A New Co-Parenting Problem: how do we do COVID-custody switches?

Nathan White
ILLUMINATION
Published in
5 min readApr 6, 2020

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The Apocalypse Presents- TP, gloves, Top Ramen, chips, and a .22 shell

Yesterday, the Coronavirus broke my heart.

Because of Spring Break and custody agreements, I haven’t seen my kids in three weeks, since March 16. A lot, and I mean A LOT, has changed in the last three weeks. I was supposed to get them for a week Friday. On Thursday, my daughter texted me and told me she had a fever and sore throat. Same for her mom. To add evidence to the argument, I found out Tennyson and her mom had been at the Fred Meyer that recently had a confirmed COVID case from a worker.

We agreed to check in Saturday and Sunday and maybe do the kids switch later. The message was the same: low-grade fever, sore throat, not feeling horrible but not great, either. I have watched enough news lately to have warning lights going off in my brain. Shield’s up, Red Alert! God, I hope my kids don’t have the Coronavirus.

My wife, my ex-wife, and I all agreed that it was a bad idea to switch houses now. My ex-wife only lives 10 minutes away, so it’s not like they are in a different state. I have heard some real horror stories about parents who are completely cut off from their kids, in a different state, and not able to have their child fly back to the other parent. However, knowing that others have it worse doesn’t make me feel any better. I get it theoretically, but in practice, I…

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Nathan White
ILLUMINATION

A high school English teacher/football coach with a Jeeping problem. https://coachwhite17.com/