Hastily dropping masks in schools - an easy thing that helps protect staff and kids (inc JKs who can’t get vaxxed, and many eligible kids who aren’t vaxxed) - seems like such a callous, thoughtless “end” to the pandemic. Here’s what my 6 year old said when we discussed it: 1/n🧵
This morning at breakfast, while my husband wrangled the preschooler, I told my 6 year old that on Mar 21, there likely would NOT be a mask rule in his school. I asked him how he felt about it, and what he wanted to do. Because now he had a choice. 2/n
This kid has seen his mommy come home with bruises on her face after 12+ hours in an N95. Two years of this. Our narrative on masks, from the start, has been: “My mask protects me, your mask protects you, our masks protect each other.” 3/n
In those early days of fear and uncertainty, we didn’t know how much #airborne transmission contributed to spread. But to my little boy, it was common sense that having something block your coughs and sneezes and shouts would decrease the number of germs flying around. 4/n
Masks weren’t politicized in our home. They were just something we did to take care of ourselves and others - like seatbelts, or picking up your lego. As annoying as sunscreen, or bug spray, or saying excuse me when you burped. (Or farted. I have 3 and 6 yr old boys. 🙄) 5/n
So this morning I asked my son what he'd do on Mar 21. And he said he’d like to keep wearing a mask. “But why? Are you scared of COVID?” “Nope. I have two shots! But some people don’t have any shots. Some people like (baby brother) can’t get shots!" 6/n
He continued: "Other people like (family member) got shots, but he has cancer, so the shots don’t work. Maybe there’s other people whose shots don’t work, and I don’t even know it! It would be good to take care of them, right?” 7/n
My son is friendly and social. But I'm a mom - I worry he won't fit in, that he'll be excluded. There are so many reasons to feel left out as a kid. So I asked: "I love that you want to take care of them. But what if nobody else wears a mask?” He looked at me. He laughed. 8/n
“Mommy, why should I care what other people are wearing on their face? Why should I care if they worry about what's on my face? If it's my face, I get to choose.” Then he went back to his oatmeal and his Geronimo Stilton book. 9/n
Every day when he comes home from school, my sweet boy is full of stories - about the new games he and his friends made up on the schoolyard, about the chapter from the C.S. Lewis book Ms. K read them today, about the funny snowball poem he memorized. 10/n
Today I'll hear about the immense responsibility he has as one of the “pizza box deliverers.” The mask is never mentioned. Sometimes he forgets to take it off - and then when I remind him, he laughs - “Oh, I was so busy talking I didn’t even think about this thing!” 11/n
My heart is breaking a bit today. I wish our government could do simple things to keep our little people, our vulnerable people, our marginalized people safe. I am hopeful our *citizens* will though. Canadians overwhelmingly support public health measures to manage COVID. 12/n
My guess is many parents on the playground, and many kids and staff in the classrooms, will keep masking. But today, my heart is mostly filled with love for my 6 year old. He is thinking of the wellbeing of others right now, in this confusing and uncertain time. 13/n
As a parent, that means everything to me. Today is a hard day. But let's do good deeds, show small kindnesses, and think of others. Our children watch and learn from us. We can foster civic duty, and it can start at home. 14/14
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