My kids now play "covid" instead of "it"

[NinetyNineRedBalloonsGoBy]

Just watching my kids and a group of friends age 7-9 playing in the park. They've come up with the game "covid" which is just like it / tag / he but the person who's "it" is a coronavirus and everyone runs away from them so they don't catch it. They can only protect themselves from the tag person by pretending to wear a mask and washing their hands.

AIBU to find this utterly utterly depressing?

Shame the adults can' t share the same attitude.

I was born in NI in the 80s. Guess what games we played….

They've turned a miserable situation into a fun one.
We played a similar game in the 80's except it was AID's.

@PhilCornwall1

Perhaps they could add to the game. Each person has one chance to shout "vaxxed!!!" And the virus buggers off in a different direction.

I feel a board game coming on.

Coming To A Playground Near You Soon: Covid Wars!

I kid you not...Covid Wars is the latest game that the kids at my school are playing! It's quite complex with very clear rules...the kids love it 🤦‍♀️

It's very normal to turn huge events into games in order to process them.

@PhilCornwall1

Perhaps they could add to the game. Each person has one chance to shout "vaxxed!!!" And the virus buggers off in a different direction.

Ha I like it

Re board game in pp there is a game called plague where you change the variables for maximum damage (digital though Ds told me at beginning of all this)

Our world is changing and this has gone on for too long for things to simply go back to where they were.

The kids adapt. That is their strength. Take a leaf from their book.

I feel a board game coming on.

I'm a programmer and I've been tempted to write a simple online game. Not sure it would go down too well.

I remember playing aids. Kids around here played “zombie” then squid games until it was banned:

I remember the AIDS games too in the 80s. Kids were seeing scary AIDS adverts on TV and on programmes like Eastenders. So they processed it by playing about it.

Can't stop laughing at this!

Don't be depressed OP - it's only a modern version of Ring a ring a Roses. And as PP have said they are just processing the world around them through play which is what children have done since time immemorial.

YABU. Is it really any worse than playing cops and robbers etc and pretending to be criminals or doctors & nurses and pretending to be sick enough to need that level of care? Children always process the things happening around them, good and bad, through play.

@PhilCornwall1

I feel a board game coming on.

I'm a programmer and I've been tempted to write a simple online game. Not sure it would go down too well.

A Pacman update with Coronaviruses instead of ghosts, and Pacman could have a certain number of masks to use?

When I was little our version was japs and commandos or cowboys and Indians.

We played what we heard on the tv at the time.

At least the kids are playing without racist undertones.

What a brilliant game.

Many games and nursery rhymes are linked to similar things.

My DC go between telling people they have covid as an insult, and pretending they have it themselves to get out of things. My DS especially has a fantastic fake cough he does every time I ask him to do something he doesn't want to. So he'll go "cough cough I can't tidy up I'm sick it's covid" and then I'll offer a trip to the park "I'm all better now, and it wasn't covid"

Actually I think it’s hilarious

Ring a ring a roses is supposed to be about the plague isn’t it.. at least it’s not that.

Ring a ring from track and trace
To tell you you've got covid
We're coughing we're coughing
We all fall down
Vaccines now thank goodness, vaccines now yippee!
We all jump up with a one two three

I remember playing a clapping game as a child with a rhyme that went,
Cats got the measles,
Dogs got the flu,
Chicken pox
Chicken pox
Might catch you
and at the last line everyone would run away so as not to be caught.

We used to play AIDS at primary too in the 80s, awful when you think of it.

History in the making. There is a lot to be learned from children's games.

Lol lol lol it’s so funny

My DD also played it last academic year but it was called ‘Infection’. I just found it funny. They’ll look back when they’re older and remember the COVID days and playing it.

We sometimes used rabies as a variant of tag. The masks and handwashing sound like an interesting innovation though.

My son’s been masking up whenever he plays shop because that’s what he sees.