Family dynamics during the holidays can be problematic during normal times. But this year we’re in the thick of a pandemic that keeps getting worse every day. How can families keep everyone safe and get along at the same time?
I've been asking myself this question since my sister-in-law texted recently asking whether the family was coming to my house for Christmas. What? No! The mere idea of my family gathering together during a pandemic sent me into a panic. After I calmed down, I started to really think about it. It would be so nice for my kids to see their cousins for a social distance holiday get together. And it would be so nice for me to see people other than the ones that I live with or who I talk to behind a screen. But is it safe? How does a pandemic holiday work? And would everyone hate me when I tell them they can’t come inside the house even if it’s cold outside?
This year, it'll be a social distance holiday
Holiday dinner tips: Think carefully about serving alcohol
We’ve all been to a party that starts out great and then someone has a little too much to drink and ruins it for everyone. Drinking lowers inhibitions and impairs judgement. So how do you make sure that family still keeps doing all the safety measures you’ve agreed upon after they’ve had a couple glasses of wine?
“That would be very difficult,” Sanai said of enforcing agreed upon rules after someone has been drinking. It’s something that needs to be discussed before the gathering.
Add to this the fact that socializing while drinking can increase the odds of transmission. “Most people, when they drink, tend to stand closer and talk louder, and both of those things increase the risk of transmission,” Gretchen Snoeyenbos Newman, an infectious-disease physician at the University of Washington, told the Washington Post. As for the increased possibiity of reckless behavior that can put others at risk, Gretchen Snoeyenbos advised, “you need to be really honest about how much you’re going to drink and how that will affect your group dynamic.”
Avoiding confrontations during the holidays isn’t easy and with all that’s going on with the pandemic, it may be better to just avoid the holiday gatherings all together.
