I saw this quote on the internet the other day: “In an unsettling reversal of my teenage years, I am now yelling at my parents for going out.”
Last Monday I put my mom and dad in quarantine. They didn’t love hearing it, but agreed it was a good idea. At least for a few days anyway.
If any of you should see them out anywhere you should remind them that they shouldn’t be wherever it is that you catch them.
My how the tables have turned. Next they’ll be trying to sneak out the window after I go to bed.
I decided it was time to have “the talk” with them after reading that anyone over 60 should self quarantine. Heck, I’ll be 60 in four years. So they should have someone quarantine them. It fell to me to do so since I live with them.
I decided to email because they are big readers. Plus I wanted to include my brother and both sisters-inlaw as backup in case Mom and Dad gave me any flack. Luckily they were all very helpful and encouraging.
I told Mom that I didn’t think it was a good idea for her to go to bridge club and reading club and the 500 other clubs she’s involved in.
Then, in a flash, sisterin-law Christine came to the rescue with a link about a lady in Phoenix who caught the COVID-19 virus at bridge club.
This was going to be easy!
Dad likes to go to the gym. I think the last time I was in a gym was in 7th or 8th grade. My memory may be fuzzy but I distinctly remember it being damp and smelling awfully of body funk. The perfect environment for bacterium and viruses to grow in my opinion.
I told him he could walk at the track at the high school and he seemed OK with that.
I even gave them good suggestions on things they could do while quarantined: reading, watching TV, working in the yard, playing on their phones or computer, calling people they haven’t talked to in a while, cooking, walking the dogs, watching movies.
Sister-in-law Noelia enjoys doing jigsaw puzzles. That was her suggestion. But the only puzzles Mom and Dad enjoy are crosswords and word jumble. Any kind of word puzzles.
Mom and Dad went for a long walk on Monday.
I admit that I only went home on Tuesday at lunch to catch them out of the house. Normally they leave the house whenever the yard folks or the cleaning lady come, which this week was the same day, because Mom was supposed to have Garden Club which very sensibly got canceled.
Much to my surprise they were both home and had been working outside in the yard with the yard folk. No need to walk because they had definitely gotten their exercise.
Tomorrow, on day three, will be the big test because they are already bored after only two days.
I just know I’m going to come home one day and find them having a party with Dick and Malda Burns, John and Sharon Shoemake and Charlotte Christian, who I happen to know have all been quarantined by their adult children.
These kids today, y’all…
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