The One Question that Guides My Tough COVID Decisions

If you had told me a year ago that my two-year-old would have a Zoom meeting almost every day, I would have called you crazy.

But here we are in 2020, where just about nothing is too crazy anymore.

When my state began shutting down due to coronavirus, all of my son’s up to seven weekly therapy sessions switched from in-home to live video. There was certainly a learning curve, but we have all gotten used to the new normal of video chats with some of our therapist “friends” who used to come to our house.

Now that things are starting to open back up, our family, and perhaps yours too, is left with some decisions to make on whether to continue with video visits or allow some (or all) therapies back into our home (or heading back into an office, if that’s how your therapies are conducted).

For me, one simple question guides all of this decision making:

What provides the smallest risk with the potential for the greatest reward?

In our family, having all therapists back in our home is too big of a risk for the amount we believe our son would benefit from live visits again. He is receptive to video call and works well with us as the therapist guides our activities and approach.

This decision doesn’t have to be all or nothing, though. As we weighed each therapy along the same question, my husband and I decided that having physical therapy in-person could provide some significant benefits versus video visits, and we trust and know our therapist well enough to feel that the risk is minimal.

I can’t emphasize enough, though, that every situation is different for every single family. What works for my family will not work for yours, and what works for yours will not work for mine. We can’t compare or judge anyone’s decisions when we filter our decisions through my guiding question: What provides the smallest risk with the greatest reward?

These times are forcing us all into difficult and scary decisions. I’m here to tell you that you’re doing a great job.

Speaking of doing a great job, I can’t close out an article like this without sending a big thank you to all of the hard-working therapists out there. We are so very grateful for all of you, although we probably rarely show it as much as you deserve. You are more special to us than you will ever really know.