She doesn’t want to touch the ball-y’know, because of covid

[Thecarobsarefalling]

We were at the beach last night with toddler Dd, she was happily running around the beach and fairly nearby was a family with two girls, maybe 8/9 years old.
Dd ran near to them (does this fairly frequently) to say hello/wanting to play. The older girl looked almost scared and backed away and said ‘I can’t’ we called Dd away as it felt like an awkward situation. The mum then cheerfully called to me that she probably didn’t want to touch the beach ball, because of covid. She then told her daughter she’d done the right thing. They left, saying a cheery goodbye and for us to enjoy our evening.
Aibu just to find this so very sad.

I think parents have duty to stop keeping kids scared tbh

Even if you are internally cringing at the idea of them touching a ball, let them do it anyway. Sanitise hands if you must after

@slashlover - touching a glass partition or a wall is no big deal as far as I’m concerned.

Transmission by touch is one of the main vectors. Always has been. Doesn't matter where you are (indoors or out).

Your OP certainly reads as though they understand how covid transmits, even if you and others here don't.

Isn’t this pure fake news?

It's not that deep really is it. Two families, handling their children in different ways, for their own subjective reasons. Bit of a non event.

@YouMeandtheSpew

Transmission by touch is one of the main vectors. Always has been. Doesn't matter where you are (indoors or out).

Your OP certainly reads as though they understand how covid transmits, even if you and others here don't.

Isn’t this pure fake news?

Yes.

[quote elenacampana]@slashlover - touching a glass partition or a wall is no big deal as far as I’m concerned.[/quote]
Not unless you're the person who then has to clean fingerprints off of the wall or glass partition.

@YouMeandtheSpew

Can you even catch Covid from touching a beach ball?

I'd eat my bloody hat if anyone proved that you could!!

Bloody insanity and so detrimental to children's social skills and mental health.

@RobinPenguins. No worries. I'll tell the neighbours who work in ICU that they're wrong because people on MN said so. (Obviously, I won't.)

I mean, you might want to suggest that they check in with the CDC and others who have confirmed surface transmission as low risk - around a 1 in 10,000 risk of infection from a contaminated surface.

As ICU professionals I imagine they’re very busy and don’t have time to keep up with all the latest research that doesn’t relate to clinical practice, but as responsible professionals I’m sure they’d hate to think they were sharing misinformation unknowingly.

@slashlover - a bit of a moot point really. You’re talking about keeping your hands to yourself so as not to make a mess of things, which I agree with.

My initial point was that the children were being made to feel like they’d catch a scary virus from touching something, which is something I disagree with.

To be fair, if you’ve got a job as a cleaner, you’d be cleaning glass partitions regardless of fingerprints so I don’t see wiping them down as a hardship for anyone.

My initial point was that the children were being made to feel like they’d catch a scary virus from touching something, which is something I disagree with.

A father saying ‘don’t touch nothing’ to his young kids. Unless he said 'don't touch nothing because of covid' then you're just assuming.

To be fair, if you’ve got a job as a cleaner, you’d be cleaning glass partitions regardless of fingerprints so I don’t see wiping them down as a hardship for anyone.

I work retail, not a cleaner and still have to clean things because parents let their kids touch everything.

Either they’re being cautious which isn’t a bad idea or they should be isolating and have gone on holiday but will infect you be careful

@slashlover - I worked in retail and hospitality for years, it’s no big deal and surfaces should be cleaned often.

It was a safe assumption and not one I’m going to give myself a hard time for apologise for making.

Anyway, I’m off; have a lovely day grimacing whenever you see anyone touch anything!

@Thecarobsarefalling

Gosh, I found it so sad. It was strange to me that she was told to not touch a ball and yet had gone on holiday abroad, sat on a beach in August with people all around them, presumable visited the packed restaurants and shops, stayed in a hotel or villa I imagined, been on a plane and through an airport..but too scared to touch a ball and play with a toddler. Dd not bothered at all, she was soon playing with another set of children. These are anxious times, I just felt sad for the girl and found it a very sad situation.

why is it strange? She probably did all those things with mitigations in place, and is playing on the beach with further mitigations in place.

I love it when people say they're off from MN and then immediately come back to have the last word or pop up straight away on another post

@YouMeandtheSpew

Transmission by touch is one of the main vectors. Always has been. Doesn't matter where you are (indoors or out).

Your OP certainly reads as though they understand how covid transmits, even if you and others here don't.

Isn’t this pure fake news?

I think there is some confusion about this. Since September, teachers were warned by their unions not to touch any handwritten work students had done without quarantining it for 3 days, and then to quarantine it again for 3 days, before handing it back without making physical contact with it.

This advice was eventually relaxed at the end of the summer term, because surface transmission was said to be very rare.

However, it has been reinstated in the govt advice, which leads be to think that possibly new information has concluded that it is in fact a risk

Beach balls are significant carriers of covid. Seems like a sensible decision not to touch one.

@LionGiraffe

Beach balls are significant carriers of covid. Seems like a sensible decision not to touch one.

Really? I find that very hard to believe Maybe people should stop licking them and then they won't catch anything!

Alright, I’ll play the tenuous medic relation game. 😂

My cousin is a general surgeon (specialising in colo-rectal if anyone is interested) and she was redeployed during much of Covid, only performing essential cancer surgeries in private hospitals. During her ‘redeployment’ she worked essentially as an ITU nurse. Doctors don’t know how their patients contracted Covid. They can only build a picture based on what they know. So in the interests of total prevention, they all still practice hygiene that suggests it can be passed via contact and accept that it is passed via aerosol. Her brother is an anaesthetist who wears phenomenal PPE to protect himself while intubating Covid patients and has so far, not contracted it.

Anyway, with the year we’ve all been through, can anyone really blame the kid for being anxious? We know literally nothing about that mysterious kid on this beach. For all we know, OP’s toddler may have had a disgusting string of green slime hanging out of their nose, or a dirty nappy, and that’s why the poor kid hesitated.

Given some of the people who were seen going to beaches in their droves last summer and their apparent lack of basic cleanliness and hygiene, I would not blame the child or the parents for their reaction. Not just Covid, but given the amount of dog excrement that is on some beaches, and could have got onto a ball they have not brought themselves.

@BogRollBOGOF

It's very sad that children have been indoctrinated to fear normal interactions and it will have a long term cost in society.

The chances of catching Covid from touching a beach ball are so low as to be negligable.

Absolutely. And I'm shocked that most of the responses on here imply that this is sensible and normal of the parents.

Yes, we don't know their situation, but just the fact that children's psyches have been messed with to this degree makes me terribly sad.

Just awful.

It's extremely sad given everything we know about fomite transmission:

www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/more/science-and-research/surface-transmission.html

They could have kicked the ball over and would have been absolutely fine. I am extremely worried about the long term mental health impact that the pandemic will have on mental health. It's clear that a significant proportion of the population are suffering from acute anxiety and are unable to process risk.

Agree with the PPs that said the 8/9 year olds probably didn't want to play, and the mum just said the first thing to pop into her head. Which was maybea bit thoughtless of her at best.

One of my kids and her pals sometimes moan about a neighbours' toddlers wanting to "join in" when they're playing outside, and I bet a few "sad" or "scared" looks have passed their faces if they think they're about to lose a ball, skipping rope, etc. or be obliged to stop or change whatever fun they're having.
I say this kindly OP, younger children can be very irritating to older children, and I think you're projecting way too much onto this.

To be honest you don't really know if it was because of covid or the mum was just saying that to save your feelings.

At 9 one of my dc would back off from an approaching toddler trying to play with them on holiday looking terrified. I'm pretty sure she'd rather play with someone coughing!

Not all kids, especially at that age on holiday, would be keen to play with a toddler. It's much easier to just make up an excuse than have to ask another parent to stop their toddler from bothering their kids.

The sound like a nice friendly family and as you say, braving airports and planes etc probably not terrified of catching covid. So sounds like an excuse to me.

This will probably be an unpopular opinion but I bet there's a lot of truth in it!

It's not just sad, it's borderline unhinged. All the evidence shows that Covid is not spread through transmission with objects and in addition you were outside

It’s not borderline unhinged that a child doesn’t want to play with OP’s toddler 🤷🏼‍♀️