A friend of my oldest kid invited her to a sleepover, which we politely declined.

And I am deeply tired of feeling like we are some of the only ones still taking Covid seriously.

"We're only inviting two other friends and you!"

Um, that's four kids from four different families who aren't taking the pandemic as seriously as we are.

I just...

Luckily my kid gets this, but boy, I am tired of being treated like an asshole when all I want to do is keep my family and other people safe.

No, we aren't letting our kid go to your house.

No, you don't get to come in our house.

No, we won't go out to dinner with you.

No, no, no is all I frickin' say these days to the folks who push our boundaries.

We have been doing our best since March of 2020 to keep ourselves and other people safe, and other people seem to be okay pretending that the pandemic isn't a big deal.

It makes me want to tear my hair out.

My kids want to be able to see their friends. They (maybe) want to go to face-to-face school. I want to be able to talk to someone who isn't 12 or 7.

And yet, the risk to us and others isn't worth prioritizing what we want over what is safe.

Some folks don't have the option to stay home, so we stay home to make sure that they deal with fewer people to keep them safer.

And I am tired of people we know & love acting like we are the assholes because we won't prioritize their feelings over everyone's safety.

It's not about your feelings. It's about the frickin' pandemic.

There's something to be said of the broken relationships between all of us who take the pandemic seriously and our loved ones, friends, colleagues, etc who don't.

Some of those breaks are irreparable.

I want to be very real about this. There are some people I love who have minimized the pandemic or said they aren't gonna be scared by a virus or who have acted as if nothing has changed.

And I am completely done with some of them, even if they don't know it yet.

I think these loved ones think that our relationships will go back to "normal" after the pandemic is over (whenever that will be).

They are wrong.

The pandemic has shown us who people really are.

And that knowledge doesn't disappear because the pandemic becomes more manageable or eventually ends.

And now, people we know are being vaccinated, and they are like, "We can come to your house!"

Um, no. That is not how this is gonna work either.

Some people keep pushing against our boundaries around the pandemic (you know, not getting sick or getting other people sick) and so far I have managed to be nice.

I am not going to manage nice much longer.

I told my partner if he ever sees me walking determinedly toward any of these folks (when we can actually get closer than six feet) that he should intervene before I start fighting people.

(I'm not a fighter, but I am tempted to become one.)