SACRAMENTO, Calif — Mother's Day 2020 is sure to be special for everyone, but not necessarily for reasons we'd normally associate with the holiday. If you're unsure of how to both show your mom your love and keep her safe, you're in good company.
As health expert Dr. Payal Kohli explained, "Mother's Day during a pandemic has not occurred for the last 100 years. So this year, Mother's Day is going to look and feel very different."
ABC10 spoke with Dr. Kohli to get answers on how to protect yourself, your mother and others this Mother's Day.
Q: Is it safe to travel to visit mom?
Dr. Kholi: I would advise against traveling to visit your mom, because not only is it exposing you to risk — because any sort of travel for long distances exposes you to risk — but it's also exposing mom to risk as well. Because anyone you met along the way or may have interacted with, you're bringing that home to mom. It's probably better to have a virtual visit instead.”
Q: Is it safe to give mom flowers?
Dr. Kholi: Flowers are a soft, porous surface, and as far as we know from the science, the virus is unlikely to survive for very long on a soft porous surface. So it's probably safe to send flowers with a few considerations. The first is, that if they're being sent in a box or a vase, those could certainly have virus particle on them. And then the second, of course, is the delivery person delivering them.
So here's what I would say, have the delivery person leave them on mom's doorstep, so that she has no direct interaction with the delivery person. And then, if they are in a vase or a box, make sure mom wipes down the box or the vase before bringing it into the home and then washes her hands thoroughly afterwards.
Q: Is it safe to send mom gifts?
Dr. Kholi: It's certainly safe to send mom gifts as well. Again, with those same precautions that on cardboard, the virus can survive for up to three days, as well as plastic surfaces as well. So you want to make sure mom does one of two things: either she leaves the external packaging of the gift — the cardboard and such — in the garage, or if she's bringing it home, then she wipes it down with an alcohol or sanitizing wipe and then really washes her hands afterwards.
Q: Anything else mom would want us to know?
Dr. Kholi: I think my biggest piece of advice is, the most important gift we can give our moms is the gift of good health. So this is one of those Mother's Days where it may actually be better to keep away from our mom, and we may have to save those hugs and kisses to give her really at another time.
Follow the conversation on Facebook with Mike Duffy.
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