I went to a birthday party today for friends of mine’s child. The first birthday party since his first, cuz fuck you Covid.

It was nice to see friends again after so long. But their darling little boy, upon our entering, said “What’s your name?” And his mom nearly cried.

You have to understand – he was born just a year prior to the pandemic. And in that time, I was one of the go-to babysitters. I watched him in fun times, I took care of him (when he was just the weeeee-ist of of babies) during serious family -health emergencies. Basically, if life had been normal, he would know exactly who I was.

But he doesn’t. Because our lives were ripped apart before he was old enough to form memories. He’s an amazingly outgoing kid, so he loves everyone he meets. So at the party today, he was happy to interact. But there’s no relationship there.

When his mom got upset, she was like “he was supposed to grow up with this amazing, huge group of friends…” You must understand, our friends group was a STRONG KNIT group of many people who got together basically every other week. I mean dozens of kids+adults.

But he never got that to be part of that. His world became a tiny microcosm. Thank gods he is an extrovert and can still, at least, enjoy “strangers.”

I don’t think the world is placing enough emphasis on how fucked up this whole pandemic has made young children’s lives. Some of them are resilient like Q. He may not know me, but he’s happy to ask who I am. But other kids? What a disaster it must be. I feel so sorry for those families. 💔