Advice for new parents who require visitors to be vaccinated in order to see newborn

Hello! My cousin asked me to get booster shots for Covid, flu, tdap because she is having a baby. I had never been asked to do this before with other peoples babies, and I only see my cousin a couple times a year. She immediately tried planning a separate family Christmas over text when I said I didn’t understand her request.

After being confused and asking a few friends with babies/young kids (who thought this was crazy), I turned to Reddit and discovered it’s totally normal to get boosters if you’re gonna see a newborn.

Being on the receiving end of this request, I want to offer some advice for anyone texting their family to tell them they require boosters:

Please appeal to an expert in your message. say something like “my doctor really emphasized how important it is” or send some kind of learning resource. ASSUME PEOPLE DONT KNOW!

remind ppl what a TDAP shot is, please.

Do NOT approach people with an attitude of ‘it’s my baby, my rules’. It’s true that it’s your baby your rules, but that’s not the way to start the conversation. It puts ppl on the defensive. This is counterproductive, especially over text.

Remember that this isn’t a universal rule, so be prepared to have patience with people while they try to understand what your reasoning.

Deliver the message to everyone at roughly the same time, not just a few select family members you are worried about. I called my parents to ask if this was a normal request right after I got the text, and found out that they hadn’t received any messages or rules from her (and also thought her rules were crazy)

Be prepared to justify your request, even if it’s a totally reasonable one to make for people seeing your newborn.

If someone IS defensive or is confused/pushes back, don’t assume they’re anti vax or imply they’re anti vax unless you already know this to be the case. That makes things even worse.

Ultimately Reddit is the reason I’m getting my boosters. I wish my cousin didn’t assume that I would just know this stuff off the top of my head.