IT'S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL IN 2020

We were in the pool yesterday at my small townhouse complex overlooking Lake LBJ. Most of the 30 units are second homes for people from big Texas cities. Only a third of the units are occupied on a full-time basis. I rarely see any of them, except my next-door neighbors, who have never used the pool. More often than not, no one is in the pool. I’ve enjoyed having the pool to do laps several times a week during the summer.

My grandchildren have been anxious to get in the pool, as they’ve enjoyed previous summers when they had it to themselves. The pool opened a few days ago with restrictions set forth by the Governor:  No more than 13 people at one time and no more than five people from one group. Keeping a distance of at least 6 feet apart from unrelated groups/people is required. 

While my grandchildren were having a great time in the pool, two boys from another townhouse entered the pool area. They stayed on the opposite side and far end from us. When my grandchildren’s toy boats started floating toward the pool's far end, my daughter told her five-year-old son, Patrick, to retrieve the boats. When he saw the two boys sitting about 20 feet away, Patrick exclaimed, “I can’t! I’m social distancing!”

We thought it was funny that he used that as an excuse not to get the boats, but I started thinking about life right now from his perspective. He has not been around children other than his three-year-old sister for over two months. They have not been to any playgrounds, and the thought of making sure the equipment is disinfected is daunting, if impossible. My grandchildren have been warned many times about getting near other people, so they’ve become hypervigilant, and rightly so. It’s unclear when they’ll be able to go to school again. The traditional ways of teaching might be from lesson plans/videos/Zoom for at least another year. How will this impact their learning? Will it put them behind at the very age when their brains are rapidly developing and their desire to learn is like a sponge? What kind of lifelong psychological damage will this have on them at a young age? Will they create a fear of being around other people even when it’s deemed safe to do so? Their fear of strangers is taught, but this is a different story. Will they miss some essential social milestones because of the lack of human interaction with other people not related to them? I’m the only grandparent/relative they’ve seen outside their parents for the past several months. Are they losing whatever connection they had in the past with their other relatives? Will a one-dimensional view on FaceTime of their relatives be enough, and what about the older relatives who are not technologically oriented?

Let's start hearing from psychologists about dealing with young children in the aftermath of the pandemic with the shelter-in-place protocols. Our focus is on keeping them alive and healthy, but we must start addressing how to deal with the fallout. We already know the economic damage that will continue until effective treatments and vaccinations are implemented. Still, the mental repercussions can be just as damaging. Finally, the answer is to pay attention to recommendations by scientists. We cannot go about “business as usual,” no matter what the two doc-in-the-box doctors, the conspiracy theorists, or the “it’s my right not to wear a mask, etc.” people might have you believe. That’s just “stinking-thinking” and outright dangerous to everyone. We will be dealing with many issues now and in the future. We need to be prepared. 

“It’s a world of laughter

A world of tears

It’s a world of hopes

And a world of fears

There’s so much we share

That it’s time we’re aware

It’s a small world, after all.”

(by Robert and Richard Sherman)