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Monday, May 4, 2020

#MicroblogMondays: Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble...

There's been some talk about "bubbles" recently -- the idea that we've currently been (or at least are supposed to have been) existing in our own little household bubbles, isolated from everyone else. In some areas, there's been discussion that loosening social distancing requirements might begin by permitting interaction with ONE other household bubble.

For us, there's no question that would be BIL's household (which currently includes him, SIL, Older Nephew, his wife & 5-month-old baby).  BUT -- would WE be THEIR pick to "bubble" with?  They might rather have more regular interaction with their other son/our Younger Nephew & his wife... or perhaps the baby's other grandmother (I know she's dying to see & hold her first & only grandchild again).  As I said to dh when the baby was born, we know where we are in the pecking order (and it's not at the top of the list).  Another one of the hard things about childless living, and especially during a pandemic...!  :(

No sooner did I write the above than a story from the Globe & Mail popped up in my notifications addressing this very problem:  "Families find their ‘bubbles’ as lockdown measures ease." (It's a bit families-with-young-children-centric, but interesting!) Sample paragraph (the nutshell of the problem I was mentioning):
"The social experiment raises awkward and potentially fraught decisions. Which grandparents, in-laws, friends and neighbours do you prioritize? Who will get left out, and who will be offended? Who is best to care for your kids part-time, and who do you actually want to have dinner with routinely? What if your top-pick family doesn’t pick you? What if you prefer not to break quarantine for anyone? What if your second family is careless and you want to break up with them and rebubble with someone else?"
Who would you want to add to your bubble?  

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here

4 comments:

  1. In NZ, we've had "bubbles" officially for the last six weeks. Our household was our bubble, but if we lived alone, we were allowed to form a bubble with another person living alone. We included my FIL in our bubble, so DH could continue caring for him, and I know others who did something similar with elderly relatives. Since last Monday, we have been able to expand our bubbles to bring in lonely or isolated people, but not just because we want to. Not yet. They are however, as you pointed out, fraught with danger. I've mentioned that a cousin decided to visit FIL, breaking our bubble, and FIL didn't know or understand enough to tell her not to. And we didn't know who she had already also been in touch with, outside her bubble. Grr.

    Sadly, we know we would be well down the list on anyone's bubble list. My friends who live here all have extended families in the same city, or live in a place where they are already surrounded with friends. We have no other close family here. I contemplated this when I was feeling a bit down on the weekend. I might write about it too.

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    1. It's kind of hard, knowing you're not top of anyone's list, isn't it? :( We don't NEED other people to help us with most things (yet) at this point in our lives... but some friendly face-to-face human contact once in a while sure would be nice, wouldn't it?

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  2. Very interesting question. For me personally, I'd only feel comfortable adding a person or group with the least amount of exposure. We have friends and family who do things we aren't comfortable with, whether it's having playdates with kids in packs -- believe it or not, we know people doing this!! -- or others who are refusing to comply with the rules and are taking dumb risks (they shall, ahem, remain nameless). So people we're arguably closer to would not even be on my list...

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  3. Similar article about "bubbles" from the Washington Post:

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/coronavirus-canada-new-brunswick-newfoundland-double-bubble/2020/05/07/78e08960-8eec-11ea-9322-a29e75effc93_story.html?fbclid=IwAR2a5MWUv2rYjmMv61GBhC1h0j4rZ2yUBF80qDLM4TMtWpgta-2JvKhzM_w

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