Letters to the Editor: Sorry, parents, your kid's happiness is less important than everyone's survival

To the editor: A letter writer laments the disappointment of her young son who cannot play on park equipment because of COVID-19.

Sometimes adults have to place restrictions on children to protect them. We make them wear seat belts and bike helmets even if they don't want to, because as adults we understand that sometimes bad things happen, even if they are exceptionally rare.

Even taking the position that small children mostly don't become seriously ill, they still need someone to take care of them. If this little boy becomes only mildly sick from COVID-19 but the parent becomes seriously ill or even dies, who is going to take care of the child?

There will be plenty of time in this child's life to play on the swings; the "scars" from not doing it right now are much less serious than those of potentially losing a parent.

And children's masks protect adults too. Why can't this child express himself fully when wearing a mask? I have not found that wearing a mask stops my voice or even muffles it; it just prevents me from potentially transmitting disease that I may or may not have.

It's time for some "adulting."

Roberta Fox, Costa Mesa

..

To the editor: The letter writer who doesn't like that her young child cannot play at the park says, "Children are at low risk."

Not no risk — low risk. But what about the adults who live with these children? Are they low risk? Are the people they then interact with low risk?

And on and on it goes, with a virus that travels from person to person, all starting with one careless individual who puts herself — or her child — at risk. No ride on the swings is worth it.

Eileen Flaxman, Claremont