My friend JUST texted me to cancel our plans for the weekend. See, her kid has impetigo. You know, the ultra contagious skin condition most common in children ages 2-5. Which sucks, a lot, for her and her family. Now they need to bleach all the things he touches, burn his sheets and try to smear antibiotic cream on his face constantly.
Have you tried to get medicine of any kind into or onto a preschooler? Yeah…
But guess how you GET impetigo. I’ll wait right here.
If you said from other sick people, you guessed correctly! Since my child isn’t sick and my friend’s son goes to school, there is only one way this kiddo could have picked this infection up:
From a kid who was sent to school sick.
And this pissed me off to no end. Seriously parents, keep your sick kids home. Let me tell you why.
1. You spread the disease to other kids
“But it’s he only threw up once before the bus picked him up.”
Just stop right there. Want to know how many times I’ve heard THAT tired excuse as a teacher? It’s a lot, so much I stopped tracking it after the first year teaching.
If your kid puked, is running a fever, has open contagious sores or another contagious condition (think: pink eye, the flu, etc.), just stay home. For the love of God, stay home!
When you send that kid to school or soccer or Scouts, you have just exposed dozens of other kids and families to those nasty germs.
Guess which parents are going to get stink-eyed in the pick-up line next week? Oh, its you!
Because now ALL of those other families have spent days cleaning up the mess that your child’s germs have created. That means days of literal cleaning, buying special foods or trucking to the doctor’s office for medicine.
2. You spread the disease to teachers
Guess what? Now the teacher is sick, too! That means that your child will have a substitute teacher until she feels better.
Teachers get almost zero sick days compared to the number of germs they are exposed to daily.
As a special bonus, it’s actually MORE work to stay home sick as a teacher. Those sub plans don’t just write themselves, you know.
A teacher’s memory is long, and we will remember which kids brought the nasty germs to school. No amount of wine or presents will make us forget.
3. Recovery will be longer
Want to send your kid to school mostly, but not totally, sick? Great, you just bought yourself a few extra days of illness!
School takes energy. That energy should be going to fight off whatever bug has gotten hold of your child. So instead of getting over that cold or flu or whatever in a few days, expect a much longer slog.
And that means more time off of work for YOU and your spouse! Hooray!
Do yourself a favor, and just keep your sick kids home.
Seriously. Please do it. Because now I’m stuck with a very sad preschooler to console thank to whatever kid showed up at school with impetigo.
Also, if you follow these tips no parents or teachers will hate you, your child and your family because you spread gross germs.
Trust me, your office will survive a day without your physical presence. And if not, just FaceTime in for a few hours.
What do YOU think about parents who send their kids to school sick? Tell me in the comments!
~Meg
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