Keep Your Germs To Yourself
Germs are everywhere. Like death and taxes, they are unavoidable. Getting sick is inevitable and as a parent, I try to avoid it as much as possible. I also try to keep our sick germs within the confines of our home when we do get ill, as a common courtesy. So why do some parents think it acceptable to expose other parents and children to their own family’s sick germs? Am I just being paranoid, or is this one of the biggest faux pas that parents can commit?
I suffer from immune problems and two of my children have struggled. People have a hard time with our “rules” because we believe in hand-washing and avoiding people who are sick and we don’t go out in public if we aren’t well.
I haven’t been ill in about a year and last Monday, after a weekend of covering an awards show, I was diagnosed with throat and eventually a lung infection.
I am in my own home and I wear a mask when I’m coughing to protect my fellow family members, never mind the general public.
I don’t think you are paranoid but I do think people need to wake up and get their brains together.
We can kill people with our germs. There are people who have cancer or HIV who also need to do grocery shopping or see movies in theaters and they should be able to do that without having to worry about people coughing on their produce is sneezing all around them (stay home, sick people! The Harry Potter movie will still be here tomorrow!). Kids out in public with chicken pox can pass it on to pregnant women whose unborn children could pay the ultimate price.
Last month, a dear friend of my family’s died alone in her home after contracting the flu virus. That person who passed it to her is probably fine somewhere, recovered.
More people die of the Superbug every year than those who died from AIDS.
So, to answer your question – heck yes, this is a huge faux pas!!!!!
AND (almost done) we would really cut down the number of children who must stay home from school, causing a parent to stay home from work, if people could find some place for their sick kids.
See? It’s even good for the economy!
if you don’t like it then stay home you know that at every family function there is going to be somebody sick and stop talking about people on your stupid blogs and call them or say it to there face and your the last one to be talking about spreading germs
I think it depends. If I were hosting an event, I would have called the attendees. If I was taking my son somewhere with a cold, I would call ahead. Unfortunately, with a child in daycare, if I stayed home every time he had a bit of a runny nose, I would never leave my house and be unable to work.
Mark Prescott-
You are absolutely right. I should have called you about it first. I wrote the post last night when we got home. I let my emotions get the best of me. I didn’t want to cause a scene at the party, so I didn’t approach you about it. I should have made the blog post a general vent, not mentioning your family. Even though I did not mention the name, I’m sure it was very obvious who I was griping about. I sincerely apologize for doing so.
This is bizarre. I assume you’re family – can you call each other instead of this nonsense. Kadi, My opinion – you writing like that about a relative on a public blog is sooo not cool. What’s up with that?
It’s HER blog – I would think she could write about whatever is going on in her life. If that family member wouldn’t have responded directly, I would have never known she was referencing a particular event.
I agree people shouldn’t expose everyone to their sick germs. But I’m a little like Marie up there – I don’t have unlimited PTO time at work, my husband has none. We do not send the kids anywhere if they’ve had fever, or if they are throwing up or the other thing.. But, my children have the constant runny nose/sneezing thing during the winter time. I can’t keep them out of school all winter. But if they are really sick enough to stay home we wouldn’t dream of taking them anywhere in public.
David – you’re seriously giving me the feeling that you’re a stalker.. Like maybe you had study hall with Kadi in high school and she didn’t notice you or something.. What’s going on man?
Part of the reason I don’t blog/have a website/post my real name is so that I can gripe about relatives and still keep the peace. It’s the only reason some of them are still alive, LOL.
But getting back to the sick kid thing. Common courtesy goes both ways. If you are going to a playgroup with a bunch of 1 year olds who put everything in their mouths, do not bring your kid if they have an intestinal illness or a 101 degree fever. But at the same time, you can’t expect people to lock their kids up every time they sniffle. When my oldest was little, he got every single lung related illness I can think of. He is asthmatic, and very sensitive to that sort of thing (although thankfully growing out of it). So if I was going to a friend’s house, I would ask them if anyone was sick. If anyone had anything other than a very minor cold, I would keep my kid home. Now that he’s older, I don’t have to do that, but my friends and I are very good about warning each other about potential contagions, and not being offended if one of us begs off to keep our kids healthy prior to a vacation or something.
I know Kadi has a personal blog, I’m not sure this is HER blog as she writes for a company (thought, again, I’m not 100% certain of that). You are so right, Ashley, that Kadi has the right, to say whatever she wants anytime, anywhere. I don’t believe though that we all should just exercise our rights at the cost of another (presumably a loved one in this case). I was a fan of Kadi’s, but I think it’s a terrible thing to do that to a family member. From her writing, I know Kadi is very ready to say that she’s not perfect and makes mistakes; however, this blog seems slanted to the opposite in that it says what she or Gayla WOULD NEVER DO as parents at most time in judgment of other mothers. Well, then she also says she doesn’t judge and lives a Christian life of kindness towards others. If you want to put all out there for the world to see on a blog, then she should be prepared for those that will say, YES, you are so RIGHT, and the others that will say THAT WAS NOT GOOD! I know she’d like the former rather than the latter, but I still don’t think it was right to call her family members out like that in a BLOG instead of just calling and saying “hey, in the future please let us know ahead of time if your kid’s sick.” I don’t think it was cool, and I have the right to say so. I will not be reading this blog, not that anyone cares, or Kadi’s after this. She seems hypocritical to me at this point.
Kadi,
In the words of Benjamin Franklin, “Either write things worth reading or do things worth writing.”
Corrine, I agree – maybe it’s not “hers” necessarily, but she’s writing for it about her own life experiences. Now, family seems to be a big part of her life – so therefore I don’t think any of them should expect to be exempt from being a part of her writings. Again, would you have known this post had anything to do with family if he hadn’t called her out? I can understand the family member being a little offended – but why are you offended?
Also, you’re right – a blogger must be ready for input that is both positive and negative, but I think that’s what this was about:
“Am I just being paranoid, or is this one of the biggest faux pas that parents can commit?”
Ashley: True to all you said. I don’t think Kadi’s evil because of what she wrote. I wasn’t offended, it’s just that I liken it to reading my favorite columnist every day, and you think they’re a riot, and you agree with most of what they say, even if it is controversial at times, but then they say/do something one day that makes you think…Oh, maybe they aren’t exactly what I thought. That’s all. While I was reading the blog post about the germ party, I had that UH-OH feeling b/c, even not knowing she was at a relative’s house, I still thought she was an invited guest at someone’s house, and then she blogged nastily about it a day later. If I were a friend, acquaintence, or a relative, I would be PO’ed. She was my favorite blogger at one point, and I am just disappointed, b/c I thought she was different. Anyway, you’re a good person to have on her side! I appreciate your comments b/c it lightened my attitude up a bit and made me look a little closer at the way I write things. Have a good one!
There’s nothing like the pot calling the kettle black.
WOW! Wow! Oh my gosh! WT???
Okay, I’m going to take a wild guess here… umm.. Julie and David: best friends in high school.. Julie’s pissed off that David was infatuated with Kadi.. Julie was in love with David, but he didn’t notice..Kadi has no idea either of them existed in high school.. Kadi appears on national tv, Julie and David hatch a plan for the perfect high school revenge??..
Okay, no I’m just joking. I’m sure there’s a lot going on here that I don’t know about – and don’t need to. That’s just the first thing that popped into my mind when I read the comments above. My imagination apologizes.
Kadi – keep your chin up. You seem to be getting a lot more attacks than the average blogger I’ve come across, but anyone who can handle 7 children can handle some nasty haters getting personal.
Okay. Apparently Julie is someone who knows the party I spoke of, personally. Her anger about the situation is understandable but her accusations and name calling are out of line. So she is welcome to leave now. All additional comments made by her will be deleted. I’m not sure who David is but he seems very intent on expressing his distaste for my blogging and life in general, as he has posted his negativity on several occasions and had done so in many different venues, which is kind of creepy. His comments will also be deleted unless he wished to stop bad mouthing me. This is still my blog and I have no desire to weigh it down with haters. Go start your own “I hate Kadi” blog, if you so wish. I could care less.
In any case, my personal life is part of my blogging, but my anger towards family should never have been blog fodder. I took care of the situation personally, aside from apologizing on this blog. So, done and done.
For those of you who do not care for me or my blogging, please find another blog to read. I do not desire this to turn this into a hate blog. I was wrong, I was mean and I’ve righted the wrong. The end.
We are moving on now.
I’m so shocked by some of the comments on here. It’s hard to believe people write some of the things they do. Kind of crazy.
I absolutely hate it when people go out sick (or take their kids out when they are sick). 8 years ago when I had preemie twins I became aware of just how easily germs are transfered between people. For instance, did you know that if a random adult had the RSV virus (which would only be a cold to the adult) and then went to the bank and sneezed on the counter, then 2 days later I went to the same bank and got the germs from the counter I could have taken that virus back to my babies? Yes, the virus lives on things for more than 2 days. So scary when you think that something like that could kill a preemie. I do think people should be more careful and thoughtful of others when they are sick.
Melissa – I had preemie twins too! ^5’s
Ok, now for what I hafta say — People make mistakes, people get pissy and talk behind other peoples backs. When they can’t talk, they blog. So what? It’s not like any one single person can claim complete innocence. They’d be lying.
Everyone judges others – even when they try hard not to.
It’s called human nature.
As I stated above I had preemie twins – 3.14 pounds and 4.7 pounds. They have had problems with asthma and immune issues their whole lives. I get angry when parents send their sick kids to school or don’t teach their children proper manners when it comes to coughing and trying to keep from spreading germs.
With kids using computers more and more at school, it’s only going to get worse.
And that’s all I’ve got to say about that!
On the judging thing – it shouldn’t exist from mom to mom. If something is really wrong in a family, a child is in danger or neglected, take action, but other than that, moms should not judge other moms. I make a point of not doing it. I have heard and seen (and been the victim of it!) plenty, and it angers me to no end. BUT anyway…
On the point of the post, bringing sick children out and about to be around other children is not right. I know that my son had a runny nose all winter when he was 9 months old, and I always thought that people would be offended b/c he looked sick, but I called the doctor bunches of times, and she said it was normal because they have no ability to clear their own passages of mucous so he was not sick, just getting rid of that stuff. I think sometimes kids can look sick when they aren’t b/c of the common runny noses and sniffles, but really sick kids should stay home, not for others solely, but because they should be afforded the rest and comfort to get better. So many parents are so driven and will face consequences if they miss work that they make a choice to send sick kids to daycare or school.
I have this problem of getting sick from my kids! My friend sent me a really neat gift for my kids and me. It is called a Germy Wormy. It reduces the spread of germs as it is a “disposable sleeve to protect clothes” and is a great tool to teach my kids to cough and sneeze in their elbow instead of their hands. Check out their website. http://www.germywormy.com
They have a fun for kids puppet show, activites, and a place to order the “arm sleeve”.
Maybe you should get some and have them for playdates when the kids have runny noses but aren’t necessarily sick.