The coronavirus pandemic has brought out the best and the worst in people. Some individuals are quick to judge others for not following quarantine and social distancing rules without knowing their situations.

MaryAnn Fausey Resendez takes her 5-year-old daughter with her to go to the grocery store because she’s the only adult in her household and can’t leave her child alone.

She put a sign on her daughter’s back explaining just why she’s out and about with her mom to stop any criticism and shaming before it starts. The Texan mom’s post on Facebook got a lot of attention with over 5.1k comments and 43k shares.

MaryAnn Fausey Resendez put a sign on her daughter’s back to stop people from shaming them

Image credits: MaryAnn Fausey Resendez

Here’s a close-up of what the sign says

Image credits: MaryAnn Fausey Resendez

Image credits: MaryAnn Fausey Resendez

Some social media users explained that they were in the same boat as MaryAnn, others pointed out that we all need to stop judging each other so harshly. There were also a few commentators who said that bringing children to grocery stores is potentially dangerous to them.

In some countries, there’s a rule or a recommendation that only one person from each family should go shopping. This means that single parents with nobody to look after their kids are now scrutinized by members of their community and neighbors when they go outside with their children in tow.

MaryAnn posted her process for going outside and grocery shopping

Image credits: MaryAnn Fausey Resendez

There are more single parents struggling with the coronavirus quarantine than you think. For example, in San Francisco, in California, nearly a quarter of all families with children are single-parent households; the number is over one third in Hidalgo County, in Texas, where MaryAnn lives.

So a lot of parents are out of their depth and face very real dilemmas in their day to day lives: do they leave their children at home, bring them along on trips to grocery stores, or potentially risk infecting their extended family members with the coronavirus by dropping the kids off at their place? At the end of the day, there’s no good answer and each decision has its downsides.

26-year-old startup founder and single mom Izabel Arnold is another example of someone stuck in a Catch-22 situation. Izabel told the San Francisco Chronicle that she feels completely overwhelmed and very lonely.

“I think other working single moms share the same sentiment—that we feel we’re failing at our jobs and at being moms because both require our full attention, but neither can have it,” she shared her struggles with finding balance in her life between paying the bills and raising her child.

Izabel stopped seeing her parents because she’s afraid of exposing them to the virus. Meanwhile, her child’s daycare is closed which means Izabel has to take care of son all by herself all day, every day.

Most people supported the MaryAnn’s message and urged others to stop shaming single parents

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