Despite host’s COVID safety rules, guest insists on moving meal inside

Dear Miss Manners: My wife and I have a large deck in our backyard, and have been able to host couples for dinners with proper social distancing in nice weather. Before anyone visits us, we make it very clear that we have been following pretty strict social distancing and ask that our guests do the same.

At one of our dinners, the humidity was definitely up there. But all the health experts are saying the risk of transmitting coronavirus greatly increases when you are in enclosed places.

The wife of the other couple was clearly uncomfortable with the humidity and insisted we go inside to the air conditioning.

I didn’t want to make a scene. I suggested we move to our sunroom, open all the windows and turn the fan on for air circulation. Still, I was frustrated that we unnecessarily increased our transmission risk.

Should I have pushed the issue and insisted we stay outside?

Gentle Reader: Yours was a polite compromise and probably the best solution at the time, given your guest’s insistence. If the situation arises again, however, Miss Manners suggests a polite, “I’m so sorry that you are uncomfortable; the weather is not as dry as we had hoped. But I’m afraid that our responsibility toward everyone’s safety is our primary concern. Of course, we understand if you feel that you need to go elsewhere to feel fully at ease.”

Send questions to Miss Manners’ website: www. missmanners. com; to her email address: dearmiss manners@ gmail. com; or through postal mail: Miss Manners, Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.