When the government first told Canadians to stay home and practice physical distancing, most of us said “duh.” “Duh” because of the coronavirus, thank you China and Europe for the preview. But also “duh” because in March, in Canada, staying home and not being particularly social is basically routine. You have to picture the country at this time of the year—the calendar claims it’s spring but there’s a 50% chance you’ll celebrate the “change” of seasons with blizzard, ice or snow.
Canadians are used to bunker down at home. This is how we get through winter. Oh, sure, tourist brochures tell the world locals enjoy the snow-blanketed great outdoors during the winter months and that we go dog sledding or bear watching every other weekend, but the truth is—I feel like I’m putting the final nail in the coffin for the tourism industry…—when it’s fucking cold, you stay home because it is fucking cold, regardless of the thickness of your Canada Goose jacket.
And so we stayed home. It wasn’t worth going out, anyway.
This lasted exactly a month. Shortly after Easter, the weather started to get warmer. Nothing crazy, just above 0 °C, but it’s a sure first sign of spring around here.
Hibernation ended when snow melted for good shortly after.
In Ontario (and in most of Canada, as far as I know) the core COVID-19 instructions go as follows: “people should avoid non-essential trips, work from home, cancel gatherings and stay at least two metres away from anyone they don’t live with.”
They were crystal clear for about three weeks. I mean, we were scared and rightly so.
But as time went by, we started to peek out of the house for a myriad of reason—low morale in the face of ongoing uncertainty, life-in-lockdown monotony, need for human connections or simply for practical reasons like grocery shopping or getting some fresh air.
Hopes for a quick end to the pandemic have vanished and life in “this is the cheat code to stay alive!” lockdown is starting to morph into “okay, let’s find ways to make this bearable on the longer run.”
This is when plenty of us discovered the “grey area.”
I first stepped into it three weeks ago when Mark and I were exploring the neighbourhood one evening and we walked past one of his friend’s house.
“Mark’s mommy!”
“Oh, hi Jacob! You can call me Juliette, you know.”
“Hi Mark’s mommy Juliette!”
Jacob’s mom was sitting in her car parked on the driveway and the two brothers were playing in the front yard.
Mark’s face lit up when he saw his friend.
My face lit up when I saw his mom. She’s one of the normal parents—no drama, no nonsense. I don’t know her that much but Jacob and Mark were born days apart and we pushed strollers together more than once when the babies wouldn’t sleep.
I could have said “hi!” and kept on walking but I didn’t. Jacob’s mom looked exhausted and she seemed eager to chat as well.
“Mark, stay on this side of the fence!”
“Guys, stay in the yard!”
The kids started chatting and so did we, except every two seconds we had to remind them to stay two metres apart. Then Jacob grabbed a teddy bear and threw it to Mark, who happily caught it and threw it back.
“No!” we both shouted a few seconds later when we realized that the teddy bear wasn’t being dipped into Purell between each throw.
“But we’re far apart!” the kids protested.
We sighed.
“Germs! You’re throwing a germy teddy bear!” Jacob’s mom tentatively explained.
This is when I realized it would be absolutely impossible to enforce physical distancing between kids. I’ve been trying to avoid walking past Jacob’s house with Mark ever since, but for how long? And it’s not just Jacob—every time we go out, we see and greet a bunch of kids he knows because they all go to the same district school.
As for me, well, I met friends twice this month. We took a walk together and kept our distance. Were we breaking the law? No idea. In a way, we obeyed the letter of the law but not the spirit—physical distancing was respected but I’m pretty sure seeing friends isn’t encouraged.
On April 15, an article titled “Physical distancing ‘loopholes’ need to stop, Ottawa health official says” was met with a backlash. People took offence at comments like “the problem with beer on the driveway or a chat over the fence is that it can turn into a parking lot or backyard party.” “Come on, we have some self-control!” residents claimed. The mayor later explained “that warning is not meant to discourage responsible socializing with neighbours, but rather to keep residents mindful about the risk of individual conversations escalating into small gatherings.”
I’m not the only one who stepped into the “fuck it, that’s fine” territory. I don’t see anyone doing anything reckless but the streets are full of people wandering around and there are clearly meetups—last time I checked, there were relatively few eight- or ten-people households in Canada.
Maybe it’s not such a terrible thing, after all. The shut-in lifestyle isn’t sustainable on the long term and we need to learn how to navigate a world with COVID-19 while keeping in mind regional and personal risk levels—step by step, carefully, life must go on at one point.
C’est un peu triste d’avoir à canaliser l’énergie des enfants qui ne se sont pas vus depuis longtemps. La distanciation est quasi impossible à respecter pour eux. Est-ce que les écoles vont bientôt rouvrir par chez toi ? Parce que ça va être quelque chose pour faire respecter les gestes barrière…
En France, le déconfinement a commencé hier matin (pour les zones “vertes”) et, malgré la pluie, les gens ont voulu fêter leur liberté en bord de canal ou de Seine. Regroupements (sans distanciation sociale ni masque) et alcool étaient au rendez-vous. Du coup, la police les a dispersés et a interdit la consommation d’alcool en extérieur… Ca promet pour la suite !
Aucune chance pour les écoles! Elles sont officiellement fermées jusqu’au 31 mai, mais il paraît extrêmement improbable qu’elles ouvrent avant septembre. Le déconfinement n’a pas commencé en Ontario.
Je *sais* qu’il y a du monde à Paris, je connais très bien cette ville, mais je suis toujours surprise de voir dans les journaux les photos des attroupement en ce moment. Autant il paraît dur d’éviter les métros bondés, autant dehors je… je ne comprends pas. J’ai arpenté Paris de long en large l’été dernier, par exemple, et oui, je sais, y’a moins de monde l’été, mais enfin on avait quand même la place de voir de belles choses et se dégourdir les jambes… je suis un peu perplexe.
J’ai hâte que soit validée les réunions de moins de – je sais pas – 10 personnes? Même s’il faut porter un masque et rester en extérieur, ça me va. C’est très dur pour tout le monde cet entre-soi.
Vous êtes toujours confinés à Montréal, c’est ça?
The children have all been isolated with their parents since weeks. The idea could be to allow a small group of children, like up to 10 or 12, from at most 5 or 6 households, to meet under supervision, as long as the parents stay confined. And meet in one of the household.
It would limit exposure as long as this small group doesn’t meet anyone else. Hard to enforce.
The thing is, while I’d love to be able to do that for Mark, I think many people aren’t exactly confined… we all interact with more people than we think, even in lockdown. So there’s a risk, and whether we’re ready to take it depends on the person/family. I’m okay to take it with some of my friends because we’re adult and we’re honest with each other. But I don’t know the parents of Mark’s friends. I don’t know how large is their social circle, for instance.
https://www.shutupandtakemymoney.com/pool-noodle-hat-guy-is-the-king-of-social-distancing-meme/
It’s a solution to prevent kids to get too close of each other.
… and five seconds later they are using the pool noodles as light sabers 😆
BTW, sorry for borrowing something of yours in my story 😉
I really don’t see what 🙂
Un p’tit clin d’oeil 😉
Well, here the authorities have “decided” that kids (under 10 years old) aren’t a vector for the virus any more, so it’s okay if they meet and have contact with each other. They are even allowed to visit their grandparents and hug them.
But still, at school they learn how to wash their hands in seven steps (true story) and don’t hold hands any more while entering the building, but instead have to grab a rope. Not sure what to believe, I think nobody really knows anything about this virus…
But I think you’re right, sooner or later, we have to start living again, even if it involves keeping our distances, wearing a mask, washing our hands a million times a day… The hardest is that we don’t know how long this will last !
It’s so difficult to understand what’s allowed and what’s not. There’s lots of situations that are a grey area. Like I can’t see my mom who never goes out but people at the grocery store don’t mind their distance.
I don’t go out much, I mostly go for walks with Akira and to the grocery store. It must be so hard for kids and parents !
It’s harder for you probably because of the situation in Montreal. We’re relatively lucky that Ottawa isn’t hit *too* badly. I can’t say I’m scared.
This is so interesting. I totally agree that trying to enforce social distancing amongst kids would be impossible. Luckily they don’t seem to be susceptible to coronavirus – such a blessing.
There’s so much contradicting info regarding what you’re supposed to do… I get it, physical distancing. But then, the fine print gets complicated, especially considering the strictest measures are not doing on the long run.