If you’re in a public place during the pandemic and your kid wants to go say hi or play with another kid, what do you do?

Question

I always feel bad holding my toddler back. She is so social and wants so badly to play with other kids, but I always gently hold her back or divert her attention to something else due to the pandemic. I’m sure other parents don’t want a child they don’t know running up to play with their kid either. It’s so sad and hard. Hopefully it doesn’t cause any longterm anxiety or issues for the kids.

Answer

Wave from a distance

Answer

My daughter is social as well, knowing this i don't go to public places to prevent her from having temptation and emotional brake downs. So we have lots of family fun, water games, board games, video games, baking etc..

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I haven't been bringing my kids out in public, luckily it works for us. They'll see the neighbor kids and the rule is to give some distance between themselves and the fence. Air high fives have become their favorite.

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I let them go 🤷🏼‍♀️ my eldest will ask them if shes allowed to play with them 🤷🏼‍♀️ BUT both my children are at daycare and school and in the UK they arent making them wear masks or social distance. My eldest is also back to dancing and gymnastics, both of them are back to swimming. When we are out in public we are VERY careful but slowly getting back to 'normal'

Answer

This happened to us today with a neighbor during our walk. My son is 20 months and does not understand how to wave from a distance or understand why he can’t hold his friend’s hand to play. I picked him up and brought him away but felt so awkward because the kid’s dad didn’t seem to care but I couldn’t tell if he was being polite. Granted we’ve been home during this entire pandemic and we are not a risk and I know this family has been home too, but I know it’s soo hard and I worry too for my son that he won’t know how to play with children because of this.

Answer

It depends on where we are. At the playground I let them play. If it was like the grocery store or something I'd hold him back

Answer

We wave hi, though even though my daughter is friendly once she knows someone, she's shy with new people, she'd be unlikely to run up to another kid unless she knew them. We went to the beach last week and there was a toddler there who was trying to come up to us, but his mom came up and held him away, which I was grateful for because we are keeping distance from everyone during the pandemic. We waved hi, especially so the mom knew we weren't mad or totally horrified that her son ran up to us, but also so they knew we were purposely distancing. 
But for the most part we avoid any public places with the kids. No playgrounds, kids stay in the car with mom or dad when one of us needs to run in to grab takeout or curbside shopping, and we try to only go to outdoor locations that aren't very busy. Mom and dad wear masks but I'm not making my 3 year old wear a mask unless we're indoors (which, again, is very rare because of our precautions)

Answer

I would encourage her to wave hello from where she is.

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I personally don't care, but out of respect for other people, I'd hold back. We do see friends of ours in each other's houses where we're comfortable (and we rarely go out in public since she'd have to wear a mask and I don't want her wearing one), so she doesn't have too many instances where I'd have to do that. I think as long as you still have play dates and such in private places, like homes, you can still encourage social interaction and really just let them be kids.

If you’re in a public place during the pandemic and your kid wants to go say hi or play with another kid, what do you do?

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