When the kids are C+

I did not expect another C+ in this household so soon. In fact, make that three more C+.

Yu tested C+ exactly one month to the day I tested C+ in February. We had him don a mask as soon as we knew he was a close contact but the siblings play together too much which is a good thing during normal times...

So in addition to earlier tips on surviving home recovery for adults, let's see some learning points from my current experience... 

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1) If a preschool kid gets a health risk notice, he/she is probably already infected. Just look at how these monkeys wear their mask. They don't wear them properly. And Monkey told me they don't nap with their mask. Btw, two thirds of his class have been infected in two waves; he missed the first wave coz he was home with me when I was C+.

And look at the timeline for HRN:

• Tuesday: C+ kid last in school
• Wednesday evening: School alerted parents
• Thursday: HRN issued

For a C+ with TraceTogether, the timeline varies depending on whether it's the token or the app. In our experience, the token was collected one day after being tested.

2) If you get C+ without knowing why, your close contact probably did not get tested and hence no contact tracing was done. I did not plan to get the kids tested as their symptoms were manageable and I had enough medicine at home. But Kai was dizzy for some two hours and puked on Day 2 of our home test. So I brought him to the doctor. Token was collected on his Day 3 - um, too late for his close contacts?! *.* But ok la, school holidays break for him.

3) If a preschool kid gets COVID, his/her siblings are probably going to get it too if they are close - play together and/or sleep together. Coz it's too late by the time you put on the mask, even if the kids can wear mask properly. See points #1 and #2.

4) Don't bother isolating the preschool kid. First, these monkeys can't be left alone unless TV is a huge draw. Second, you still need to wipe their cute bums. Third, see point #3.

Better to isolate the healthy adults and any vulnerable persons. 

If everyone turns C+, it's a party! Haha! No need for isolation. Just need the right apps to make sure food and grocery supply is not disrupted.

Managed to isolate Sito in time; he remains C-. As I just recovered, I probably have some level of immunity. Have been sleeping right next to Yu and breathing in his sweet baby smells and sweaty hair, and still C-. 

5) Even if isolation is for the healthy, i.e. the healthy wears mask, the C+ should also wear mask. Yes, these kids don't wear mask very well and viruses can escape but the mask is still very useful for catching cough and sneezes and preventing germy droplets from landing on walls and toys etc. Also get them to wash hands all the time.

I'm doing everything I could to minimise disinfection work later...

6) Working parents in particular need good entertainment options at home. Kiddy TV ends by noon! Not the best nanny but it works. This non-working parent still needs to clean toilets...

Alternatives: 

• Toys. Good opportunity for them to learn to pick up after themselves, if they can't do so yet. 
• Books. Try the app if you run out of physical books. Our library has a good store of ebooks for kids. Monkey downloaded a lot while I was not looking! 
• Board games. A new discovery late last year and a very useful one. They even played Scrabble at one point. I took the chance to pull out an old dictionary - check this book instead of asking me :p
• Nintendo and YouTube Kids are fail-proof. On the TV so you save their eyes!

With little hands touching everything and little faces coughing everywhere, point #5 is very important!

7) Order tingkat which is way cheaper than food delivery. For four of us, I order dinner tingkat for two pax and cooked my own rice. This was meant to relieve cooking during the school holidays as I intended to bring them out etc. Became isolation food @#$%^&*

At $13.40 per meal, it is cheaper than the cheapest delivery I ordered - cai png including rice and delivery fees at $18. Other options are way more ex - $25 for Hainan Story, $35 for Macs, $45 for Dian Xiao Er.

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The kids are still C+ today, which is Day 5/6/7 of their first positive test. Hoping for them all to go negative this weekend!