It’s official.
We have withdrawn the Bear from daycare and we’re now all home together.
Everything Was Fine
Over the summer, both boys went to daycare. The Bug was in pre-K and the Bear in daycare. Once fall rolled around, the Bug started kindergarten in the public school (distance learning), and the Bear moved up to preschool.
It wasn’t always easy to get the Bear out of the house in the morning. He’s no fool! He knew his big brother was staying home!
Also, he was wary of the transition from daycare to preschool, and he missed his old classmates from the twos classroom.
He loved his new teacher, though, and eventually all was going swimmingly, until a child in his class tested positive for Covid.
Until It Wasn’t
As I wrote at the time, this frightened us a bit. To me, it felt like a reality check that YES THE CORONAVIRUS IS STILL AROUND, and YES WE CAN GET IT!
The school reported the case to the health department, which I was very glad about. I got a call from a contact tracer, and answered all the necessary questions about symptoms, contacts, activities, etc.
Since then, we’ve received daily texts asking us to report on the Bear’s symptoms. It’s easy to do, and so far we’ve had nothing to report.
So really, not that scary.
And yet, today, with two days left to go in our quarantine period and nary a sign of a symptom, we decided to withdraw the Bear from school.
Family Priorities
Talking it over together, the Chico and I agreed that with the onset of the cold weather, these instances of either infection or scares are likely to increase.
Whether anyone gets Covid or not, the kids will all be getting seasonal colds, coughs and sniffles. And each time that happens, we will either have to quarantine until the symptoms pass, or we will have to get tested for Covid.
We decided that though it’s not ideal for either of the boys to be out of school, under the circumstances, we’d rather keep them home.
As the weather gets colder and the days get shorter, we want to be able to spend time indoors with our friends and family. With the Bear in daycare, we wouldn’t feel as comfortable doing that.
However, if we know that our exposure has been limited, then we won’t be so worried about potentially infecting others.
Really it’s a question of controlling our environment as best we can.
Send Help (and/or Wine)
This is not going to be easy. It’s going to take a lot of willpower to keep from resorting to chocolate or wine on particularly relentless days.
The advantage we have now over lockdown in the spring is that the Bug has a schedule. Even though he’s at home, his days are structured, and that helps to set the rhythm for the rest of us.
Morning time is reading/school time (coloring, educational play, stories), we all have a lunch and break together, then afternoon nap for the Bear while the Bug has his afternoon classes.
The afternoons are all about exercise and playing. The boys “help” me with my Pilates (hilarity ensues–laughing burns calories, right?), and they do their Cosmic Kids yoga sessions.
If we can stick to a rhythm, I think we’ll make it through this.
But still, feel free to send wine. It won’t go to waste.
