Hi all,

One of my closest friends and his wife had a baby last May, since that time they've pretty much been shut ins from my understanding. None of us have seen my buddy, even his parents have only been allowed to see them once. They only leave the house in case of emergency, everything gets delivered, or they do store pickup if the store will load things directly into their car. They are terrified of covid with the new baby, and every time it seems like they'll finally see people, a new wave hits and they're back on the terrified of the baby getting covid train.

It's really taking a toll on his mental health based on the brief conversations and texts I can get out of him.

I'm not a parent myself, and he keeps using the 'you're not a parent, you just don't get it' when I try to delicately bring up the fact that when he's a shell of a human, he's probably not capable of being the best parent.

I'm not trying to minimize the difficulty of the decisions they have to make, but I could really use some data from other new parents on how they've been navigating the pandemic. There are only two couples in my friend group who have had babies during the pandemic, and when I bring up that the other couple who have been more calm about the whole thing, I'm told that they are being horribly irresponsible.

I'm really worried about my friend's mental health and could use some data from other new parents if anyone wouldn't mind chiming in.

Thank you very much!

Also, I tried searching without much luck, but if this topic has been covered and someone has a link handy that works too!