Sickies Stay Home!

Sickies Stay Home!We have entered the time of year where coughs and sneezes are among us.  And I’ll admit it.  I’m a germ paranoid mom during flu season.  The rest of the year I’m pretty chill.  My kids play in the mud, go to parks, and they even sit in the carts at Walmart without any cart protectors (*gasp*).  However during flu season, when I hear a kid hacking behind us at church or at the store, I break into a cold sweat and I want to run for cover.

And don’t even get me started if I hear mothers muttering the word “vomit” or talking about how their children were up all night throwing up the night before.  I immediately start mapping out my plan of action to get the heck out of Dodge as quickly as humanly possibly.

You see, I’ve been there.  There have been dark moments in my life when every single one of my family members have been sick at the same time, and I just can’t do it again.

I. Just. Can’t.

Playing pass the bucket to three little kids with upset tummies is another kind of miserable.  Rocking babies with sore throats is the saddest sight to see.  As much as I love snuggles, I do not love sad sick snuggles.   So I have a request from my fellow mom friends during this season of sickness.  When our kids are sick let’s keep our germs to ourselves, and not spread the “joy” of sickness to the rest of the world.

Many years back when my oldest child was a toddler we had a fun playdate with some of our other mommy and baby friends.  The toddlers slobbered on toys and passed them around, smothered each other with drooly kisses, and basically had a grand old time passing germs to each other.  When the playdate ended I went home, put my kiddo down for a nap, and logged onto Facebook.  I scrolled through my newsfeed, and my eyes landed upon a status that was written by one of the other moms who had been at the playdate with us. The status said something like, “Taking Little Johnny to the doctor.  He has been sooooo sick these past few days, and I think he has the flu.”

What the what?!

Being a cautious new mom I freaked out (to put it mildly), and I immediately went into psycho disinfecting mommy mode.  Nothing really encourages me to give my kid’s toys a good scrub down like the possibility of a flu bug infestation.  I was so shocked and horrified that “Little Johnny” had been so sick and yet he had still attended the playdate.

Much to my relief, my daughter did not end up catching the flu bug.  But the surprise still stuck with me.  Parents really take their kids to social events while they are sick?! I totally understand feeling the need to get out of the house in order to save your sanity, but I’d say exposing other toddlers and their families to the flu is a pretty massive social faux paux.  No one needs to add sickness into the mix of their busy lives, and most importantly, sickness can be so detrimental to kids and adults who are already suffering from other ailments!

I totally understand that sometimes kids get sick with no notice at all and at the most inconvenient times.  It has happened to us before, and I know for a fact we’ve been the “accidental infectors”.  One year all of my kids came down with a stomach virus randomly while we were driving down the road on our way home from Lowes.  I’ll spare you the details, but I’ll leave you with this: all I had in the car was one old Sonic cup.

Sometimes kids get sick with no warning what-so-ever.  It happens to the best of us. What I’m talking about is, if it’s at all possible, let’s make a pact to not bring our sick kids to church, daycare, playdates, the Science Museum, school, or any other activities that slobber and germs might be shared.

So fellow mommies, let’s join hand-in-hand as we pass around our bottles of hand sanitizer, and let’s all keep our sickies home as we try and make it through flu season this year!

 

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Britnie Sims
I grew up in sunny California and moved to Oklahoma to attend college. That is where I met my amazing husband, and now we are here to stay! I live in Blanchard with my husband and three kiddos. We also have two standard poodles who we all adore and consider a part of our family! My family likes to stay busy, and we are always on the go exploring Norman and OKC. I love to write, and I document my adventures on this crazy journey of motherhood on my personal blog!

2 COMMENTS

  1. I understand completely. I have been there. But one time I called and asked my pediatrician about prevention from being around a kid that was sick, and she said most sicknesses are contagious before symptoms and before fevers. Usually once there is a fever the kid might be sick with symptoms but not contagious. I have sent my coughing kids to class many times without spreading anything. Things like strep throat are extremely contagious before symptoms. So I decided the only thing I could do is help my kids eat a healthy, varied diet, get lots of sunshine and fresh air and use supplements and home remedies at the first sign of sickness. And, they say, sickness helps to clean out all of our weak cells, so it isn’t all bad 🙂 but, let me say, I know how terrible it is to take care of a family of sick people, and worse, be one of them. We missed about 3 weeks of life last year recovering from a little infection that gave me 6 days of fever over 101….it was miserable!

  2. I agree with the comment before. I can’t imagine taking out a kiddo that had a fever or vomiting but being contagious happens long before and long after someone is sick. Unless you plan to live in your house for a few months (which my friend who had twins did when they were first born), you will be exposed to illness.

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