Today my son was supposed to start kindergarten. He was all excited - well sort of. He knew he was going to "the big school." Enter in little sister. She was to start in the pre-school at their new "school" today. However, this past weekend I noticed little sniffles and a running nose. So since it is my day off work I told my husband okay well no biggie let us keep her home today and see how she does on Tuesday etc. So off to kinder my husband and son went. My husband calls me like twenty minutes later. I thought mmh that went well. "They will not take him." he said. I was like huh? Yes, because little sister has "cold like symptoms and the policy from the ministry states siblings cannot be permitted if one is unwell." So they came back home, my son not looking too bothered with the whole thing - just glad to be back home and playing with his remote controlled police car. After about twenty minutes the director of the program calls me and while she was courteous, she gave me the "three options" for the safe return of our little girl back to pre-school. Option one - quarantine for 14 days and be symptom free before she can be admitted. Option 2 - get a letter from a doctor stating her symptoms are non-covid related and be symptom free for at least 24 hours before her return. Option 3 - return a negative covid swab test and be symptom free. In addition the return to school of my son hinged on her passing one of the above litmus tests. I have no objection with any of all this - it all makes sense as far as respiratory transmission etc. So here we are. Scrambling to figure out our work schedules for this week. We are in early September folks - the summer clothes have barely been put away. The leaves have not yet even started changing their hues to usher in the Fall. Flu shots have not yet been offered. I am generally a glass half full kind of person. I always see the donut and not the hole. But this. This is not going to be a walk in the park. Kids catch colds. Toddlers are constantly reaching for things to put in their mouths. I do not know how or who are the policy makers are but I do know we need new rules of engagement for in person interaction of kids and pandemic to co-exist. I guess as parents we are all grateful for some childcare being better than no childcare after the 6 months rodeo we have been on. The challenge I think comes in trying to get a routine in place then boom the rug is snatched from beneath you that you are left wondering is it worth it getting my hopes up. We have never learnt how to lower our expectations more than we have in this year however if there is one thing I know now more than ever; is that as humanity we can do hard things, we can pivot, we can adjust our sails because clearly we cannot change the winds.
