PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — Lizzy Toth, a Palm Beach Gardens mother, had never written a book before, but the coronavirus pandemic has people trying new things and finding new solutions for problems.
One important topic she encountered is how to talk to a child about mask-wearing, so she and her husband teamed up and released a book. Her husband, Chris Toth, is the illustrator.
"I made sure my family stayed safe, and I'd be the only person leaving the house with my mask on. That's when I started thinking about why I was wearing the mask," Lizzy Toth said. "The idea came to me as a way to speak to my own children about why we wear the mask. That we wear the mask not only protect ourselves, but to protect our family and to protect everyone around us."
"To make kids feel good about wearing a mask and make it into a positive experience that they are doing it out of caring and not out of fear because they have to," Chris Toth added. "We didn't want kids to feel like they're being punished."
The book is called "The Love Behind the Mask."
"I want them to feel safe," Lizzy Toth said. "I want them to feel like they're doing something good at the same time."
"You're not wearing the mask because it's a punishment. You're not wearing the mask because you're afraid," Chris Toth added. "You're wearing it because you care."
The Toth family believes it fills a gap and opens lines of communications for all.
"The adults, we all have this conversation about the masks constantly, but I guess we kind of forget to have the conversation about it with the children, and their lives have changed as much as all of us," Lizzy Toth said.
