Parenthood: Week 437 – Risk & Why Our Children Should Wear Masks (even though they may not need to)

We were leaving the park a couple of days ago, and Ollie was biking towards the street. Unfortunately, he misjudged how the path curved downwards, picked up speed, and lost balance when his bike went off the curb. He was shaken up, and his hand hurt. Now, a couple of days later, he's fine.

Every Ollie goes on a bike, it's a risk, and sending him to school this week of school will also be a risk.

One of the features of parenthood is a risk. In almost every single thing a child does, there is a risk. A kid can choke during a meal, a toddler can run into a wall and bump their head, and a child can break their arm falling off of monkey bars. These are all possibilities that parents have to accept and process. Every time we put a child in a car and drive, we put them at risk. Every time we take them to the park, we put them at risk, and every time we drop them off at school, we are putting them at risk.

There are things we do as a society to mitigate these risks. There are car seats and safety features in cars explicitly designed for children. Car seat standards are so high that car seats expire.  After a couple of years, a car seat that has no sign of damage in any is not recommended for use. Parks have safety measures from padding around metal parts to softer flooring made out of rubber . Schools have all kinds of safety features included the architecture and well-trained faculty and staff. All of these things make the risk, the danger of sending out children out into the world, feel less perilous. The risk is never zero, but it's less, and that's enough.  Without taking chances, accepting risk, life is not worth living.

The fact that there is so much attention in these examples around children's safety validates parents' concern. For instance, we have these fears around our children's risks in cars, so we have all of these things in place to protect children in cars. This expresses to parents that their safety is a priority. It feels good as a parent knowing that people care enough about children in cars to have regulation, testing, and standards around car seats and cars themselves to help keep children safe.

There are risks with our children going back to school in person during this school year during a pandemic. To make parents feel better, we should doing as much as possible to keep our children safe.  We need caution and as an expression that we care about our children.

The reality is that research around mask-wearing benefits for students isn't very strong (here's one article that outlines this issue).  However, I AM pro-mask mandate in schools.

Just because the research isn't conclusive that mask-wearing is essential to in-person school doesn't mean that it doesn't help lower the risk of spread. In the absence of conclusive science, we should lean towards doing more than we need to instead of less.   Mask-wearing in school, while it has its drawbacks and negatively affects our children isn't that bad.  As an educator with seventeen years of experience, with a Master's degree, I know that mask-wearing is a reasonable mitigation for our children and the comfort of parents and families. As a parent, if sending my children to school with masks is what it takes for others to feel more comfortable sending their children to school, I am willing to do that.

I have not heard one reasonable argument against mandating mask-wearing in school this fall.  I've watched those videos of school board meetings and read some posts against mask-wearing, and it's a mess.  I don't think all of the scared parents arguing against mask mandates are bad people, but I do believe people who have turned this mask mandate issue into a political culture are deplorable.  People like desantis are putting people's lives at risk and they should have their platform immediately taken away from them.  Free speech doesn't apply to yelling fire in a crowded movie theater and it shouldn't apply to people putting people in danger by lying about COVID-19.   

I don't think mask-wearing policies are perfect. When he turns two-years-old, I don't think my youngest should have to wear a mask at school. I believe children shouldn't have to wear masks outside, and I think we should create tighter pods in school and have students wear masks less often in school. I also think that parents should be required unless they have a medical or religious exception to be vaccinated for their children to be sent to public school. 

We should be doing everything possible to so that children do not have to wear masks in schools, but we aren't so we got to put them on.

I'm not looking forward to starting another school year with my children having to masks, but I'm glad my children's school is being extra careful.  Asking them to wear masks is another expression of their love and care for my children, which will make that much easier for me to accept the risk of school, and walk away.