We've been in a pretty tight bubble with my in-laws and one other family with two kids close in age to our own. MiL was taking the lead in school work with our kids.
Things have disintegrated. My in-laws want to drive several states away to see my brother-in-law (also has young children). I don't have a way to prevent this, except to remind them that they cannot use restrooms at gas stations. We're trying to settle on some ways we can modify our behavior during the drive to make things safer.
I've been a bit surprised/confused by the whole restroom reluctance thing. My understanding was that the way you got it was essentially from folks breathing their "droplets" onto you or you touching an item that was infected by the droplets and then touching your eyes/nose.
For the last ~15 years or so I've used a paper towel (or my shirt in the absence of paper towels) to open the door after washing my hands in a public restroom so it's been a loooong time since I've touched a dirty restroom handle. many restrooms even have a trash receptacle right by the door for you to toss your dirty tissue into while holding the door with your foot/elbow.
Anyhow, seems relatively low risk to me.
Just curious as I've heard a bunch of folks mention it. My in-laws have been strict quarantining for 2.5 weeks and are driving about 7 hours to assist my sister in law with childcare as her and her husband are wearing thin working from home with their 18 month old and she's instructed them to pee on the side of the road only; seems overkill to me but what do I know.
I've personally been deemed an "essential" construction worker in Maryland so I've been more or less doing my normal life work wise (anything but normal outside of work) including the occasional bathroom use at Lowes/Home Depot; not to mention the port a johns shared by ~100 men each week. So far so good.
I will add that I had a positive experience of going to another grocery store, and masks were universal for the staff; more than half of customers, too.
In Maryland masks are required inside all stores; seen some folks with them down below their noses and stuff but don't think I've seen anyone without a mask at all in over a month.
People are still generally being pretty good in my area. About half, or slightly more, are wearing masks. Most people are in stores. (Although I, too, have seen plenty of people who have them over just their mouths.)
There was a good article in Salon about having "quarantine bubbles"--basically a pod of like-minded people who socialize but only with each other, after setting up rules. (You want to make sure that if your family is sanitizing groceries and wearing masks and only sending one person to the store then the others in your group are too.) This both drastically reduces risk and effectively eliminates lockdown fatigue. I think it's a good idea, and I think we're going to try to implement something like it with one family we know. Our extroverted kids need friends. We went for a social distancing walk with them the other day (wearing masks) and the kids did a great job, with a few reminders, keeping masks on and keeping some distance. And everyone felt better after.
However, it's also important to keep in mind that our testing is so messed up that no one really knows what TF is going on. The CDC and many states have been mixing together results from virus tests and (horribly inaccurate) antibody tests. Can't look bad if we don't have an accurate picture of things, can we?
A lot of my friends/family are doing that with neighbors or friends....but no one wants an essential worker going into the field in their bubble :(
Luckily I do work with my Dad and Brother in law so we are essentially in the same bubble by default so we've seen them and my mom/sister and niece/nephew pretty regularly. Be nice to see some other friends or my wife's family soon though.