What Social Distancing Looks Like For My Family

It is different for everyone

by Jessica Delfino

‪My family chose to leave New York City where we work and have a kiddo in 3K/preschool, and began social distancing last Thursday, March 12, 2020.

I’ve always been ahead of the curve!

I felt like a character in a virus-themed horror film when I showed up to drop off my son at school on Thursday morning and there were only three other kids in his class. I also felt kind of stupid, like, “What does everyone else know that I don’t? Am I being a nitwit? A bad mom?”

For weeks, I was inundated with people saying, “Bah! The media! It’s all hype!”, along with other short-sighted sentiments, and I guess I fell for it to some extent. “Yeah, the media,” I told myself. But the truth is, I felt in my heart that maybe this wasn’t hype. After all, it’s not the first pandemic ever, and not even the first one in my lifetime. (I was living in Chinatown during SARS but was distracted by my busy days and nights as a touring comedian to notice much.) However, since no one else seemed to be taking Coronavirus seriously, I assumed I was just being the paranoid woman child offspring of a nerve-ridden extended family.

However, I left my son’s school on Thursday feeling extra concerned. Then it occurred to me that…