Hellobee Boards

We are in the same boat. Upstate NY, surging BAD. I feel like if I take my 5 year old out of Pre-k now, he won't go back til March. I am thinking like once a week (its forest school) I will keep him home. .. probably pointless but 🤷‍♀️

My partner and I both work at schools - his has been in hybrid model, mine has been fully distance learning. His school is in full distance learning for the first week back from break, and my school building is 100% closed to staff for the first two weeks after break. So I think there is some logic to taking a pause from daycare if that is feasible for you. On the other hand, it is probably reasonable to expect that daycare families who participated in large family gatherings over the holidays may also be more relaxed in their restrictions the rest of the time, so will there really be a significant difference in the risk of sending LOs this week versus next?

We are sending my daughter to pre-K tomorrow. Her school was not closed over the holidays, but 5/8 of her classmates were out last week. I have to hope that they were enjoying time at home with their small family groups, but there is just no way to know . . .

We are sending all three to school and daycare tomorrow. Both of us have to work as well.

We traveled over New Years, but it was to my parents who never go anywhere. We were more likely to give them Covid than the other way around. We quarantined as best as possible prior to, but my mom isn't doing well and we haven't seen them for months. I probably won't see them again until they are vaccinated, as I don't think we'll be able to quarantine until summer.

Slight disagree about people who didn’t follow the rules generally not following the rules, because it was Christmas! Just going from personal experience, we haven’t seen anyone in person since school started in September to minimize our risk as much as possible, but we went to my parents house for Christmas. We quarantined for a week before and asked them to do the same even though they’re in a very low case area, but I actually assume the opposite - a lot of people who’ve been very careful and following the rules got a little tired and a little frustrated and relaxed a little bit to try to make Christmas as normal as possible for their kids.

"DH is willing to let me keep them home for a week if I shoulder all the extra responsibility." This wording makes me sad.

Our preschool required everyone to take a COVID test on or after 12/27 and provide the results before returning to school. I appreciate their effort but I wish they had made the cutoff 12/29 or 12/30. Two days is probably not enough time to get a positive result if a child has been exposed.

I am FB friends with the mom of a kid in our class. She posted all kinds of photos about their Christmas events. They apparently visited family in both Brooklyn and NJ on Christmas day. I was pretty annoyed. She also owns a restaurant and keeps promoting their indoor dining. Ugh ugh ugh.

@ElbieKay: Ooh, I would be super pissed about someone sharing photos like that and promoting indoor dining.
My school district has decided that all kids are going back this week to hybrid, instead of remaining remote for 2 weeks like most districts around here. I'm very upset about this and feel like it's just asking for trouble. They are also not requiring/asking families to quarantine if they traveled out of state. I would keep my kids home for at least a week if I could.

Ugh I’m having the same dilemma. We are lucky that we have childcare anyway, but my daughter loves school and really needs it since she has major social anxiety brought on by Covid. I worry that if she’s out 3 weeks she’ll have a harder time adjusting. Our preschool is forest school, so all outside but the kids aren’t fully masked all the time. (Within the rules here). We’re in a surge but not as bad as other places. Decision making is so hard now! I am constantly second guessing myself.

Ours is closed til Jan 11, we will go back then because there is not much of an alternative. We will be super cautious as long as it is needed, but don't have a childcare alternative to daycare. I know so many people who seem to have just concluded they are over it and are going to go on with things now that 2021 is here as if there is no pandemic. We called MIL 4 times in the past week, and she was at different parties (largely with people in the 70 - 90 age range) all four times. My husband was so pissed, but at some point he has just had to conclude that there is no hope to convince her to be safer, we will not see her until everyone is vaccinated. It is going to be a very rough few months and I just hold my breath that we all make it out okay.

I'm in California and my daughter's preschool decided to go virtual for the first week back, for the entire pre-8 grades. It seems most private schools around me are doing this. The school also finally imposed masks for the younger kids. Funny to ask a 24-month old baby to wear a mask, so good luck with that, teachers. Poor teachers, in general. We haven't had an issue with covid at all in my kid's school since. I'm hoping it doesn't start now.