Thanksgiving dinner w/ a coughing friend
So i invited my close friend who came from LA for the holiday to come eat with my family last Thursday. We prepared lots of food, so i anticipated her presence. But when she arrived, she revealed to me her cough and proceeded to tell me she tested negative for COVID. (We are all vaccinated) However, i still didnt feel comfortable with her having a cough and coming inside our home. I still let her inside to enjoy the food and company, but throughout the night she was coughing mucus pretty hard. My family gave me the eye. Its Monday now (four days later) and my mom is in bed sick. My sister and her daughter are sick. and im feeling a bit of the mucus symptoms myself.
I just find it infuriating she would selfishly come over with a cough, especially during this time of pandemic. How can i be transparent with her?
I dont want her spreading her germs to another family, and i honestly would like to be truthful about how i feel with her coming over and getting my whole family sick. Luckily, none of my at-risk family members were around but still… I feel so bad for my family whose sick because of my choice to invite my close friend for dinner. If only i knew she had the cough, i would've made her stay in my room and eat or tell her to not come at all.
granted, its against covid morals to see each other after traveling. i shouldnt have invited her but i just wanted to see my close friend after x amount of months. maybe im selfish for that too, but i had no idea she was sick until she came over! How can i make this right with my family and her
@ambitiousbeach333 i think being honest is for the best but its up to you just be gentle about it hopefully she will understand and maybe she should get retested sometimes those test aren't always accurate good luck.
Yeah i will try to be as gentle and honest. Thank you for your response!
Perhaps she has much different views about sickness than you. Until covid, many people really thought nothing of having a couch or mucus or anything like that. They would still go to work, school etc, just very uncomfortably.
She knew you and your family were vaccinated, I am assuming? She got a negative covid test. She probably didn’t think anything of it by coming over for thanksgiving with being what may have just been “a little sick” in her mind: and perhaps she thought you guys were in the clear because of the vaccine. You do believe that it works right? And her too? So it’s fair to see how she may have not thought anything of it. People grow up in different backgrounds and ideaologies, it’s not as though she was trying to k*ll you, or thought “I don’t care if they get sick”. It could simply be that it was a lapse in judgment and it simply didn’t cross her mind.
At the end of the day, everything turned out okay yeah? If it’s important enough, be honest with her, tell her that it made you nervous having her there when she was sick, and it made you uncomfortable because your family was judging you for bringing a sick friend. But remember, you do risk not being friends anymore or making it very uncomfortable, so if it’s worth that risk do it. And if you guys really want to be fiends with each other, this won’t ruin it. It’s not worth having friends that you can’t be honest with.
(sorry for typos)
The vaccine doesn’t prevent Covid-19 100%. There have been cases where people with the vaccine still get the virus. I even know a friend who got Covid and she was vaccinated. It’s not to say that the vaccine isn’t working.
I understand people grow up differently and carry different views on sickness. I just feel like people should be more mindful these days especially around vulnerable people.
At the end of the day, my family including me got sick and I am still sick. I haven’t brought it up to her other than the fact that I am sick. I don’t necessarily feel like this is important anymore, i simply just wanna get better and finish my semester strong. But i simply can’t because I am fatigued.
Thank you for your reply though. I am most likely going to move forward with my life, but be more cautious in the future before any meetups and make sure neither of us are feeling under the weather.
Wishing you good health and warmth this winter and coming year!
