Email Communications About COVID-19

[TwinMama]

I'm trying to come up with an email to send my parents stating my expectations. My family and I have been social distancing only seeing daycare families during this time. I get not everyone is able to do that.

That being said, I would like to let my daycare parents know that we're all in this together. The decisions that they make effect our small group. One Mom is bored. She's not used to being at home with her family all the time.

I just recently had a dc girl that needed a COVID-19 test, because of symptoms she had. Her Mom admitted that she's been taking her in to stores to go clothes shopping so she didn't have to deal with shipping. She could have left her home with her Dad, but didn't. The test luckily came back negative.

It's taken a long time to get here where I live, but the numbers are starting to double in our little community. I have two sets of parents that are level headed, and two that believe every conspiracy theory possible and tell me about it. It's draining to talk to them, because while I ask for good communication between us I can't handle to hear how their third cousin knows all about the virus and they're sending their kids to school, or that it's really just a cold and it's nothing to worry about. How do I politely tell them that I don't care what their cousin is doing, and that I don't care that they think it's going to be over when the election is over. If that's true I hope it is, but I don't want to hear about it.

This whole thing is very frustrating and stressful. I love my job and don't want to close my doors, and it wouldn't be good financially, but I'm starting to dread every day.

What can I say to let them know that their opinions on the virus aren't welcome and I hope that they try to stay safe.

[Annalee]

Originally Posted by TwinMama

I'm trying to come up with an email to send my parents stating my expectations. My family and I have been social distancing only seeing daycare families during this time. I get not everyone is able to do that.

That being said, I would like to let my daycare parents know that we're all in this together. The decisions that they make effect our small group. One Mom is bored. She's not used to being at home with her family all the time.

I just recently had a dc girl that needed a COVID-19 test, because of symptoms she had. Her Mom admitted that she's been taking her in to stores to go clothes shopping so she didn't have to deal with shipping. She could have left her home with her Dad, but didn't. The test luckily came back negative.

It's taken a long time to get here where I live, but the numbers are starting to double in our little community. I have two sets of parents that are level headed, and two that believe every conspiracy theory possible and tell me about it. It's draining to talk to them, because while I ask for good communication between us I can't handle to hear how their third cousin knows all about the virus and they're sending their kids to school, or that it's really just a cold and it's nothing to worry about. How do I politely tell them that I don't care what their cousin is doing, and that I don't care that they think it's going to be over when the election is over. If that's true I hope it is, but I don't want to hear about it.

This whole thing is very frustrating and stressful. I love my job and don't want to close my doors, and it wouldn't be good financially, but I'm starting to dread every day.

What can I say to let them know that their opinions on the virus aren't welcome and I hope that they try to stay safe.

One thing I've learned is that NO TWO people see "covid" the same and you have to do what is best for you!

[TwinMama]

Originally Posted by Annalee

One thing I've learned is that NO TWO people see "covid" the same and you have to do what is best for you!

I completely agree!!!

I have close friends that don't social distance and they respect the fact that I do. We're still friends because we're grown ups and we're not trying to "crack the case" so to speak.

None of my families have any sort of medical degrees. By the way two of them talk you would think they did. I just don't want to hear all that they've learned from Facebook. It's not helpful to anyone. Two of my families respect my decision. Those two families have their kids in sports, and still see their friends and family. We are respectful of each other and transparent about our decisions. The other two families try to plead their case every time they walk in the door to try and change my mind. As if they've figured out the pandemic. I wish they would leave it alone.

[TwinMama]

[quote=TwinMama;720520]I completely agree!!!

I have close friends that don't social distance and they respect the fact that I do. We're still friends because we're grown ups and we're not trying to "crack the case" so to speak.

None of my families have any sort of medical degrees. By the way two of them talk you would think they did. I just don't want to hear all that they've learned from Facebook. It's not helpful to anyone. Two of my families respect my decision. Those two families have their kids in sports, and still see their friends and family. We are respectful of each other and transparent about our decisions. The other two families try to plead their case every time they walk in the door to try and change my mind. As if they've figured out the pandemic. I wish they would leave it alone.

That's why I want to send a communication out.

[
/QUOTE]

Imho its a waste of time. If you are trying to mitigate risk sending a message like this will only encourage the risk taking families in your group to NOT tell you what they are doing in their free time.

I learned this after "setting expectations", reminding families we are in this together, pointing out that some people in our group are high risk, etc etc. Over the past few months I've found families will just do whatever they want anyway and not tell you... aka go to an indoor kids play park over the weekend where children aren't wearing masks and play in the ballpit! I'm sure they didn't feel it was disrespectful to our family home or others in the group when making these choices. They are just not considering the risks or feel like it won't happen to them. Or they are not thinking about paying medical bills involved if they're exposed, or that they might be
risking permanent lung or heart damage because effective treatments are not fully developed yet, and so many other things you would want fellow humans to be thoughtful of during a pandemic.

If you want to mitigate your families and groups risk, I would recommend keeping communication open and seriously consider cutting ties with families that are not taking COVID seriously.