Mighty Quinn’s mom offers some advice for parents staying home during COVID-19 outbreak

WEYMOUTH, Mass. — Many parents are struggling with keeping their children entertained after just a couple of weeks at home. But one mom spent months doing it; the mom of the Mighty Quinn stayed home for a whole summer as he fought brain cancer.

When Quinn – now four years old - was fighting brain cancer, his compromised immune system kept him inside his Weymouth home. He couldn’t leave, so all last summer people came to him, affectionally calling him the Mighty Quinn, performing and just saying hello as he waved from his Quinndow.

At the time people could only sympathize; now it’s a similar reality for many.

“People are seeing kind of a side of what all cancer parents go through with their children. We are constantly worried about taking kids in stores and what germs are going to be in any place that we go,” said Tara Waters, Quinn’s mom. “I’ve had a lot of people say, ‘I can’t believe that you did this all summer, how did you survive?’”

She recommends what many parents are already doing, online classes and meetings with friends, time in the backyard, and maybe even stopping by and saying hello through a window.

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But her biggest advice is taking in the moments.

“This is hopefully the last time people will have the opportunity where they are stuck in their house nowhere to go, nowhere they have to be, with their children,” Waters said. “No soccer practice, no dance classes, all they have to do is stay home. They may not have that opportunity again so it’s kind of a nice thing for them.”

Quinn’s latest scans showed he is cancer-free and he was able to return to school, but that was just for three weeks until schools were closed.

His mom, a police officer, returned for two weeks before she had to make the tough choice to stay home. There’s only one reason she now encourages others to head out.

>>>MORE: ‘The Mighty Quinn’ can finally leave his house

“Blood and platelet donations are what kept Quinn alive during treatment so that’s our passion and we hope that although people are sheltering in place and staying home, so stay home unless you’re going to donate blood and platelets.”

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