My son said I didn't respect his views. Now he has COVID. [View all]

I suspect there are other parents on DU who are facing the same heartbreaking dilemma: children who are vaccine-hesitant and won't listen to us. My husband and I tried and tried to talk him into getting the vaccine, but he questions its safety, efficacy, etc. He bought into the whole "the vaccines are rushed" narrative. He thought that if he just stayed masked up and away from crowds, he could avoid Covid.

The last time I saw him (a month ago) I pushed it too hard. I told him that if he cared about protecting his family (he has two kids too young to be vaccinated) he would get the shots. He was so angry he didn't talk to me for weeks. Then he went to an outdoor wedding and of course had to take off his mask to eat. Five days later -- he had Covid. Now both his kids have fevers. Luckily his wife is vaccinated and has only minor break-through symptoms.

Does he regret not listening to us? No. Mostly he's still angry at us for "not respecting his views." WTF, my husband and I are MDs! But that wasn't good enough for him.

It's now almost two weeks out and thank god he will probably get through this OK. His p02s have been good. But this has driven such a wedge between us. I keep hearing that phrase 'you need to respect my view" from a lot of vaccine-hesitant people. It seems to be their mantra -- that they don't feel respected.

If there are other parents who are going through this, my deepest sympathies. We impart our best wisdom, but we can't make our kids listen.