Bringing home the (healthy) kids from college - social distancing enough?

[Farmgirl1961]

If there is already a post on this, I apologize. My daughter is (hopefully) returning home (to Central Oregon) on Saturday, from the East coast. She and some other college friends have been out hiking in the Smoky Mountains/surroundings. They drove from Hanover, NH to the outskirts of Boston, where they stayed with a student's family. As they were driving south toward Tennessee, each night they stayed with students' families. They have been as careful as they can, but obviously have been doing some food shopping and other transactions. They are hiking for another day or so, then driving back toward the Boston area, dropping off students on the way back.

My daughter will fly from Boston Logan (direct) to Portland, OR, where we will pick her up and drive her home. My husband and I are ages 58 and 63 and healthy. So, is social distancing enough, or should she/we take more prudent measures? She will want to visit with her high school friends, who are also all home early. Thinking about where the balance is of being prudent, careful, cautious.

Appreciate any thoughts and links to articles on this (including measures she can take at the airport and on the airplane)

[peacefreak2.0]

1. Your child is being sent home

because a world wide pandemic. As nice as it would be to hang out with friends, the whole point is to keep your circle as small as possible.

[Farmgirl1961]

2. I completely agree - thank you

Hopefully we can convince her to do likewise. I've already told her that, due to our age, she could be putting us, her parents, at risk, by socializing (of course as well as others, even more vulnerable).

[pnwmom]

5. I'm grateful to our adult son that he figured it out at the same time as I did.

He'd been coming by to take our dogs for runs (my husband has hurt his back and they're not getting as much exercise as they're used to) and he called and said, " I guess I shouldn't be coming inside anymore."

And my daughter called to say she'd cancelled her trip for their family to come visit us from another state. She and her young family are not arranging play dates or any of the other things they'd usually be doing.

[Sienna86]

3. My kids

Son in heavily affected state and daughter just sent home from college. Spent first five days being very careful. If son comes home, he has been told he has to self-isolate like us. Will be difficult for him.

[Farmgirl1961]

7. Yes, I agree

Is there any guidance out there on "how to re-enter your college kiddo" back during the COVID-19 crisis?

[GumboYaYa]

4. My son got home from Columbia last night.

Columbia has one student who has the virus. They had the student write down all of his/her potential contacts. My son's roommate was one of the potential contacts.

We have been keeping our distance and make him wear a mask anywhere downstairs. I had to have a very serious talk with him about his personal responsibility to avoid infecting anyone. Also, we started taking vitamin d, zinc, and quercetin to boost our immune systems a few days ago before he got home.

Good luck!

[Farmgirl1961]

6. Been thinking the same thing

We have a two story house. Our daughter can (and probably will) spend a good amount of time in her bedroom, which can also be further re-established as her online study room. She also has her own bathroom. We were thinking that maybe for the first two weeks she shouldn't be in the kitchen doing food prep, etc. Maybe wearing a mask downstairs is a good idea as well as having her wipe down all surfaces she touches.

Then there is the matter of how she (or does she?) interacts with friends. We have no way to track their movements. Do we just say, no contact -- or social distancing contact?

[GumboYaYa]

8. Yep, those are our rules. No touching anything in the kitchen.

Stay upstairs and use his own bathroom. Hopefully he has nothing and it is overly cautious. But we are happy to have him home and out of New York. Good luck!