Anyone else wrestling with Christmas plans in their head?

[Watermelon888]

Feeling stuck between a rock and a hard place....

Am nhs, patient facing plus 3 dc’s in different year groups finishing Friday.

Have elderly (mid 70’s) widowed dm who lives 3 hours away. Fit and well no known medical problems. Both tier 2. Am only child, no other family. Dm planning to stay for a few days over Christmas. Otherwise she’ll spend it alone.

Have agreed for dm to come, obviously depending on us all being well and not needing to isolate.

Older dc’s wanting to meet up with friends outdoors, younger dc wanting to play for his football team. Dh meeting up outdoors in pub marquee with a couple of friends.

Don’t want to be a killjoy, but also anxious about the responsibility and possible repercussions of all these things and it’s weighing heavily.

Getting mighty pd off with people glibly isolating themselves and their kids, working at home etc and offloading their risk onto others, eg delivery drivers, supermarket pickers etc.

Actually perhaps I should have posted this on Aibu to get a head wobble. Just feels so crap and a no win situation.

Anyone else nhs or key worker in similar situation?

I’m a teacher and yes you summed up my feelings, both sets of parents with us so a bubble of three houses, but feel worried about transmission, our two dc finish tomorrow and me Friday. This is all so hard and there is nothing I can do to relieve the stress or worry about it all

That does sound difficult. Given the school attendance and the nature of your job, I’d be trying to get your DC and DH to do as suggested by Witty and minimise their contacts from Friday before your DM comes down. School and work risk can’t really be helped but socialising absolutely can.

To answer your key worked point - I’m a teacher and dc attend a different school. We’re seeing my parents on Christmas Day because my mum already provides wrap around care for the DC and will be doing so until we break off on the 23rd - she and my dad have both argued that them popping in on Christmas Day for a couple of hours (not for the meal) isn’t much different, but it doesn’t stop me worrying.

Obviously there’s nothing you can do about your job but surely your dc and dh shouldn’t be seeing others in the run up to Christmas. You need to minimise contacts where you can, and these are all optional.