Sara Horsman shares her family's experience of shielding and moving forwards
There have been so many new phrases that we have all had to get used to over the past two months. For my family and me, two have been especially important. First up, ‘shielding’. We are one of many households who have been shielding since the start of the pandemic. Two members of our household of four are classed in that extremely clinically vulnerable group. The other two are high risk in their own right, but one of these could probably have been within the vulnerable group had we pushed it.
It’s been difficult, I won’t lie: those early days battling for supermarket slots, the government parcels and local volunteer parcels literally feeding my family. Homeschooling battles, like most parents I bet! Then watching as things started to relax around us. Yet the guidance didn’t change for us. We were to continue shielding.
Then, on 22 June, shielding guidance changed, and a new word was introduced to us – ‘bubbles’. Our second important word. From 6 July, those shielding could form a ‘bubble’ with another household. But then came a clarification: this applied to those who lived alone, or who were single parents. Oh. But hang on, those whose emotional wellbeing would benefit could also look at making a bubble too.
This led to important discussions for my husband and me. What do we do? Do we plod on and keep going for that month until shielding would is paused any way? We had done ok up to now after all. But we also had to consider the kids. Both have additional needs, emotional issues among them. They were both at the point they were struggling with the isolation. Of course they had access to the social media stuff, both had clubs doing things over Zoom. But they were also both aware of things easing for some of their friends. It was quite clear they needed a change. The choice of who was luckily easy for us. We didn’t have to prioritise one child over the other. Both their best friends are in the same family. A family who we had said goodbye to on 8 March, not knowing it would be almost 18 long weeks until we saw them again.
Then followed two weeks of watching the figures – making sure there was no local spike. Any sign of an increase in those numbers and we wouldn’t go ahead. Now, we know the virus can’t tell the date. And we know of people who took the line that next week is no different to this week, and so they formed bubbles etc straight away. Not us. 6 July became our ‘b day’! We felt it important that the kids knew we expected the rules to be followed. It also meant that should we have to go back to shielding in the future, the kids would be less likely to question it. But, we also needed to know that the changes already implemented hadn’t affected those all important numbers.
Those final couple of days seemed long. The kids were getting more and more excited while we were constantly asking ourselves if this was the right thing to do. Did they really need this as much as we thought? Could they wait that extra four weeks when shielding was paused? Well, those doubts were soon brushed away when finally, on the afternoon of 6 July their friends arrived. The house almost immediately came back to life. The kids were laughing. The huge smiles. Something that we realised we hadn’t really seen or heard in such a long time. Yes, we had made the right decision. Our first brave steps back out into the world. A changed world yes, but with the constant of great friendships.
Those new phrases now roll off the tongue. They now seem a normal part of our vocabulary. I’m sure that the other new phrase, ‘new normal’ will soon just be ‘normal’. But while we wait for that, we just need to remember to be kind to one another, as we all take those first steps back outside and say ‘hello again world’.