Tag Archives: holidays

Part Four of Four

(Part One, Part Two, Part Three)

Guest post by Che Ray

If you are hosting the family in your own home, it is true, you must take every precaution.  Otherwise their stink will be there long after they leave.  If they come in with stuff and it gets on your furniture, it will be bad.

Here is a suggestion: let them know in advance that before they enter the house they will have to be willing to have you test whether they are wearing anything that is triggering for you. Then when they arrive, if you have a good friend who gets what you are dealing with, have them first go to the cars of the people who are coming. He or she can do a preliminary test. If she senses something she can be the one to tell them what the problem is.

If you have sent them detailed emails in advance of everything they need to eliminate (she can even bring the check list to the car) then this will come as no surprise. They won’t be mad at you, they will feel bad. And that’s OK. That is the part of the learning process on their end.

If they make it to the front porch, you go outside and test again.  When you first greet them, I suggest having your mask on.  It will let them know right away what the situation is.  Take it off briefly to assess the situation.  If you feel comfortable taking it off at some point later in the evening, you can simply say, I am going to do a test to see how I do.

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