Our Laser Focus on Covid Is Costing Us Our Mental Health
In the midst of the Omicron hysteria, let’s pause to do a risk assessment
Once upon a time, a long time ago, I willingly took my daughter to the Portland Children’s Museum.
I did so knowing that the afternoon would be spent winding through masses of squealing children and unwieldy toddlers, their upper lips glistening with unending trails of snot.
I did so knowing that all of these human petri dishes would be perpetually wiping their noses with the backs of their hands, then plunging those same hands into water tables or sensory containers of raw beans.
I did so knowing that there was about a 50 percent chance someone in the family, if not all of us, would fall sick during the subsequent week.
But I went anyway, on more than one occasion, because I had a toddler and it was January and I had to get out of the goddamn house.
The Portland Children’s Museum is now permanently closed. Honestly, it’s now hard for me to believe that such a place ever existed at all. I can’t say I have the fondest memories of my time there, but it did help save my sanity on more than one occasion. Not only that, my sensory-seeking daughter always had a blast and often learned a thing or two.
