MOMMY-CRON SHAMING
Angry parents point blame in fraught holiday return
They’re playing the shame game back at school.
Two years into the pandemic, New York is besieged by another surge of COVID-19, thanks to its most infectious strain yet. And with schools back open after the holidays — and vaccines available for all children over age 5 — parents are at odds over how to deal with the latest wave. For some, a double- or triple-vaxxed household, on top of a generally milder variant, is enough to convince them that gatherings, playdates and air travel are worth the risk.
But for others, the new spike has left them feeling vulnerable again — and angry with families who are out and about, potentially bringing Omicron back into the classroom.
“I don’t care what anyone thinks,” said Lee Klein, a mother of two from Long Island who took her family to Disney World in Florida over the winter break.
“If people are so concerned with someone who traveled going back to school, then why have my kids been in masks every day for as long as they have, and why are they sitting 3 feet apart? I thought masks are supposed to protect. You can’t have it both ways,” Klein said.
She said her 5- and 7-year-old kids were healthy when they returned to school Monday. If anyone judged her for traveling, they mostly kept it to themselves, she said. “I feel like I got a lot more, ‘I’m so jealous you got out of here’ comments.”
Not everyone has been so lucky.
‘We can’t stop living’
Jennifer Minsky set off for Cancun with her family over break. Both her kids, ages 2 and 5, have special needs, and the West Orange, NJ, mom told The Post that the family needed the getaway for their “mental health.”
But upon their return, the shaming started. When she posted on Facebook about issues flying back from Mexico, the judgmental comments rolled in.
“There were a lot of people who were really nasty to me, saying, ‘Well, you chose to travel in a pandemic during the holidays,’ ” said Minsky. (She, her husband and older son are all vaccinated.)
She said now that they’re back, people are even skipping her younger son’s upcoming birthday party, despite her family being COVID-free. “We’re very careful as much as we can be, but we can’t stop living our lives.”
Experts say that in the absence of a remote-learning option in public schools, and more specific behavioral guidelines, these kind of COVID-related standoffs have become de facto all over the city.
Manhattan Private Schools Advisors founder Amanda Uhry told The Post that “everybody is suspicious of everyone else for everything. There’s 100 percent shaming.” That’s especially true for those who have risked it to jet off to far-flung locales while other families are practically locking down like it’s March 2020.
“There’s a lot of resentment,” Uhry said, and it trickles down to the kids. “Some kids can play, some can’t. It’s a mess.”
Parents ‘freaking out’
She said that some parents, terrified of COVID, “are freaking out — they don’t want to send their kids back to school.”
Indeed, NYC public schools are seeing massive teacher and student absences, with 33 percent missing class Monday and 28 percent Tuesday.
Manhattan mom Lisa Maltz opted to send her only child off to middle school on the first day back — but it was heartbreaking.
After dropping her vaccinated son off at his private school, Maltz said she “puked [her] guts out,” upon hearing that six kids in his class were out sick. She had canceled their planned trip to Florida over the holiday break, only to find out that “everyone traveled.”
“I spent two years avoiding this thing,” said Maltz. “I know he’s going to get it this week.”
A Long Island mother of three, who declined to give her name, was so worried about her vaccinated kids picking up COVID from their classmates that she kept them home from school the first two days of this week.
“We stayed very careful over break,” she said. “I was sick after looking at Facebook and all the New Year’s Eve parties and people talking about how hard their lives are while hang gliding in the Dominican Republic — while we sat here.”
She said moms in her community have been “narcing each other out and sharing screenshots” of posts from their freewheeling friends and neighbors.
“Social media is the true storyteller,” she said. “Everyone is saying they’re careful. No one says, ‘I’m the a--hole and superspreader.’ ”