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Dear Care and Feeding,
We held a small gathering for my youngest child’s birthday, just us and four grandparents. It was held with the understanding that all of us were following COVID protocols and not taking unnecessary risks. Well, my dad showed up sick. He and my mom claimed that it was bronchitis and that he was on antibiotics. Two days later, my dad was hospitalized with pneumonia and COVID. At the hospital, my mom learned he had lost his sense of smell and taste the day before the party. He decided he still needed to be at the party, exposing myself, husband, our children, and my in-laws.
Dear Care and Feeding,
My two kids and a neighbor (all aged 5 to 8) spend four hours, three days a week at a local playground with a babysitter we hired late in the summer. We live in Brooklyn, and our school has barely been open, so this situation has been an absolutely lifesaver. The babysitter is amazing, and we pay her handsomely because we don’t want to lose her. And we are happy to do it! The problem is that there is a child in one of my kid’s classes who often comes to the same playground. This child is brought by a parent, but invariably, the parent needs to run home to get something or has to leave before the other parent can arrive, and so they ask our babysitter to watch their kid for a few minutes (usually 15 to 30). We don’t know what to do about it. They haven’t offered to pay our babysitter or chip in to the money that we pay. Our babysitter doesn’t seem bothered by it she didn’t even mention it we learned about it from one of our kids. But this babysitter