The Washington Post posted an article titled “Still afraid of covid: The people who are still isolating and masking ,” and as someone who is still masking and taking the relatively easy precautions one must take to avoid contracting and spreading COVID the article hit home as much as the title pissed me off.
This quote, in particular, resonates:
“I didn’t feel draconian before, and I feel draconian now,” says Grimaldi, 36. “Everyone seems to have abandoned the things that were de rigueur before.”
I also really question the choice of photo of the couple. “Let’s make them look like we ambushed them and they are slightly paranoid!”
Now, I like to think that I am the sort of person who really doesn’t care about what other people think of them. I’m fine being the only one in a room wearing a mask. I will admit, however, that I had a moment of doubt and weakness the other morning when we dropped the boys off at preschool.
When Marisa said she wanted the boys to go to preschool I was of two minds. One, I knew that it would be good for them (and Marisa!) to interact with people other than us. Two, preschools are little, filthy petri dishes at the best of times and a pandemic isn’t the best of times.
The preschool we enrolled them in had a masking policy (everyone needed to wear one) so that made me feel much better. Then we went to a little parents open house and among the first things one of the owners said to me was, “We’re working hard to get rid of this mask mandate!”
I wasn’t the right audience for that conversational gambit.
Sure enough, after the boys’ first day at preschool the mask requirement was gone (I wasn’t too shocked given the way things are going generally).
We decided that the boys would still wear masks (as well as any 3 year old can!) and that worked well for several weeks.
Fast forward to the other day and as we told the boys to sit on a bench to put their masks on and I thought, “Do we really need to do this?” I asked Marisa and she agreed that we could relax our mask stance for the boys since they probably weren’t great about wearing them anyway. We gave them the choice: mask or no mask. Declan opted for wearing a mask and Sammy opted for no mask. In they popped to school and all was well.
The evening rolls around and what do I find in my email but an alert from the preschool letting us know there was a confirmed case of COVID at the school. Sigh.
Now, the school is now requiring masking and testing which is sensible. And I think we’ll be requiring our boys to stay masked up after they rescind their masking policy.
I feel like I should say that while I think wearing a mask is a sensible and easy thing to do, I don’t judge people who aren’t wearing masks (too much). I will say that I think it is bonkers to go on a plane or public transportation without a mask on but you do you, non-mask wearing people!