who is 16, and he also has had a very hard time not being with friends. He and his friends wanted to plan a birthday party at a friend's house last week, but we were firm and told him no chance. Other parents agreed, and the party didn't happen.

It turns out that yesterday that the friend who would have had the party in his home just had his mom tested positive for Covid-19. She had been sick in bed for a week. Her husband is showing symptoms, was tested, and is most likely also positive. The five children in the family are also potentially now asymptomatic carriers.

It was sobering for my son to see that if he would have gone to the party he would have definitely been exposed, then come home and potentially exposed our family as well. This is bigger than a teenager's dampened social life. Hold your ground on this one.