To think that diseases don't cease to be contagious just because you're related to the sick person/the sick person is a child?

[HeathcliffMoorland]

I'm not particularly fussy about germs and the like. However, I have noticed that the world is generally very fixated on killing bacteria/fungi/viruses, and this seems to go completely out the window where extended family is involved.

People go to family events when they're still suffering with the tail end of a flu. And because it's a family event, people hug, shake hands and give slobbery aunty/uncle kisses. There is also no hand sanitiser provided, which normally would be at large functions (or is this just an Irish thing?).

The other thing is when the sick person is a child. Obviously it's different when it'd your own child, but I know people who will hand their chicken-poxed babies over to local teenagers (their babysitters) without even asking if said teenager has ever had it. Similar things happen with tail end of the flu.

Has anyone else noticed this?

Not really, sorry. Then again, I don't make a point of deliberately avoiding people who are ill because it's not particularly effective. (Lots of viruses prefer dry surfaces so you're less likely to catch a cold from a slobbery auntie kiss than you are, say, from taking change from a shop assistant.) If you are a babysitting teen, haven't had chickenpox (and don't want to catch it) then it's your responsibility to tell the owner of the spotty baby 'no thanks', surely?

I don't avoid sick people either.

However, I do make a point of not breathing and slobbering on people when I am sick, and shaking hands, for that matter, which would be a dry surface.

My observation was that people seem to forget lots of everyday prevention strategies when it's family or a child involved.

Also, I really am not the type to carry around hand sanitiser. This thread was more about wondering had anyone else noticed it than a real complaint.

About the teenager thing, many fourteen year olds I know would find it hard to say no after arriving at a house to realise a child is ill. Some may not, but many do. I would hope that other parents would try to take this into account.