The task of keeping families masked has become one more chore we must consider before heading out the door each day. It is a task that we are using to protect lives from the perils of the Corona virus pandemic. It is a responsibility that now presses on us in our homes and adds to our laundry list of ways life has change in the shadow of COVID 19.
My washdays are definitely not holidays as I wrestle with washing masks in a special bag and drying them on the special rack because the face coverings require special care.
Masks preparing for their daily donning. 
No two kids are the same and neither can their masks be apparently. 
The back-up masks
While I know it is a method for warding away COVID 19, I can’t help but groan at the daily dilemma of washing, finding, and coaxing my children and husband to wear the required face-coverings.
The masks’ appearance defined our first day of school photos. Never before did I view my children as bandits heading off to steal the treasures of their unsuspecting teachers. (Now I can’t un-see it.)
Each night the masks have joined our bedtime ritual in on the “Do you know where your ________ is?” fun.
My Sunday evening anxiety seems to flare up midweek as I scramble to re-locate and wash the masks my kids will actually wear so as to make it through the week in their concealed coolness.
While this post may seem like one big boohoo about masks, it is really a way for all of us struggling to stay safe and to find sanity and positive connections with others as we face the mask task.
What has been your toughest struggle in the conflict to keep concealed?
Is it the washing?
The wearing?
The remembering?
The challenges of communicating clearly?
The frustration of people not wearing the masks correctly?
The rudeness and hostility towards underpaid retail and food industry employees as they try to enforce the face mask rules?
Or is the fear of spreading the disease?
If you are feeling smothered by the task of mask maintenance, don’t feel alone. We are all struggling in our own way to keep the coverage complying with regulations, safety precautions, and healthy habits. Don’t let this to-do be the thing that does you in. Put some positive purpose in the way you allow masks to be a part of your day, and, hopefully, soon those masks can go out with the trash instead of into the washing machine.
By: Melanie A. Peters
P.S. I’m not a mask expert, but I play one in my home.
This post was not only inspired by my daily mask task. I was also eager to take part in the #BlogBattle for October – Conceal! https://blogbattlers.wordpress.com/2020/09/01/blogbattle-conceal/
Intentergy 
Ever keeping moral up with positivity amidst turmoil Melanie. Face masks is an interesting topic here. Some folk just can’t abide them, others don’t mind and have accepted them. It’s a tough call when governments send mixed messages saying they weren’t needed one minute and the next they are. Same with most of the Covid responses really. Doesn’t send out evidence based information that fills us with confidence they know what they’re talking about…not unusual for politicos lol.
Great to see you on the BB site too. New word next week in fact. Really hope you can join in more so I get a kick to come over and visit!
Hope alls well with you!
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The wearing of masks is certainly one of the big topics these days regardless of where you stand on it. But I think we can all respond with an emphatic “Amen!” to your last line about masks going into the trash instead of the washing machine! Always enjoy your upbeat posts!
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Thank you for taking the time to empathize! I hope you are well and know that I appreciate you.
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