My dad is making his semi-annual pilgrimage from Florida back to Oregon next week. He, his wife and their three dogs are driving, stopping at various pet friendly hotels along the way. They want to stop and see Ben and I, which we want to see them too!
Except… they have not been social distancing. They continue to have friends over for dinner and give their friends hugs and kisses. They don’t wear masks or take extra precautions to avoid germs. They’ll be staying at public hotels along the way and refilling at gas stations, eating on the road, and with each encounter, increasing their chances of exposure.
We’ve been so careful. We’ve turned down invitations to hang out with friends.
Do we let them stay here?
When I asked my group of girlfriends they all said no way!
But it’s FAMILY.
Have they been practicing social distancing? No. It’s one thing if they were taking the steps to avoid gatherings and staying in a RV or self contained unit along the way. If we let them stay here, we’re inviting their germs, their friends germs and the germs of their friends not to mention all of the people that they interact with along the way.
I fretted over this last night and all this morning.
Again, I really want to see them and yet….
I’ve bitten off every single one of my fingernails, a habit I started as a kid as a coping mechanism. The stress knot that builds behind my right shoulder blade flared up.
And just as I was typing this, I got a call from my dad saying that they’ll catch us on their return trip to Florida this upcoming fall. They spoke with a friend who had a visitor come from New York and passed the virus onto their entire household. He said he just doesn’t want to risk giving it to us.
My nails just grew back a little bit. PHEW!
This brings up an interesting point though – where do you stand on things? What would you do in that situation? And why do people’s responses vary so much to what’s going on with the pandemic?
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