mom: so how do you feel about wearing masks at school?
kid: I mean, not great. do we have to wear them in gym class? what if we are all sweaty and too hot?
mom: I don't know about that. would you rather stay home and not wear a mask?
kid: no! i miss my friends and my teachers so I want to go and I'll wear the mask but I still don't want to.
mom: do you know why we're wearing the masks?
kid: yeah, the coronavirus and so we don't get sick.
mom: right, and so we don't get our teachers sick, or our friends sick, or our grandparents sick, or our friends' grandparents sick, or baby Red sick!
kid: I know, I just don't like that I can't see my friends smiling when they wear a mask.
mom: I know. I don't like that either. But here's the thing though - our schools are just trying to keep everyone safe. And remember we've been out of school for a really long time and all that time everyone was supposed to be staying home and wearing masks at the grocery store, and trying their best to stay healthy and keep each other healthy
kid: yeah, we did that.
mom: well lots of people didn't do that. Some grown ups thought they shouldn't have to do that. So, people have been going to grocery stores with no masks and going on vacation and eating at restaurants and doing everything like normal.
kid: no, momma! come on, that's not true. grown ups follow the rules!
mom: the rules were that everyone was supposed to wear masks and stay safe
kid: but we didn't wear masks outside!
mom: outside is mostly okay, as long as you have lots of space and air. but inside and in very big groups, everyone was supposed to wear masks
kid: well that guy in Lowes didn't wear a mask
mom: that's what I'm talking about. some grown ups just didn't think it was important so they didn't do it all this time. But all of the world, places had coronavirus too, in some places their grown ups followed the rules to keep everyone safe and now they don't have coronavirus anymore! their kids are going to school normal and they have concerts again.
kid: did our people listen, like our own family and friends?
mom: yes, most of them did. you know we did. but lots of people in our community and all over our state and our country didn't. And now it's time to go back to school and coronavirus is still here.
kid: so you're telling me that us kids have to wear masks to school now because the grown ups didn't feel like doing it this whole time we were out of school?!
mom: I'm sorry babe....I know we've had almost this same exact conversation before about taking care of the planet too. It's just that kids are the ones that have to pay because it's hard for adults to do things differently than they've always done it - even if it's for the benefit of children.
xxoxx
happy back to school Pennsylvania!
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