If you had asked me what social distancing is even just several weeks ago, I would have had to pause to think of a response. Now it seems like something that most communities around the globe are becoming experts at. Each day is full of new and different challenges. Each day it seems to settle in a bit more that this is our new norm, for the time being. As a mom of two elementary aged kids, of course things like the parks being lined with caution tape hit pretty hard. Reminders that it’s not just about distancing from direct contact with people but also from germs that may linger and limiting the possibility of us being exposed to COVID-19.
It makes my heart break a little each day that my kids are under house arrest and not allowed to do the normal kid things they are used to. School closures is obviously a huge one. After school activities are another. But another big one that I hadn’t thought about until last week are milestones like birthdays.
I received an email from the mom of my 9 year old son’s best friend. Her son was turning nine and with the social distancing, it meant a party was out of the question. Her email was an ask for us to send birthday cards if we were able to. One mom came back with a suggestion I thought was brilliant. What if we surprised him by all singing happy birthday outside of his house? Keeping a safe distance, of course. We all jumped at this idea. Sure, partially because we literally had nothing else to do on a Sunday afternoon while under house arrest. But also because as parents, our hearts went out to wanting to ensure this boy got some sort of celebration with friends on his birthday.
We gathered at a specified time outside his house. Each family kept 6 feet apart from the other. It was really weird but also brought so much joy. Trying to have conversations while keeping a distance, laughing because it felt so awkward. When the birthday boy came out and we starting singing, his smile made all the awkwardness worth it. We sang and then chatted for a while as he and his family went from one “pod” to the other. He opened a gift in his driveway that had been sent via Amazon.
We parted ways laughing but so happy we had been able to celebrate with him in some small way.
Do you have ideas on how to celebrate during this time of social distancing? We’d love to hear!
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Read more of Stephanie’s contributions to AllMomDoes here.
