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Up until today, their was a ray of sunshine in our dark isolation: Bushmaster Park. My 8-year-old son could play with other children. Today, we arrived at a post-apocalyptic scene: police tape surrounded the playground. Kids who used to gather for games of tag were no longer. The sky was blue, but no one was outside.

This is what our government wants. I understand how serious the virus is, how it spreads so easily. However, the psychological damage done to children far outweighs the risk of the virus - especially since no child has died of COVID-19. Wouldn’t keeping kids away from grandma be less detrimental than banning them from seeing their classmates, attending school, or seeing another child for months?

Today, everyone seems to agree that the responsible thing to do is social distance. However, family groups remain intact. As a single mother of one, this makes things very isolating for my son, who says he is “afraid of dying of loneliness.” This virus kills so few people, but takes away so much. Actually, people do. Governments do.