The kids are back in school this week, and it has already done wonders for their mental health. They are not mooning about the place with long faces and crushed social dreams. They are stimulated, engaged, interested and once again full of life.

They are disengaging from the gaming consoles, and their constant screen companions these last six months. They are seeing real faces, attached to real people, and it is doing them undeniable good.

I have heard, I have heeded the Provincial health officer’s warnings and decrees and I have followed them. But I don’t quite understand this next step.

As aforementioned, I understand that the kids need to go back to maintain positive mental health, and so we don’t create a mass group of children who have unrecoverable gaps in their learning. I understand that school, for a large part of the work force, functions as a day-care, and British Columbians need to get back to work. I inherently understand this economy needs to get back to (semi) normal in order to move forward and not collapse in on itself.

But walk with me…

We are to have a bubble of no more than six. This keeps us safe. And my children (middle school) are to have a bubble (or cohort) of no more than 60. But what if my older son’s class doesn’t wear masks in the classroom? Doesn’t that make his bubble the size of his classroom, plus all his peers’ personal bubbles of six? And what if each of my children goes to a different school, thus cementing the fact that each child is bringing home possible exposure from two completely separate cohorts?

My younger son’s class does and doesn’t wear masks; some around one ear, some under the chin. So is he now is bubbling with his cohort of 60 plus all of their bubbles of six?

And while math is not my strong suit, doesn’t that mean that our bubble just expanded to 2 x 60 for each child’s cohort plus 2(6 x 60) for each student’s personal bubble, exposing me to a potential new total of 840 possible new people I just got exposed to when my children came home?

Is my math off?

And while the Government insists we must reopen carefully and we must move forward with measured, controlled unavoidable exposure and cases, is it just me, or does it feel like we have all just been thrust into a giant social-experiment-petri-dish with a “wait and see in two weeks” kind of shrug?

I guess we’ll see in two weeks.