Christopher F. Rufo  ⚔️

This is something that has been really bothering me for a while. In all of this, I don't think we've had anything resembling a conversation about how deeply unfair all of this is to kids. In an instant, we took everything away from them. School, friends, activities. All of it.

We have no answers for them about when it might come back. And on some things, like their activities, we can't even promise it will come back. Will their dance school survive this? The Little Gym? The indoor playspaces? The places they take school and family trips?

And my Facebook is filled with NOTHING but parents complaining about their kids. It's really self-centered behavior that we would never accept if it came from our own kids.

Kids aren't really getting sick, and yet we are asking them to sacrifice their childhoods because they might be carriers. As I tell my kids they can't go on a playground because someone might call the police on us or post our pictures on NextDoor to complain, I'm getting angry.

We are ripping everything away from them, complaining that they are reacting to it negatively, and we have no answers for them about any of it.

This is going to have a lasting impact on a lot of kids. Kids who needed special ed services who aren't getting them. Kids who live with abusive parents and who no longer have mandatory reporters looking out for them. Teenagers who were already having mental health struggles.

What I keep wondering is this: What's the end game here? So school is canceled the rest of the year and we're talking about "maybe" coming back in the fall. So summer camps are out (lets see if they survive a canceled season). Do we put their lives on hold until a vaccine?