BellaOnline Forums Relationships Married No Kids unbelievable!

hi everyone! as many of you know i work at a gym in the daycare center in the mornings. well on tues. two parents came in with their school age children. one was in kindergarten and one in first grade. the mother of the first child said that she wasn't in school b/c she had a stomachache and the second one said she just didn't feel well and well it's okay if she just stays home b/c she doesn't want to go to go school. as a former classroom teacher i was needless to say very upset. my boss wasn't there so there wasn't much i could do about it. first of all if they were that sick then the kids should have been home and if they weren't that sick well then shouldn't they be in school. what message are these parents sending?

anyway, i talked to two of my co-workers about it. the second one was particularly upset and told me that i should definitely talk to my boss about it. i plan on doing that tomorrow. i mean i certainly don't want the other kids to get sick and well i don't want to either! staying healthy is hard enough when you work with kids but when stuff like this happens. it just boggles my mind.

i mean when you have kids that means well if you can't work out b/c they're sick oh well. they're the ones who wanted them. one more reason i dont' want kids. i like being able to do what i want.

indigo

But indigo, you are a thoughtful, introspective human being. That's why you took the time to figure out what having a child entailed instead of having one because you wanted one.

This mom didn't do that type of soul-searching before choosing to reproduce and she's not about to start now on such a mundane task as to whether or not she should bring her sick kids to the gym!

[i hope the sarcasm is not lost!]

Wow. That is a HUGE pet peeve of mine. My husband has a compromised immune system, and it seems like every time we're around a group of kids, whammo he gets sick. It's so incredibly rude to take a sick kid to a gym where people go for their HEALTH for god's sake.

Last year we were both sick for the entire month of January after going to a X-mas party. Parties, working out...they're all fun activities that no one wants to miss out on, so they go anyway when they're sick (or their kid is). People really should have better restraint than to infect a whole bunch of people as a holiday gift!! I read a blog post last year where this family had a X-mas party, and someone brought their kid who had rotovirus, so of course the hostess' whole family came down with it, and she knew very well by the symptoms who they got it from. People seem to have no conscience about this! They just can't handle missing a social gathering.

I know it must be terrible to have to stay home with your sick kid, but it's part of the job and people need to accept that!!

And I'm not even going to start on people who go to work sick because they're convinced their office will fall apart without them.

I had a girl come in last week and say "Hey Miss Lynette! I have a really bad cold!" Guess who got a cold three days later?

I've noticed the parents in the office always seem be fighting off something - colds, conjunctivitis (very attractive gooey eye problem)stomach upsets. They all say, "caught it from the kids...they picked it up at daycare" or kinda or school...
In Japan people wear face masks when they have colds - they're very hard working people so wouldn't stay at home unless they were dying - but they are always considerate around others and concerned not to pass on their problem.

Deborah, I lived in Japan for 2 years and I was also impressed with their ability to work with an illness while still respecting the health of those around them. I wish peole around me were that considerate.

BTW, why do parents act as though children's germs are harmless? I study microbiology, and to me, a germ is a germ. I see mothers put their child's pacifier in their own mouths, and think nothing of it. I don't want to be around a sick child anymore than I want to be around a sick adult.

A good friend of mine left the gym we went to for this very reason. Her son was forever getting sick because certain members would bring their kids in sick without giving it a second thought.

In my tutoring center I cringe when I hear a kid walk in the door and start hacking or sniffling (actually what they do shouldn't be called "sniffling", it should be called "snorting enormous globs of snot back in, loudly"). I keep Purell on my desk, in my purse, and where my instructors can get to it easily, plus I disinfect all the tables at the start of each day. I do think this has cut down on my sickness (knock hard on wood!!!) but it still bugs me when people bring them in here sick.

I take a bottle of dry antibacterial handwash with me when I work overseas - you don't need any water and its non-greasy.
I was working in HK when the SARS nightmare started - also, bird flu...So I'm now careful about washing my hands a few times a day with the handwash. The SARS virus started when a Chinese person arrived in HK seriously ill with the virus - he was staying in a hotel and the initial transmission of the disease was from the lift/elevator buttons that he had touched - you touch the button and then touch your face, nose, mouth....scary stuff.

I currently work in an emergency room out in BFE. And I am still amazed that when someone comes in complaining of cold/flue/etc. that they get offended when I ask them to put a face mask on. They are sick...they know they are sick...but they just don't care if they spread it.

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