Parents - are you letting your kids play with friends?

[RedMercury]

i don't have kids, but don't see any reason not to let them play. the virus is barely spread via children. and schools are open in my country in any case, so they'd still be meeting their peers regardless

Click to shrink...

Can children spread the coronavirus? It’s complicated.

The raging debate over how infectious children with the coronavirus are, explained.

www.vox.com

It not getting spread in children is not settled science. I would be cautious of making that claim when we don't know for certain.

 

[julian]

In NYC area, so no. It's rough with a 3 year old who was incredibly social and loves school. Zoom calls just make him sad.

 

[BringBackSonics]

No, and it's been hard on my son, all the zoom, roblox, Animal Crossing and fortnite won't make things whole.

My daughter has recently started to go back to daycare. It was hard with both of us working.

editted with the caveat below.

 

[Cilla]

I took her out of kindy but she occasionally plays with the neighbours kid as well as her nephew. On Tuesday we are going to our first play date. I live in australia though. Probably would not do it in the US.

 

[Neo C.]

Not a parent, but my niece starts going to the kindergarten again, because the infection rate is now low here. We also allow her to play with a limited number of friends, it's important to know that we can track the infection just in case.

No and it kills me. My daughter is the most social person I know and she has been flipping through photo albums just crying and saying none of those things will ever happen again. We reassure her and keep doing online meetings with friends but it's not the same.

Click to shrink...

That's really sad.

 

[Mathieran]

No, but we let our older daughter sit across the street and hang out with the neighbors on the other side of the street.

 

[DiK4]

No.

 

[weekev]

My kids play Splatoon 2 with their friends and talk via FaceTime. Reckon it will be that way for a while.

 

[Deleted member 1627]

Fuck no.

 

[mattlikewhoa]

HARD NO! It's killing me, but we have to do so. I've had FaceTime "playdates" that some parents have organized with activities. I understand that it's not the same, but there's no way I'm taking any chances.

 

[Tuppen]

Since schools for younger children are open in Sweden, yes they play with friends. Outside of school it is ok to play outdoors with friends, although I try to limit the number of friends they play with.

 

[Jmdajr]

Nope.

 

[peppermints]

So just found out that my wife's cousin had a birthday party for their two year old. Probably 20+ people at least based on the pictures on Facebook. It's like people hear 'reopening' and assume any threat is gone. The numbers down here (southern Indiana) are reported low (just over 200 cases in a county of ~180k people) but I know that testing is also not where it should be.

I get that it sucks - my wife, daughter and I all had birthdays last month and we did what we could to make them special in quarantine. But the way people are so quick to go back to normal is infuriating.

 

[Deleted member 44129]

Hell no. UK is still suffering terribly.

 

[Delicious Waffles]

Not a parent, but I'm a teacher and we have "meetings" with the kids each Friday through Hangouts that are just meant to catch up, let them see their friends, etc...

My 3rd graders aren't really going outside, they're just playing Minecraft, Fortnite, and Roblox with each other instead. Considering how a lot of them complain that recess is boring, I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't going outside before the pandemic either.

Click to shrink...

Same but a 5th grade teacher.

 

[Clear]

No, my father in law has CPOD and mother in law has late stage Alzheimer, it is way too risky to be asymptomatic carriers and get them sick.

It really sucks for the boys (i have a 2 and 4 year old) but been getting them some quiet trails for hiking to break up the house arrest.

 

[SixPointEight]

We are doing curb side visits but no playing.

Still it's happened a couple of times where they started playing with neighbors (while they just went outside while I worked) and of course all physical distancing was ignored before we realized. We tell our kids but our neighbors don't really care about physical distancing so do you think their kids do?

but yeah other than occasional slips (it's happened 2 times) it's a hard no

 

[TheWooniestWoona]

Not a parent, but all the kids in my neighborhood have been out playing with each other. Not something I'd do right now if I had kids, but I can understand how it would be difficult keeping them in all the time.

 

[StrykerIsland]

No, two months since they've played with anyone outside our home. Thankfully, we've got three children though, and three pets, so there's still plenty going on for them to interact with.

 

[NubCakes09]

The kids in my north Indy suburb (Hamilton Co.) all played together starting when schools closed and haven't really ever stopped.

Click to shrink...

That's how it's been in my neighborhood too (Cleveland suburb).

 

[Melhadf]

Of course... Roblox, minecraft and other games. No physical meetups, though we did drop a care package my daughter made to her friends house (left it on the step, retreated a safe distance)

 

[Gaf Zombie]

Nope. Our son is only one and a half though so maybe it's easier for us?

Also, I don't imagine too many "yes" replies in this thread. Parents already making a tough choice don't want to be 'tsk tsk'd to oblivion by a bunch of strangers.

 

[BringBackSonics]

No, but we let our older daughter sit across the street and hang out with the neighbors on the other side of the street.

Click to shrink...

Our son sits on our side of the yard, and our neighbor has a daughter around his age..and they will sit about 7-8 feet from each other and just talk. I think he likes her lol.

 

[CrankyJay]

Absolutely not, and I get infuriated when I see friends on FB posting sleepovers and playdates. We're sacrificing while others aren't....just rubs me the wrong way.

 

[gilko79]

Nope, much to the chagrin of my son's friends and their parents. I even had one parent get on my son's class Zoom call to complain about social distancing and how "facemask-wearing liberals are ruining the world". Then again, I kinda expect those types of responses from people in Texas.

 

[JetBlackPanda]

No and it's the worst. The entire neighborhood is out like fucking 4th of July weekend.

im the weird liberal that ruins my kids childhood. Trust me I would do anything for it to go back to normal and let her play with her friends.

I've got type 1 diabetes and can't take any chances.

 

[GeorgePBurdell]

No playdates. We did allow them to go back to daycare today though. Before that, they hadn't really been out of the house in 2 months.

 

[Dan Thunder]

Nope. Depending what happens in the next couple of weeks we may let him meet with a friend at the local field, as long as they keep their distance from each other. They can probably play football as long as one's in goal as it's not hard to keep a few metres apart when doing that.

He's an only child though so it must be awful for him not being able to see his friends in person. Of course if our government weren't so utterly useless.......but that's a post for a different thread!

 

[AndyD]

We have an understanding with the parents next door on either side. Our kids can all play together (8 kids total, 7-14 in age) but with no one else. All of us parents are working from home completely and we are all transparent about any outside contact needed so we can minimize it. For example one one us might do grocery shopping for all and so forth. Plus one of the parents and a child have conditions that make COVID extra concerning, so it's important for all of us to stay honest.

It's working out really well as the kids have some exposure to friends while still staying isolated from the larger group of neighborhood or class kids. They do have zoom calls with classmates several times a week and with friends so they are keeping in touch. Plus they are writing letters. Old fashioned paper letters.

 

[Random_Stranger]

Yes, child plays with her Cousin and 1 other friend outside. Wash hands before coming inside and don't touch your face, simple rules that are being followed. Mostly bike riding and running/walking in open areas

 

[Fatoy]

No. Although we have walked past friends' houses and spoken to them from the end of the drive.

I think our thinking is evolving, though. If we were to select some friends who have children the same age as ours, who also work from home full-time, and we trusted one another to observe the rules otherwise, I think that could work. It's something we've talked about, but we're waiting for the UK's guidance to evolve.

 

[sven]

I don't have kids myself but I was just walking my dog and I saw about 10 different groups of kids running around town together.

 

[mrmoose]

i don't have kids, but don't see any reason not to let them play. the virus is barely spread via children. and schools are open in my country in any case, so they'd still be meeting their peers regardless

Click to shrink...

Do you have a source for this? And I'm not trolling, I'd love to see a study done on the effects of transmission via children, but other than them being largely asymptomatic and probably not high on the list of people to test, I haven't seen anything.

My kids haven't played with friends since this started, even the neighbors. They do play outside but they should do a bit more, my son is getting a belly...

 

[Herne]

I don't have kids but I have nephews and a niece and my sister isn't letting them near anyone. They're all going crazy, even though they're all either toddlers or just out of the toddler stage. The woman who usually takes care of them when my sister and brother-in-law are working drove up to meet them with her kids and my nephew was so happy he started tidying everything, convinced they were coming into the house no matter what his mother told him. All that happened was that they drove up to the house, stayed in the car and talked to each other from a few feet away. He was, of course, crushed, having convinced himself that his friends were coming to play.

Even for kids that young this is tough, but there's no chance in hell my sister will let them mix with anyone.

 

[Darknight]

Also, I don't imagine too many "yes" replies in this thread. Parents already making a tough choice don't want to be 'tsk tsk'd to oblivion by a bunch of strangers.

Click to shrink...

I really wonder, if there was an anonymous poll, if the results would be different? Very few people are going to post "yes" knowing they'll get dog piled on and shamed for it.