I kept expecting this Halloween story to end with, “The call is coming from inside the house!” I don’t think the OP did anything wrong. The kid is vaccinated, the attendees are vaccinated, and they hosts are even checking temperatures. I don’t have children, but I’d probably allow my hypothetical child to go just about anywhere once they’re vaccinated.
It seems like the host was telegraphing their expectations to other parents to let them know “If you have a problem with any of this, speak now.” Better to deal with it before the night of the party or whatever.
Oh, I wouldn’t say telegraphing; I think the advance call was for three things: to let us know how our kids would be protected; to let us know or the potential for our kids getting sent home, so take their temps BEFORE sending them (probably at least one kid there was given a dose of Tylenol, but he doubtfully had COVID); and to offer us a chance to give input into the plans for staying safe.
FWIW, while it was a rumor, I heard that at least one kid who was invited wasn’t yet vaccinated, and begged his parents to let him get it so he could go to the party, and they did.
Goodness, I read through that whole thing expecting it to end with the difficult decision of not letting him go. And I was looking for something to hang my “well, sure, you gotta be careful with your beloved boychik” on, like they were giving out pangolins as party favors, but you weren’t giving me much to work with. And so as much as I sympathized with your parental concern, my heart was aching for your son and all the children who’ve been robbed of so much by this pandemic, and then I get to the end and he got to go and I’m so glad! Whew!
I would definitely have sent my kid if they were, human/animal disease crossover be damned!
Another thing that played into my decision, albeit, not the main factor, but definitely a consideration, was what’s the beginning of the year was like at the preschool where I work. We have kids aged 1-5yrs, and the 1yr-old, & 4 & 5-yr-olds were pretty much business as usual, but the 2 & 3-yr-olds who were experiencing a preschool or daycare setting for the first time were very different. You could see the effects of being born into quarantine on these children. They knew how to put on masks, but had no idea how to approach another child.
The friendships and group play were much longer coming in these children. They’re getting there, and they’re happy, but it was heart-breaking the first few weeks.
If this thing had been what people initially thought-- maybe 12 weeks of lockdown, then eradication, I could have kept my son in a bubble, but now I have to think of things like him being an emotionally healthy adult in spite of the number of important years spent in the pandemic.
Last year, we moved him to another school out-of-district (one that fed into the same high school as his previous one) because of the pledge its principal made to stay open. And it did. The boychik missed only one week of school when one of his teachers tested positive. This was before the vaccine for age 12-16. Under the current guidelines, he’d only miss 3 days as long as he tested negative.