Yesterday, Iver told me it was the first day since being in school he's been allowed to "touch" (masks were allowed to come off inside about a month ago). This is how our conversation went:
Me (frozen a bit after hearing his alarming statement): Touch?
Iver: Yeah, like touch. You know because of COVID?
Me: So like you are now able to hug your friends or high-five when you were previously discouraged from doing so?
Iver: I guess. Yeah. But I was most excited because we could touch eachother while playing "tag."
Me: What?! How did you play before?
Iver: We had to tag each other with a noodle. Also, we can now push eachother on the swings.
Me: How did you swing before? Just have to pump your legs really hard?
Iver: No, there was like this stick with a pillow on it that you could use to push your friends with (but we often times just snuck in a regular old push [he said with a sly look]).
Me: Wow, I had no idea.
Iver: AND we can now hug our teacher!
Me: What did you have to do before?
Iver: We had to just hug a stuffie (stuffed animal) with her picture on it when we needed to. Or air hug. We weren't allowed to actually hug her.
Me: Hmm. That's really sad to me that kids have missed out on so much "normal kid stuff," but that you seem like you've adjusted as well as one could be expected to.
Iver: Yeah, I guess.
I've wondered often (see my previous posts about Niall and masked cartoon characters and Niall and the Playground) how this pandemic/responses to it will affect children psychologically for years to come (mostly fearing that they will have harmed them in negative ways. I also feel that many "safety" measures, including school closures and not allowing kids to hug, went way too far). However, the "matter of fact" way Iver explained these routine (and positive) changes to me made me feel a bit better-- that now he's just excited to have things go back to "normal." Kids are so much more resilient than adults. I hope and pray they'll be all right.
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