The night before school starts

School starts tomorrow. In-person, fully masked and hopefully distanced.

My kids are excited. (My daughter says she is 'super duper ooper excited', my son is less convinced.) I am nervous. I know that it will be good for them to be in school in-person, but the delta variant is getting worse every day, and a vaccine for kids is still nowhere in sight.

My wife and I have been vaccinated for many months by now, so I feel cautiously optimistic that she and I will get through all of this ok, especially if boosters start becoming available. But I am scared for the kids. They are going to be facing much greater risk of exposure than I face, and they will be doing it without a vaccination. I know that symptoms are generally relatively mild in kids, but not always and I hate the idea that I might be putting them in harm's way by sending them to school.

I have a cousin whose entire family caught covid a short time ago despite the adults being vaccinated. They're doing better by now, but it sounded miserable, and it really frightened me.

All that said, the teachers are doing everything they can to make the beginning of school welcoming and exciting. Let's hope it's all that and safe as well.