My sister has a new cough but wants to meet our newborn before her leave ends. How do we postpone kindly?
Family“I'll only stay twenty minutes. I've saved my last day off for this,” my sister said when I asked to postpone her visit.
Our baby is three weeks old. My sister had been looking forward to meeting him and offered to bring lunch so we wouldn't have to host properly. The night before, she told me she had developed a cough and a sore throat. She felt well enough to come and said she could keep her distance.
I said we weren't comfortable with the visit while she had new symptoms. She replied that she had gone back to work around people and nobody there objected. I didn't want to debate what she might have or invent a waiting period from memory. I just wanted to stop tomorrow's visit and ask our baby's clinician about any specific precautions we should follow.
She has been one of our most thoughtful relatives during the first weeks. I don't want her to hear “you aren't welcome” when I mean “tomorrow won't work.”
How can we be clear about postponing without promising a replacement date before we know whether it is appropriate?