My Kids Are Getting Vaccinated. Now What?
What’s the best path for an individual moving forward?
This Sunday, something my wife and I have been waiting patiently (and not so patiently) for for 21 months is finally happening: My kids are getting their vaccine shots. My nine-year-old fourth grader and my seven-year-old second grader have been through so much in this pandemic, from virtual schooling to learning gaps to not seeing their friends and family to being locked in the house with their parents (and each other). I’m grateful that my children are still happy, still smiling, still themselves — I know a lot of kids that aren’t so fortunate. But this was always the goal. Getting them to this place. Now that vaccines for five-to-11-year-olds are finally approved, we’ve made it. It is difficult to overstate the relief.
Getting them vaccinated is a monumental step in our family’s navigation of this pandemic. For the first nine months of the pandemic, it was about being masked and distanced and as vigilant as we could be while still making sure our children were able to have some sense of a semi-normal childhood experience. (We were not the parents who wouldn’t let their kids go to outdoor parties with their friends. This was hard enough on them.) Then our parents, their grandparents, got their shots, alleviating one of everyone’s biggest fears: That…
