thinks of covid as "just a virus" so NO. We do empty parks. No church, no library time, no homeschool group stuff. We pick up books curbside at the library. We go to the grocery store and that's it.

ETA I'm married to someone that says it's "just a virus" so really my precautions are pointless. Luckily, he is a hermit and rarely leaves except to go to work.

Edited February 19, 2021 by Elizabeth86

[historically accurate]

DH works some at home, some in the office. They are pulling him more and more into the office. He is eligible for the vaccine, but he has been unable to get vaccinated yet. 

We are doing medical visits mostly in person (usually 1 to 2-ish a week). Both kids see the orthodontist monthly.

I am mostly doing online ordering for items. I will walk into the store for pickup as it has been super, super cold here, and I feel evil sitting in my warm car making workers run the stuff to my car. I do get Walmart grocery pickup and use Amazon heavily for most things though. I did run into Dollar Tree for cards (baby and sympathy) recently. I occasionally have to go to the post office to mail packages to my DD at college.

We are making a weekly library trip for school and for fun. I do use holds so it's really more run in and run out. No more than 10 minute browsing time; I prod the kids at 8 minutes. I actually set a timer or we would be there for an hour.

We am contemplating allowing one of my DD's to attend a church youth group sledding activity next week. The church has not met my masking/distancing standards, but outside I am less worried about. I don't know yet. 

I have a friend's funeral to go to in the next week. I am trying to think through how to do it safely as I know his family is way less Covid cautious than I am. The family has assured me that they are doing it safely, but I don't trust easily. I know there will be hugging. The decision is weighing heavily on me. 

I continue to mask when I see my family in the area. I do not visit inside with my family. It is more of a drop and run/smile and wave. My MIL does not like us masking around her. Although we haven't seen her much recently with the bitter cold.  

Our area's positivity rate has been quite high, but it has dropped crazy fast the last few weeks. So I feel better about that. I just feel like we've made it this far, if we can avoid getting sick these last few months before vaccination, it'll be worth it. As I said, DH is eligible; it appears I will most likely be eligible very soon in my state. Middle DD (who is probably the most vulnerable of us) should be eligible when she turns 15 over the summer. It's just a few more months!

[gardenmom5]

cases in our area are declining, and we've 'upped' our phase level (for most of the state - one area hasn't.), so things are getting better.

but still typical stuff.   dr appointments, grocery shopping, errands, family.   2ds is going in to work most days, 1ds is still doing his classes online.  (I know he had to get a covid test before he could go on to campus for a meeting about something.)

we'll do take out from restaurants.   we currently have out favorite handyman (we've used him for a number of projects)  building a pavilion on our deck - but he works alone, and most of our contact with him has been outside.

[catz]

Very little.  Occasional short visits/check ins with my 75 year old mother and 89 year old father in law who each live alone.  My mom is less careful and getting together with my brother who lives closer, so I'm being more conservative with her.  It's her birthday next week, I hope to stop over with a treat of some kind for her.  My father-in-law has had his first Pfizer vax, my mom was on hold with her clinic for getting it soon.  I hope she has an appointment by now but I haven't talked to her for about 10 days.  Lots of zoom at my house.  We do go outdoors but we are in the upper midwest.  I am SO happy I geared up well for winter walking, it's made a huge difference.  We bought a membership with a local grocery for free curbside.  I have only been in a few stores in recent memory.  We are very happy supporting restaurants doing a good job with take out. My college student may return to campus soon, he's been doing online at home since spring semester started.  

Our county's positivity rate is around 3% right now, so I'm using this time to get my kids into the dentist.  Looking forward to better weather so we can be outdoors and getting the vaccine.  

[Jenny in Florida]

We both work for employers who told us to work from home until further notice. Our understanding at this point is that full-time working from home will continue for a while, after which we may both go to some kind of hybrid schedule, with one or two days a week in our offices.

We are doing:

• Some medical appointments, for things that can't be handled with telehealth.
• Viewing houses for sale, when we and the realtor(s) are the only people inside.
• Very occasional shopping trips for things that we can't get delivered or for which curbside pickup is not available.
• Walking the dog.
• Occasional visits to restaurants with outdoor dining.
• Occasional trips to parks and similar places to walk/explore.

With the exception of walking for exercise/walking the dog, all parties are masked except when actively eating/drinking. (My husband would prefer that I also mask while walking, but I just don't feel like I can breath properly for that length of time while exerting myself. Everyone in my neighborhood is pretty good about making way for each other and putting distance between people when we do cross paths.)

In terms of what we're basing it on, it's a combination of all of the things you mentioned. In our case, it's a constant negotiation between my mental health need to get outside and move around and my husband's anxiety about life and people in general, complicated by the virus.

Edited to add:

I should probably have mentioned that the bonus young adult who lives with us does go out more than we do, including working a customer-facing job. She masks when out in the world, but the fact that she is out and about influences our choice to be more careful.

Edited February 19, 2021 by Jenny in Florida

[mom2scouts]

I barely leave the house, but other family members have a few in-person activities. DH goes out to some in-person work meetings because he sometimes needs to see the site and he also does grocery shopping. He is always masked outside the house. DD is doing dance. Our studio requires masks the entire time, cut all the classes in half, does temperature checks and hand sanitizing, has Zoom as an option for anyone with symptoms or who has traveled, and has put in a number of other precautions, so I feel like they're doing everything possible and she's desperate for some social activity. This week our church re-opened youth activities to in-person meetings with masks, sanitizing, no snacks, and distancing and I'm letting my teens attend. DS wasn't interested, but DD was. Covid cases are slowly dropping and my elderly parents have their first dose of the vaccine, so we may slowly try to get out a bit more. We haven't had any doctor or dentist appointments and we all really need haircuts, but we'll probably put that off a bit longer.

[Melissa B]

We do everything in person. As no one in the household ever stopped going out to work, we just started doing things as they were reopened. All of my kids and I work outside the house. School is in person. Athletics are in person. So our days are no different than pre-covid. We always follow all mask and social distancing regulations.

[Carrie12345]

Health care. 
Grocery pick up, and an Aldi pop-in once in a blue moon. 
Dh and dds respond to emergency calls. 
One dd works in 4 ambulance stations. 
Dh works partly from home, partly from a private office, and occasionally on work sites. He’ll be headed to TX tomorrow.

That’s about it. That’s all we need, and it’s more than enough exposure, tyvm!

ETA: forgot, my dds have done some skiing/boarding. There’s no indoor congregating allowed and masks required, so it’s not too bad.

Edited February 19, 2021 by Carrie12345

[rebcoola]

Kids are going to one class a week each with about 12 kids for school. It makes me nervous our numbers aren't quite what I would like.  They double mask and the school is very strict.  

DH works in person.

That is our entire covid budget. When the kids went back to school we cut back to no contact shopping/takeaway etc 

Cases are dropping so hopefully we can do more soon.   

I'm shooting for case rate of 250 and positivity of 5%.  I know some of you have been much lower but that number would be basically miraculous here.

 

[Pawz4me]

What we-re doing in person:

Health/dental care

Haircuts

Dog grooming

Groceries

Pharmacy if it's something I can't pick up at the drive thru

DS22 goes out to work

We see MIL in person once a week

We base what we do on what to us is common sense and/or risk versus benefit. I've never believed there was a big risk in grocery shopping in person at the time that I'm able to do it (very early in the morning when few people are in the store). Ditto the pharmacy. Medical/dental -- it's necessary stuff. Haircut -- it's a one person shop and she's adamant about masking. Dog grooming -- Everyone is masked, I'm usually in and out in no more than five minutes.

What we're strictly avoiding: Eating in restaurants, shopping for entertainment, traveling, gathering in any kind of group setting.

[math teacher]

I teach first grade in person-everyone masked-stay together in pods for the most part-students have desk shields-I don't allow much moving about the room. I have my first shot behind me. I have gotten a little lax about going into a store here and there, but I need to buckle back down on that. I go to church masked.

Dh goes to work in a factory-masked and doesn't work around a lot of people. He goes into a store here and there-needs to tighten up-he is completely unvaxed. He goes to church masked, but because of work is only there about half the time.

Ds is doing an internship from home. Goes into a store or restaurant occasionally-masked but completely unvaxed. Attends church online. 

I guess we have just gotten a little weary and need to lock down a little better. Dh has CLL and I don't know (and don't want to find out) how the virus would affect him.

[Innisfree]

For context, our area had maintained fairly low positivity levels until a dramatic post-holiday spike, which is now declining but still far higher than at any point before Christmas. It's around 10% atm.

The new variants concern me a lot.

We've been careful all along, but have needed to go in for a few medical and dental appointments recently. I'm more concerned about them now than I was this past summer, so I've postponed nonessential re-checks of a few things until June. But I figure that with the variants increasing, this may be the best window we have for a while.

Dh has had to work in person (masked and distanced) several days each week; that's not negotiable for his job. Otherwise we have very little exposure. Both dds have classes entirely online. I'm using grocery pickup almost entirely. No one is getting together with others for fun: it's a good thing we're all introverts in some degree.

I'm determined to get through the next few months safely, if possible, until we can get vaccinated. Then we can start to broaden our horizons again.

[Pam in CT]

Very little. 

Rare outside visits with my mother, which are substantially less pleasant in the cold than they were in summer and early fall.

My husband has ~2x/month medical appointments and occasionally pops into the pharmacy to get a prescription filled. I've been to the doctor once since March and have pushed back everything else.

~2x/month one of us scoots into a restaurant to pick up pickup.

Everything else is virtual or delivered or curbside (including groceries and other supplies). It took some time to work out how to deal with the planning and limited-options of that, but by now we've got it down.  My youngest learned to cut everyone's hair, I've gotten modestly better at grooming the dog, I've gotten better at (if heartily sick of) cooking a wider range of things. We're weary for sure but have largely adapted to the mechanics of living this way.

 

We were doing more in-person contact in summer and early fall -- regular outdoor visits with my aunt & uncle at their lake house, often with my brother or one of my cousins & their families as well, having one family or one couple over for patio dinner, projecting movies outside, doing outdoor book group and civic group meetings outdoors, a couple of overnights in campgrounds.  But when cases here spiked up again, we dialed it back; and for the last several weeks the weather has been so lousy I'd be disinclined to leave the house much even if COVID weren't a factor.

Reeeeeaaaaaaaallllllllllly eager to get those shots in my arm. Sign me up, Scotty.

[MEmama]

I usually have to make a quick run to the grocery or Target maybe once every 2 weeks or so. I’ll need to run out for pellets from Home Depot soon.

DS recently had to go to a dental appointment because he needs his wisdom teeth out before going away to university. We’ll schedule the surgery for early summer.

DS has to go to the dermatologist once a month because he’s on Accutane.

Umm, I think that’s it. I don’t see friends, I haven’t had a haircut in over a year, we are putting off all appointments that can be delayed. We are really locked down, as much as is possible.

 

[Bootsie]

DS has one in-person class.  We have all been to the dentists, DD went to the eye doctor, and DH has gone to several doctors' appointments.  DD flew from Europe in November.  She and DS see small groups of friends occasionally.  Our church is not meeting in person.  I am teaching virtually but have gone in to the office a number of times to do that--I usually see at most one other person when I do that.  I do some grocery shopping.

Right now, we aren't going anywhere because we have had a week of freezing conditions with poor road conditions.  And, a sprinkler pipe in my building at work burst, so don't know when I will be back there....  But, we have had young people who have had no heat or water in and out of our house this week--and it has been odd to have so much in-person contact.  

[frogger]

We are almost back to normal except DS1 couldn't get back to school mid-year due to lack of apartments that didn't require a 6 month lease.

 

Just started TKD with masks, sign up sheet, smaller group last week. DS 2 was blessed that his ski team could meet all year. They got rid of mass starts and asked people to stay masked and far apart and kept parents out of start and finish zones. So they went all year.

 

We dropped out of stuff before the big spike as we saw numbers climb because we cared about hospital capacity so for a few months we did pretty much nothing but grocery runs etc but started adding in a thing here and there in mid January. 

 

ETA - Except Judo will be off the table for who knows how long. Sad for the son who loves Judo. The ski team child is lucky that his favorite sport is a very distanced outside type of thing. 

Edited February 19, 2021 by frogger

[Wheres Toto]

I'm teaching in person with masks, distancing, air purifiers, short classes, small groups, ventilation.  Each of my kids does one of my classes once a week.  

Dd is doing TKD twice a week with masks, distancing, no direct contact, short classes, small groups. 

Dh goes to work but works in an office alone most of the time.  There is universal masking, distancing.  He also does the grocery shopping masked and distanced. 

Masks are still mandated here.  If they weren't I would probably be doing a lot less. 

[SKL]

• School: "hybrid" 2 days per week.  Why: because the risk of going is less than the risk of not going for an indefinite time period.  (They were remote from March 11 through January 15, except for 4 days.)
• Band practice is ramping up after being off for several months.  Why: see above.  Their director already had Covid during the time when nobody was meeting.
• Instrument lessons:  only if they haven't been around anyone who seems unwell, because their teacher has risk factors.  I don't know if he has been vaccinated, because it's none of my business.  But he could cancel the lessons if he was concerned.  It's up to him.
• School sports:  track starts next week.  Why: because the benefits outweigh the risks.
• TKD (which is 100% masked and distanced).  Everybody who goes there has a choice.  We need the exercise and other benefits.
• Horse riding.  It's a pretty well distanced sport, and the owners already had Covid.
• Restaurants (eat in) once per week.  Because the risk is very low and we like to support businesses.
• Occasional shopping, though we get most of our stuff delivered.  Why, because people need stuff.
• Occasional meet-ups with a few friends (kids only), because otherwise they will lose connections, as some of their best friends have gone to different schools.
• Routine dental work, chiropractor for injuries, a couple quick haircuts.
• My housemates have things they do too - work and exercise - but not every day.  We try to keep the office to one person at a time, but you can't completely avoid meetings forever.  Well, at least not if you're a business owner / developer.

Edited February 19, 2021 by SKL

[wathe]

We've just come out of a month-long stay at-home-order.  We aren't doing much.  B.1.1.7. is loose in my community.

I work at a hospital, so I go there.

I am the designated "leave the house to get stuff" person in our home because 1)I have the fewest risk factors 2) I'm exposed at work anyway, so limit exposure to one person, and 3)I'm vaccinated.

I grocery shop in person about once every 10 days. We tried curbside, but we never seemed to get quite what we ordered, so gave up on that. I wear a high quality mask ans safety goggles.

Curb-side pick-up whenever possible for other things (take-out food, hardware)

We met another family for skating on the lake this week - the first in-person social contact the kids have had in more than a month

We will continue with strictly outdoor only social gatherings with very limited numbers (one family at a time, of three families).  We've set up our carport to facilitate this - tables, chairs, kettle, firepit etc.  We have a bathroom right off the mud room - no-body enters the house (including hosts) except to use the bathroom, one at a time.

Absolutely no indoor social events of any kind.

We've had a few necessary medical appointments in  person for things that can't be done by phone (flu shots, dentist)

That's it.

 

[Loowit]

Not much.  We are getting more and more people in our area refusing to mask, and stores refusing to enforce it.  Last time I went in a store was because I had no other choice.  I needed a medication for my son right away and couldn't wait for pick-up.

We do medical appointments as needed.  Allergy shot weekly, dental exams, etc.  We do as much online as we can.

We do take-out when we can do curbside and limit contact.

All groceries and stores are curbside when at all possible.

We visited my parents outside in the snow socially distanced and masked for DS's birthday last weekend and are doing the same next week for DD's birthday.

[wendyroo]

Almost nothing.

DH has been working from home since March. We expect this will continue for the foreseeable future.

Two ABA therapists come into our home (one of whom has already had Covid); all other therapies are virtual

I go grocery shopping early on a weekday morning once every 2-3 weeks.

We have had a few unavoidable medical/dental appointments.

We pick up take-out food once every other week or so.

We do curbside pick up from the library twice a week.

We have seen my parents twice, but only after being even more careful for 10 days prior.

Nothing else - no in-person dining, hair cuts, lessons, sports, friends, family, recreational shopping, etc.
Vaccination is in sight for me and DH...still months off, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. We are not going to increase our risks now.

[Terabith]

We see my in laws, who at least say they are being extremely careful.  I think they are, but I'm not sure that their idea of extremely careful is the same as mine, but other than going to the grocery store and unavoidable medical appointments, I don't think they're doing anything outside of the house.  They might go into the library sometimes.  

We've done medical appointments we couldn't put off/ do virtual, but we haven't done the dentist, and I haven't had my eyes checked even though I really need new glasses.  We've stopped grocery shopping.  We do occasionally go into restaurants quickly to pick up take out.  If we can't avoid it, we'll go into the pharmacy to pick stuff up.  

My youngest will start doing outdoor choir rehearsals (masked, 12 feet apart, outdoors) in March.  My oldest's school is going back around the beginning of April.  Inclined not to let them go back, but possibly for theater class (about ten people, in auditorium, performance will be video taped).  They will take the AP Calculus test in person.  Youngest will do mandatory end of the year tests for virtual school in person for biology and geometry.  

Edited February 19, 2021 by Terabith

[1234]

We’ve had a lot of doctor appointments.

We go inside stores occasionally for things we can’t wait on or can’t get via pickup/delivery.

We’ve had a few home improvement and repair issues so have had a worker inside a few times.

When the weather isn’t awful, I visit my mom but stay outdoors. I have been inside a few times when she’s needed help with something. We’ve also eaten outdoors at restaurants when weather was decent.

Dc have visited friends and had friends over a few times. I don’t love it but feel it’s important for mental health so we’ve found a balance we’re all ok with.

[Spryte]

Not much in person.  I’m a little worried about new variants, and our particular county is one of the highest positivity rates in the state due to not masking and risky stuff.  I’ve posted about neighbors having large, unmasked parties and unmasked strangers harassing us, getting really close on purpose when they see we are masked, so yeh, it’s just where we live, but it makes it harder to go out when you know everyone won’t be practicing social distance or even masking, and possibly hostile.

DH’s office in city an hour away won’t even consider allowing people back till July.  And no guarantees that it will happen then, chances are there will be testing required and offices will likely be moved around to protect the journalists and on-air personalities with whom he works. His large international conferences are all cancelled for the year. His French boss would like travel to resume ASAP, but unlikely until local offices are open.  So Dh is home.

We homeschool anyway, but stopped theater, dance, and swimming.  Theater and dance because our studio became a day care for kids while schools were closed and it’s packed these days.  Small space, lots of people from 8 am till 7 pm every day, no thanks.  Swimming was indoors, and we just opted out.  

We do deliveries and some curbside and drive thru pharmacy.

We have not had our hairstylist over (she comes to us, and it’s a whole day affair, normally). I have discovered my natural hair color.  Aaack. It’s not actually platinum blonde with occasional colorful streaks.  🤣

Medical as needed, but postponing as we can. Ditto house repairs and maintenance - we do it if needed but postpone if we can.

Kids spend gobs of time with their friends on Skype calls and hanging out while doing projects online.  Thankfully, we have both the equipment and kids with interests in digital art, filmmaking and video editing, etc, because they make and send videos, edit, and do all the things while Skyping, and have ended up with some fascinating projects that wouldn’t have come to life under other circumstances.  

Ditto schoolwork - some things have moved online that we might have done in person, but it’s been largely positive.  And older kid has found he enjoys tutoring math via Skype.  Would not have attempted this, pre-Covid.

Really, the only thing we fervently wish for is a chance to visit the ILs in nursing home.  But no visitors there, other than behind glass, and with the amount of Covid in that building ... we don’t want to risk bringing it to the 80 yr old who lives here.  

[skimomma]

We are in a low cases but also low mask-compliance area.  I'd say about 50% of people in stores are masked.  Testing is nearly impossible to access here so the "low cases" might not be real.  No one in my household is high risk and the vulnerable people in our extended family are not local and will not be close to us in person until we are all vaccinated.  We started out very very locked down and cautious.  But as this drags on, dh and I have come to the opinion that we are likely going to be living with this forever and some things just had to give.

We go to stores/library as needed, which is typically once a week, 100% masked.  Aside from the every-two-weeks grocery trip, I'd say we are never in a store for more than 10 minutes.  We are not big shoppers in general so other than groceries and library books, it is extremely rare that we need to go inside any non-food store.  We order our library books ahead of time so we just have to pick them up (no curb-side or drive-thru) and I arrange my grocery shopping time to when I know the store will be the least busy.

Essential medical appointments and non-essential hair cuts, 100% masked and with providers who take proper safety precautions (we had to change one provider over this).  We have not been to the dentist this entire time.  

The nature of dh's work requires in-person interaction.  He is around others, many times mask-refusers, every day.  This is almost always outdoors and distanced.  He wears a mask 100% of the time.  That is our biggest risk and there is not anything we can practically do about it.

Dd's sport, which is 100% outdoors and requires social distancing to do properly, has been practicing and competing.  They wear masks during all activities except when actively competing. 

We have "podded" with one other family.  We spend rare time together indoors and unmasked but try to limit our interactions to outdoors.  This is not purely social, we have a reason that one member from each family must spend time together without masks so we decided to pod together for social interactions since the risk is already there.

We socialize outdoors with four other families, including the one we have podded with.  We do not wear masks but do distance.  The types of things we are doing are typically active and spaced, like hiking or snowshoeing.  Dd also similarly hangs out with her friends in this manner.  

Dd is currently dating a new boy.  That is tricky territory since meeting up at all is risky.  So far they have only done outdoor activities together.  I don't know what his stance is on all of this but so far he has agreed to the limits dd has set for staying outdoors and masking.  I was tempted to "forbid" it but dd is graduating this year and will be on her own in a few short months.  She has had so many things taken away from her.  I just cannot bear to put a damper on the first new/interesting thing to happen to her all year.  It is also hard because we cannot get to know him the way we have with her past romantic interests since we have no good way of casually socializing together.

I work from home and dd is fully remote/home schooling.

As the weather warms, we will be doing more outdoors with others.  We went camping many times last summer/fall and will again as soon as the snow melts.....in May, hopefully.

We do NOT go eat in restaurants or patronize other purely unnecessary indoor venues like bowling alleys, gyms, bars, music venues, pools, theaters, etc.....  This is the hardest as we have musicians in the family that prior to Covid were playing gigs almost weekly.  I am so very angry at many of our local restaurants for blatantly defying orders and squawking like they are "essential."  Aside from the few that set up decent protections, I will not even patronize them for take-out.  I will never patronize those businesses again. 

 

 

[athena1277]

We are doing all the normal things that have restarted.  Things like church are social distanced.  Masks are required almost everywhere.  Our coop started back last week.  This is the only thing that really isn’t socially distanced and only a few wear masks.  The covid numbers have fallen so much in the last month that we are willing to take the risk because we need the social aspect.

The activity that has had me most concerned is dh flying across the country for work this week.  I’ve been terrified that he would get sick and end up in the hospital so far from home (he has some history of lung problems).  He did have to test after he got there (bizarrely not before) and he was negative at that time.

[73349]

• Up to 10 minutes (masked) in the library; brief stops (masked) in the post office when necessary (maybe once a month).
• Volunteering/socializing only when both outdoors and masked
• Medical appointments, masked unless dental/orthodontic
• We will have to have workers in the house starting Monday and plan to mask and open windows when reasonable. ETA: and run an air purifier. Ironically, this is a result of my previous infection (I'm now allergic to mold, among other things, and this is a bathroom renovation to mitigate symptoms), yet represents a significant risk point. And we will probably have someone come in and rip out the carpets later in the year (dust mites).

We're getting groceries delivered (contactless), or occasionally picking up takeout (but our #1 restaurant has closed, so it's pretty rare now). DH is still working from home. Church is online. Grandparents are eligible for the vax but not yet bothering to get them, so no visits. I cut DH & DS's hair at home; I got mine cut once last fall (and was the only patron there) but now am just letting it grow. DS has outgrown 2 sizes of clothes and I now straight-up guess on sizing (men's jeans...) and buy online.

Honestly I've only been healthy enough to look around the last ~7 weeks, so in a sense, I'm where a lot of people were mentally at the end of last April--looking around at home organization, etc. I spent a lot of last year in bed.

Edited February 19, 2021 by Carolina Wren

[Hilltopmom]

Work (I’m a teacher and we are in person on and off) and grocery shopping. 
I have an echo & Holter scheduled this week. Cancelled dentist.

[Laura Corin]

Rare trips to drop off a parcel,  very carefully masked and distanced - maybe once a month. No shopping trips, no meeting friends even outside. Vaccination is so close I don't want to screw up now. I had my eyes tested between the two waves. That's it.

Our eldest is going to work in an office - her boss will not let them work from home. She does not live in the family home.

Eta the positivity rate in Scotland is 5.2.

Edited February 20, 2021 by Laura Corin

[Elfknitter.#]

I never stopped coming into work. We were closed to the public for a good six months but that ended in October. I've been working with the public for about 6 months now. My work is good about masking, hand sanitizing/ washing, social distancing. We have not had any cases of transmission among our employees happening at our location during the entire pandemic.

Shopping routines haven't changed much. I did try to pull back when numbers where on the rise here and opted for early mornings/ after work at night when I could. I sometimes opt for curbside pickups, but that's more to save time on my part rather than to avoid entering the building.

No outside activities for the kids because everything is only being offered online.

We don't go to entertainment kinds of place mostly because they are closed. Outdoor places to hike or walk along a beach are hard to get to. I'd rather not drive an hour to find out that we'll just be turned away due to capacity limits or would prefer to leave because of overcrowding. This is the time of year that we'd start taking day trips to museums and other places either on the weekend or as an impromptu day off. I'm missing it.

We've kept all of our dental and medical appointments.

[Excelsior! Academy]

Sunday morning worship service.  Other services and activities are cancelled or online.  Most wear masks with every other pew roped off.  When any baskets or trays are passed (the Lord's supper), the men administering said baskets distribute hand sanitizer and wear masks and gloves.  Everything is immediately disposed of in a trash receptacle. 

Occasional trips to the store.  We have most of our groceries delivered, but when our pipes burst we had to run to Home Depot, etc.

Occasional meals out.  We have gone out to eat a handful of times in the last year.  As a family maybe twice. Just Dh and I about 4 or 5 times.

Kids co-op and vo-tech classes.  Masked with appropriate social distancing.  One is in pre-med type classes so I know his classes are following the recommended guidelines.  He is usually online, but occasionally meets at 1/2 capacity to do an in person lab that is hard to accomplish online.

Football practice and games.  Masks are required to be worn by spectators and coaches, but not on the field whilst the boys are playing.

Limited medical.  We've scaled back many appointments, but we have a kid in braces and another that had emergency surgery.

Wow! It sure looks like we get out much more than it feels like we do!

 

Edited February 19, 2021 by Excelsior! Academy
medical appointments

[Farrar]

Walks with friends outside. Other outside meet ups. On days when it gets above freezing sometimes, anyway.

Grocery store and errands, but generally still keeping it semi-limited, though I don't overthink it if I just need to run an errand.

That's it.

We will see my mother in person. She's the only one. She is taking pretty much the exact same precautions as us. We saw her at Thanksgiving. She'll be fully vaccinated and we'll get tested just in case when she comes up, hopefully next month.

[Mrs Tiggywinkle]

Back to normal for the most part. Kids are all in face to face school. We eat in restaurants once or twice a week. Kids do indoor gymnastics and dance.

We are running only about a 2% positivity rate and people are masking. Covid has dropped way off here.

[elegantlion]

Grocery store every two weeks - going right when they open usually on a weekday. Drug store about once every 10 days for snacks or quick items. 

Target run about every two months - we're going this weekend - It's usually easy to avoid people not wearing masks. 

I have made quick runs to the hardware store and to pick up take out over the last few months. 

I'm working at home. 

 

[Dmmetler]

Doctor’s appointments, teaching about half my students in person with a ton of precautions, and L has one in person DE lab a week, (although the last two have been cancelled due to weather, and the next may well end up cancelled due to water problems). DH worked from home pre-covid, and is under no pressure to travel.

Everything else is delivery or mail order. My teaching basically is using my family’s entire covid budget. 

We may try to get a rental house so L can check out one more college campus in person before final decisions have to be made. If so, we’ll do delivery and take out there, too. 

 

[sassenach]

6 hours ago, mommyoffive said:

School, work, lessons, sports, appointments? 

What are you and your family doing right now? 

What are you basing your choices on?  Positivity rates?  Mutant strains?  Mental health?  Needs?   Indoors or outdoors?  Small groups? 

Both my kids work. Both hang out with friends, primarily outdoors but not always. They're in cars with people sometimes. DS has a girlfriend. Both are practicing their sport. We're are still doing doctor's appointments but I have paused dental (although now that infections are down and vaccines are up, I was just thinking that we need to get those scheduled).

Our family goes to outdoor church. We have very select friends over to our house (they happen to all be vaccinated because we roll deep with health care workers). Dh is indoors with some church leaders, sometimes. 

I am in the clinical setting twice a week.

Basing our choices on all of the above. Sometimes feelings win out over straight reason. When rates were at their highest, we dialed it back significantly. We have not been completely locked down outside of that first six weeks or so. 

[Ditto]

All needed medical/dental appointments.   In fact I had surgery Monday.   Grocery store only every few weeks.   No church (though it is only online due to pandemic).  No classes.   So that's it for us:  periodic trips to the store and all needed medical/dental appointments.   I am anticipating it being this way for the rest of the year.  My husband does work outside the home and is very good about double masking,  washing hands, sanitizing everything, and changing clothes the second he gets home.

Edit:  I am basing our decisions on the fact that this pandemic isn't under control, Covid has no cure/effective treatment,  Covid varies from mild in some people to killing other people to incapacitating others,  we can't get the vaccine yet,  and doing anything more than what we are currently doing just seems unsafe/unwise at this point.

Edited February 19, 2021 by Ditto

[Paige]

DH has been working outside the home the entire time. He can't work from home. He's our biggest exposure. 

Kids don't go anywhere except occasionally to the store and we mask. They might go once a month or so. We try to do grocery and store pickups as much as possible, but sometimes things come up.

We keep medical appointments that have to be in person and have to occur- some things can't be done online, but I'm not scheduling optional appointments like annual checkups.

We go to parks and hiking (when it was warmer) and on walks in the neighborhood but not with anyone not in our immediate family. We only go to playgrounds if they are mostly empty and I try to be early in the day. 

I've had some interactions with the cat rescue people that I was fostering for, but not too often. They're probably my biggest risk factor. I always wear a mask but I know some people involved in the group are less cautious than we are, and I won't ask people to mask in their own home if they aren't. I just try to do what I need to do quickly. 

We left town while our kitchen is being remodeled and we are doing the same in our rental- take outs, pick ups, staying home except for outside things when the weather is ok. We are staying away as long as we can because the workers will be in our home all day and it'll be busy and loud and disruptive, not even considering covid risk, but they aren't finishing as quickly as I had hoped. They'll probably still need another week after we get back and I guess we'll just try to hide in our rooms and avoid them. We can see on the security camera that they aren't masked all day (it's a family team), but they probably will without us having to ask when we return. They've had a week and a half and we still don't have the cabinets and countertops in! What are they doing? The demo was complete in under 48hrs and there's been no surprises or delays...but I'm off topic. 😄

Haven't been to church in almost a year! They were virtual only for a while but are in person now and not requiring masks.

Edited February 19, 2021 by Paige

[HSmomof2]

Dh and I both work from home. Ds’s college is online at least through Spring quarter. Dd is homeschooled. Church online. We’ve done necessary medical/dental appointments. I do curbside pick up for groceries and takeout for food/coffee. I’ve gone to Costco three times in the last year during non-crowded times. Dc have visited with friends outdoors masked and distanced. Once we’re vaccinated, I’ll still mask/distance but will likely return to going to the grocery store, church, and visit with friends more often. 

[Terabith]

I forgot to say we donate blood in person.  And I had to go to the court house today for something.  My husband works from home and both kids are currently schooling from home.  We do sometimes go to outdoor, masked, socially distanced church services.  

[madteaparty]

Everything I’m allowed to. 

[Corraleno]

I have cut back on most of the activities that I was OK with last summer, like weekly grocery trips, an occasional Target trip, having repair people in my house, etc. Even though compliance is really high here and numbers have come down a lot (positivity was below 3% last time I checked), I just feel like there are very few things I need to do right now that can't wait another few months until I get the vaccine. So I'm ordering everything online and getting all groceries via contactless delivery. I would desperately like to get a haircut, since I haven't had one since December of 2019, but I feel like I might as well wait another few months since no one ever sees me anyway, lol. 

DS is in a state with much higher numbers than here, but his university is testing like crazy and the positivity rate among students is extremely low. He has one in-person class per week, which is distanced and masked. He also has distanced/masked/reduced-capacity varsity practices 3x/wk, and he is PCR-tested before every practice. 

DD lives and works locally and follows rules about masking and distancing but is not otherwise very cautious. She comes by a couple times a week, and I always wear a Happy Mask or KN95 when she's here. Last summer and early fall she was here more often, for longer, often helping me with projects, and I wasn't masking while she was here, but I am more cautious now.

[scbusf]

Pretty much everything we used to do, just not as often. When we do go out, we all wear masks and follow social distancing. No one in our house is considered high risk, and we have decided we are OK with the level of risk we are taking.

Grocery shopping, eating out at restaurants occasionally, shopping, doctor/dentist/orthodontist appts, therapy appts.

[sbgrace]

My teens are doing a couple of indoor (big space) activities that are important to them. This is our highest risk point, because, though my teens mask, they are around other teens who are not wearing masks in those situations. It's hard to weigh risk vs benefit in lots of things, but for these situations--it's clear my teens need them, even with the risk. So we mitigate as much as we can with good masks. 

We're shopping for groceries (in a KN95) no more than once a week, going to the orthodontist and, because rates here have dropped considerably, we're finally getting professional hair cuts (wearing KN95's). I pretty much stink at hair cutting. So everyone looks better. 

Other than the teen activities, we're meeting up with others only outside, not in homes. When my parents and in laws are fully vaccinated (soon!), we will visit them indoors (and hug..and I can't wait..makes me want to cry just thinking about it). 

Edited February 20, 2021 by sbgrace

[Not_a_Number]

We're podding with our in-laws, and as a result, we're being extremely careful. Our in-laws will get vaccinated soon, so that's a big relief, but I think we'll stay distanced until we're vaccinated as well. 

So, we're not doing anything in person. Infrequent doctor's appointments, that's all. We're not going to stores or seeing friends. 

I want to see more data on transmission before I decide what to do about socializing after we're vaccinated but the kids are not.