Moms keen for schools to reopen, visits to grandparents to resume

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/04/2020 (1605 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A new trampoline set up in an empty yard serves as gym class for Marina Havard’s children while schools and playgrounds are closed during the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The mom of three is overwhelmed as she tries to work from home while homeschooling her three children. “I don’t know if it’s a wasted year,” she says.

As the provincial government is set to lift some restrictions on businesses Monday, Havard wonders why there is no urgency to get pupils back to school.

“If everything is opening up with some social distancing, I think the schools should be able to open up and give kids a chance and let parents get some work done,” Havard said.

“I feel like families are being left out and I think it’s a big mistake,” she said. “Kids, especially, they’re the most vulnerable people in our society and they’re getting the least amount of intervention.”

On Wednesday, the province didn’t include kindergarten to Grade 12 schools when it announced plans to reopen parts of the economy. Restaurants will be able to serve customers on patios, golf courses can welcome players, and retail stores and malls can open as of May 4.

Families are trying to make sense of the loosened restrictions that allow people to get their hair done or go to a patio for a drink even as chief provincial health officer Dr. Brent Roussin continues to advise people against expanding their social bubble to include extended family members, grandparents and siblings.

Havard has in-laws nearby who could help shoulder the weight of schooling three kids while she and her husband work from home. However they’ve kept their distance as per Roussin’s advice.

“We don’t want to possibly risk anything for them,” Havard said. “I just want this to end, so I want to follow every rule they give me; if they’re going to tell me not to jump, then no jumping.”

Since mid-March, Roussin has said family members who live in different households should refrain from visiting in close quarters, particularly when loved ones might be more vulnerable to COVID-19.

No public health order has been issued to prevent family members and friends from getting together in groups smaller than 10 people, but many Manitobans have heeded Roussin’s requests that religious holidays, birthdays, anniversaries and milestones be marked virtually, or at a distance of six feet from each other.

“It’s a lifting of restrictions. So it’s not necessarily a changing of our advice. This virus is still circulating,” Roussin said Thursday. “There was never a restriction that could prevent people from going to visit family members.

“It’s just Manitobans knew the importance of trying to stay home as much as they can, they knew that depending on how much contact you may have had, then having close contact with others could put them at risk.”

“We still don’t want to see increased transmission of this virus and close prolonged contact can do that,” he said.

Roussin has said the loosening of restrictions doesn’t mean people can let down their guard.

“If you’re getting together with other people, no one should be ill, no one should have been advised to self-isolate; frequent handwashing, physical distancing is the best, “he said.

“If you do get together, then outside is even better. We know the risk of transmission is likely less in outdoor places.”

Of the long list of places set to reopen Monday, Robyn Brown said she’s most looking forward to seeing her eight-year-old son back on the playground; it’ll be a welcome change of pace from their isolation at home.

“We’re not really looking at changing much else,” she said. “We’re not running out to the hair salon.”

She said her family is discussing re-establishing connections with extended family after Roussin was asked Wednesday if it’s safe for children to go to a grandparent’s house.

“We have both sets of grandparents who often help out and take him for sleepovers and things like that, and that’s all had to stop,” Brown said. “It’s really been tough on his mental health, too.”

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca