Are you changing your COVID behavior?

[wildrice]

I hate to even bring up this conversation, I am SO over all of this.

I've been pretty much living life as usual for the last several months. I still mask indoors but otherwise I'm doing all my normal stuff. Suddenly I am wondering if that is still the right approach with things seemingly getting worse everywhere? We are boosted and have no vulnerable or unvaccinated friends or family locally, and we're healthy but overweight. I am not that worried about our health since we are vaccinated, but we both recently started new jobs so I'd rather not get an illness that is going to knock us down, nor do I of course want to be spreading it around to others.

Are you doing anything differently now than you did for the last few months COVID-wise?

[devonpow]

No, but we never stopped being super conservative. We were ready to do stuff like movies or indoor dining as soon as DS2 got fully vaxxed. Then, Omicron hit as soon as DS2 got his shots. Sigh.

[nicolewi]

Yes, this sucks. nothing concrete yet, but I am stressing more again and we are debating about winter plans. We told the kids that once they got vaccinated and got though Christmas, we'd go to movies & restaurants again, and maybe we could do our usual winter waterpark trip. Now I don't know what to do. So tired of the uncertainty and constant planning/re-planning/decision making.

I posted somewhere earlier that DH & I were planning to take advantage of a free trip to Hawaii in January. Now we are on the fence about whether or not to sign up. If I didn't have kids, I'd still do it for sure and take the risks. But the kids (they wouldn't be going, but my parents would have to stay with them) add a HUGE layer of complication.

[goldengirlz]

Not really but I’ll put a big asterisk on that because we live in a place with a mask mandate and a vaccination requirement for most indoor businesses. So there’s a base level of caution here that doesn’t exist in a lot of places (and our rates so far reflect that).

I am kicking myself today, though, for going to my team holiday dinner this past week. It’s not that I’m afraid of getting severely ill — I trust that I did everything I can on that front — but if I WERE to get sick and ruin our vacation plans next week, I’d be really disappointed. And pissed at myself. So I’ll probably exercise more caution during times when I REALLY can’t afford to test positive and just be choosier about the risks I do take.

[ste]

We are back to being even more conservative- we live in a rural/red/low vax/anti mask area and have 3 unvaccinated kids at home, including an infant. H needs his booster; I got mine earlier in the fall.

[Patsy Baloney]

We've been a little protective of our little guy - he's only 2 and not vaccinated. We go places with him, but try to help him keep his mask on and go during less crowded times.

But generally, I'm done. I've done all that I can do. I am vaccinated, so is my H, so is my big kid. We will get boosted as instructed. We wear masks indoors. We wash hands a lot. We stay home when sick. We test if covid symptoms appear.

It's not life as normal, but it's as close as we can get.

[Gato]

Yeah, I’m pretty much back to normal, with a mask added indoors. Both H and I are boosted, and both kids have been fully vaxed.

When my kids caught a cold this week, we picked up some tests at the drugstore to be sure it was okay for them to do their regular activities and a sleepover. We will all test next week before we go to my mom’s for Christmas.

Getting medical care has been an issue for me, since Maine is getting absolutely hammered with Covid right now.

[eddy]

I refuse to make my kid's world any smaller now that they are vaccinated. They have put in their time and I refuse to make them compensate in their movement because of adults who can't do the right thing.

And honestly no I have no plan to change what I have been doing as well. I can't go back to being more conservative with what we do. It will crush my soul. I literally have done everything I can.

I have full accepted I am going to catch this thing.

[thebreakfastclub]

My husband and I are fully boosted and my son is vaxxed. We work from home, the elementary school has a mask mandate. I wear a mask indoors, but I shop and eat at restaurants.

I am not anxious about covid, I can only assume symptoms will be like a cold if it happens. My son has been a close contact once, and my H and I have never needed to test.

[gretchenindisguise]

My parents are no longer coming to a friend holiday party. They are traveling 1/3 and omicron sucks.

I just ordered binax tests for us to take 12/24 so they are comfortable coming on Christmas because we will still be going to the party.

So yes behavior is changing, but we are not going back into lockdown mode yet.

[dontlook]

2/3 of my kids are vaccinated. Until the 3rd kid is eligible we aren’t willing to do too much so not too much is changing over here. We still don’t eat indoors, go to movies, or go to kid indoor play spaces. They will continue to go to school but I do think I’ll pull back on birthday parties or other indoor gatherings. I usually take my youngest grocery shopping with me but I’ll probably start leaving him at home again. I don’t want to stop my kids from seeing friends but I will definitely push more outside activities.

I was on the fence about Christmas Eve with my family but my unvaccinated idiot brother has now gotten vaccinated so yay for that. Everyone except my youngest will be vaccinated so it feels as safe as to can be.

[mcmel]

We would wear a mask if we were going to a crowded area but other than that we're vaccinated and have received our boosters. We're back to normal and are planning a June Alaskan cruise that I'm hoping goes smoothly.

[isabel]

I don't even know anymore. I don't know what my risk tolerance is. I feel like it changes day to day what I am willing to do.

[ohgillian]

I have no idea what to do. None. Everyone in our home is fully vaxxed, but still. Is this nbd b/c we're vaxxed (and adults are boostered)? Is it death and destruction anyway? What are we supposed to do? No clue.

[suzyp]

Yes and no.

I live in TX so we don't go out much and I always wear a mask becuause people there suck and the vaccination rate is not great.

We did travel to DC for the weekend and plan to go to a hockey game, indoors, on Sunday. I am a little nervous, but we're vaxx'd and boosted and Fauci seemed to give an okay for Omicron on Thursday morning. We are being careful otherwise and doing mostly outside activities. People here are much better about vaccinations and masking.

We won't do much when we get back home, but we were not planning on it anyway. We don't have any kids so we don't have to worry on that end.

[abs]

Nope.

DH and I are vaccinated and boosted. DD is vaccinated. We’ve done everything asked of us. DD is still recovering socially from not doing anything with friends for so long. I am not asking her to give up anything again. We are done. I will mask as needed otherwise I just don’t have the bandwidth mentally to do anything else.

[chilerellanos]

Idk, I mean, I’ve worked in a hospital since it began, and I’m as vaccinated as I can be.

I don’t really do a ton outside the house because I’m always working. I haven’t been able to travel at all because I haven’t been able to take PTO since covid began.

So, not really changing anything, but also don’t really have the opportunity to change anything.

[glw]

Yes, but we've been on the conservative side the whole time. Since this summer, we'd started getting together indoors with friends occasionally and we won't be doing that for the foreseeable future. We've eaten indoors at restaurants a handful of times but won't be doing that now. I still feel okay doing outdoor things, with a mask if it's crowded.
We're childfree and boostered; I work from home but MH doesn't.

[InBetweenDays]

So far we haven't changed what we're comfortable doing, but like a PP we live in a state with a mask mandate and a county with a vaccine requirement for indoor dining, movies, events, etc. However I may test more frequently. We're going to a Kraken game tomorrow night and while we'll be wearing masks I think we'll test next Friday before going to see my parents for Christmas Eve.

[flygirl]

H and I both have our boosters and DS is now fully vaxxed and we were looking forward to going out to restaurants and theaters plus possibly taking a trip to NY. I don’t know that I feel comfortable going to a lot of places now with Omicron but I think we will do a bit more than we have for the last 2 yrs (we were very conservative). We won’t do much before Xmas though because my Grandma is not able to be vaxxed. I am kind of nervous about some forced work travel in the new year since I have to fly into Newark or NY.

[Bernadine]

No. Now that dd is fully vaxed and the adults are boosted, we’ve done everything we can to take precautions.

[Wines Not Whines]

Not really. Our county has had a mask mandate for a long time, so I’ve already been wearing a mask indoors. We had been cautious because my DS (age 11) wasn’t vaccinated until recently. We finally started dining indoors with him and going to more crowded events. My excitement to do things again is a little dampened now. But I think we’ll still do them.

The one thing I’m questioning is our plan to go to NYC after Christmas. We have tickets to a Broadway show, among other things. But cases in our area are also surging, so it’s not like we’re in a safe bubble if we stay here.

[k3am]

We are not changing our covid behavior. The kids are both vaccinated and we both have our boosters. We are not into going to big events, and our social circle is relatively small to start with. We are all in good health, we don't have any underlying health issues of concern, and are resigned to the fact that if we get it, we'll probably be okay.

That being said, we live in an area that's highly vaccinated, loves loves loves it's mask mandate, weather is good enough to be outside most of te year, and masks are required indoor/outdoors at school.

[omglol]

I’m with Isabel. I have no damn idea. I change daily.

My son (2.5) goes to MDO two days a week at this church down the way. We *thought* they were compliant and then they had a program this week that had very little social distancing or mask wearing, yet they’re great about pickup and in-school mask wearing. No masks on the kids while performing AT ALL. I don’t know wtf they were thinking even doing it and I feel like a really bad mom for not leaving as soon as we saw what was happening. I was/am so pissed but also so desperately in need of joy and fun and BAH HUMBUG I’m just tired and totally over having to fucking think about this. 😡

Before this, I was ok taking him to target/school or whatever with a mask on. Now I’m questioning myself about that, too. I just need his age group to be vaccine eligible.

[konapoppy]

I’m starting to do more things. But all the adults I know are vaccinated. It’s the kids that apparently aren’t going to get vaccinated until they turn 5.

I might change my approach closer to our Disney vacation because I will be pissed if that gets cancelled.

Everyone here wears masks though and we have a >90% vaccination rate, so it is very different than if I were somewhere with higher spread and lower vaccination.

[letsgetweird]

I'm not changing anything. I'm vaxxed and healthy.

[Leeham Rimes]

Yes we’ve changed our Covid behavior. I’m with eddy, that I can’t ask my kids to continually give up their lives when this is never, ever, going away. Between stupid people not getting vaxxed and vaccine inequity in the world, I feel my family has to learn to live with it. We were the only ones of our friend base to be as conservative as we were for 17 months, (march 2020-aug 2021), where we did nothing and went nowhere and even homeschooled to keep safe.

Then we allowed the kids to go to school (sans mask mandate for the most part, it was peppered in for a month, but that’s it) with masks and allowed one outdoor sport. Now that both kids are vaccinated, we’re starting to do more. It’s just not going to get any better, we’ve done absolutely everything we could to be safe. We live in a ridiculously stupid state, filled with stupid people who love a stupid governor who hides covid numbers. This is as good as it will ever get.

We’re going to continue to evaluate risk on a personal level and make smart choices. But at this point, it’s probably a matter of when we get it, not if, because don’t nobody care about Covid in my area. That’s what the vaccines are for, to help us not (a) die or (b) get horrifically sick.

[Roc A Bee]

I’m pretty much back to normal but with masks on sometimes. I don’t see us going back.

[dulcemariamar]

Yes, in the sense that I will use the Christmas holidays to just stay at home and take a break from being around people. I will still pop in for some fruit and meat but I did a big food shopping trip yesterday and I also picked up more masks/alcohol.
I also got my booster this week instead of originally waiting until next week.

I am also in Europe so it feels quite doom and gloom. I just saw Denmark has closed again cinemas, movie theaters, etc. I don’t know why that made me take a pause when I read that headline. I guess they have always been less conservative compared to other European countries so I guess it will be bad.

I am avoiding news from the UK...but yeah I am definitely worried about the hospital numbers here

[lilypad1126]

Not really. We are vaxxed and boostered. We're continuing to be cautious, as in wearing a mask indoors and trying to do as much outdoors as we can. But I'm going to visited family over New Years, and the biggest change is that I'll be taking my work computer with me in case I get stuck there due to either being sick or airline issues (or I guess weather, since they live in the cold frozen north). But we're periodically eating indoors, hanging out with friends, etc. I just can't keep living in the same state of anxiety I've been in for 2 years. So I'll keep an eye on things, follow whatever guidance I can, but I just can't go back to 2020 levels of caution.