Let’s talk about Covid travel shaming. Not so much about it, per se, but about my particular family and our travel. At the start of the pandemic, I was very vocal about wanting to make sure I stayed in and not do anything that would put my child in crisis or put me in a situation where I could come back and give something to her. She is immunocompromised due to medications she is on to manage her Myasthenia Gravis and could go into Myasthenic crisis, or worse if she were to contract Covid-19.
We started out the pandemic as most people did, quarantining at home, not going anywhere that crowds may gather, and really just sticking to walking around outside for exercise. Even grocery store trips became limited after my SNAP application was approved and stores like Walmart and Amazon started offering delivery with that payment option. Moral of the story, we never lingering in a place too long.
After a while, several months “while”, my child expressed to me that she felt like she was being punished by not being able to go out and do anything. She felt like it was unfair, and I could see that it was clearly taking a toll on her mental well-being. As a parent, You never want to see your child like that and you certainly don’t want to cause them to feel like they’re being punished for something that is beyond their control; this had certainly become the case. She had recently been “officially” diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis, she had been placed on medications that she has to take every day for the remainder of her life likely, she had been told that she was going to have to have surgery soon, and now she was being told that she couldn’t leave the house.
We’d taken a road trip 3 months into quarantine, which was our first big leave from the house, and as nervous as I was, we took great precaution. I took my own products with me because I don’t really trust the cleanliness of housekeeping … and that’s me saying it as a presently furloughed parttime hotel housekeeper. We didn’t even get out along the way for bathroom breaks. To accomplish this, we planned it out to stop in a city every four hours leading to our destination and stayed overnight. I’d go in first to spray and clean an area before anyone put their bags down.
We took a cooler of waters and food with us that we could cook in the hotel or if a kitchen wasn’t available, we utilized the drive-through and mainly just stuck to our home routine of only going out when we were in open-air spaces. When we got back home, we went back to quarantining ourselves away from others.
It was a very successful road trip where we all had a really great time, made some really great memories, and enjoyed the scenery and fresh air of a new locale. With that being the case, we decided it’s truly best for our family, and our sanity, to return to traveling while keeping safety and precautions in mind. It’s been great packing up the car and discovering new cities but it’s been even better to remember I know I’m taking our health, physical and mental, into account every time we step out of the door. For that reason, Covid travel shaming is just another one of those things I’ll be ignoring as I continue to wash my hands, wear my mask, drink my water, and mind my business.
If you have decided to return to traveling, have you experienced any Covid travel shaming? If so, how are you dealing with it and how has it altered your plans for continuing to travel? Please let me know in the comments and, as always, thank you for reading!
