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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

grrrrr irresponsible idiots

44 replies

beginnerrunner · 10/04/2015 16:23

Just been to the pharmacy to pick up my prescription. In walks a couple and a girl (their daughter?) Who was toddler age. The woman starts to chat about the girl's chickenpox. Omg who brings a toddler with chickenpox into a pharmacy which presumably, in the course of the day, has a lot of sick people in it. I'm angry. I've never had chickenpox. I guess I was lucky as a child. Why couldn't one of the adults have at least kept the kid outside while the other got their prescription. Grrrrrrrr!

OP posts:

Number3cometome · 10/04/2015 16:25

YABU - anyone could have chickenpox and not know it, or just have one or two spots and not realise.

You cannot hide from it and you can't expect others to stay housebound.

Sirzy · 10/04/2015 16:26

The other adult should have stayed at home with the child. If there are two adults then (barring emergency drs trip with complications) no need to take a child with chicken pox out

VacantExpression · 10/04/2015 16:26

She might have been all scabbed over and so been past the infectious stage anyway?

Scouseatheart · 10/04/2015 16:27

Am i right in thinking you don't actually know you have chickenpox til the spots come out and it usually presents as a cold at first? And then once the spots come out you're not contagious anymore? If they knew she had it, presumably the spots had come out and therefor no longer contagious and fine to go out?

BankWadger · 10/04/2015 16:27

Where else are sick people supposed to go to get medicine? Would you be annoyed at an infectious adult going in to collect a prescription. They probably wanted something to ease her symptoms.

Yes taking a poxy child to the supermarket would be a bad idea, but not the chemist (assuming it wasn't a big Boots type place).

MangoJuggler · 10/04/2015 16:28

Some folk simply don't realise how downright dangerous chicken pox can be.

Complications, though rare, can be devastating.

YANBU.

Number3cometome · 10/04/2015 16:28

How do you know both adults didn't have it too?

Anyone can catch it, that's life.

LaLyra · 10/04/2015 16:29

There's a big difference imo between taking a child out when you don't realise they've got chicken pox and a child you know has chicken pox.

If you've got two adults there's no need to take a child with CP out to the chemist (or anywhere).

Scouseatheart · 10/04/2015 16:29

P.s, if im wrong, i do apologise. I have no experience with chickenpox.

Sirzy · 10/04/2015 16:30

I can't believe so many people are seemingly so unaware of the risks of chicken pox and are so blasé about it. Pretty scary really

Sirzy · 10/04/2015 16:30

You are still contagious until all the spots have scabbed over.

NeedsAsockamnesty · 10/04/2015 16:30

Big difference between unknowingly risking more vulnerable people and knowingly doing it.

StayingSamVimesGirl · 10/04/2015 16:33

Neither of those apply to the OP, though, number3. The couple in question did know that the child had chicken pox, and when you know your child has chicken pox, you should keep them either at home or well away from other people.

CP can be dangerous to the elderly, people with compromised immune systems, and pregnant women and their unborn children - to name a few big groups. The effects can potentially be really serious - even fatal - and it is not fair to expose others to those risks when it is not absolutely necessary, which it was not, in these circumstances.

One person could have waited at home (or in the car, if they absolutely had to take the child out) with the child, whilst the other one went to the pharmacy.

Number3cometome · 10/04/2015 16:33

They may well not have known!!

StayingSamVimesGirl · 10/04/2015 16:34

BankWadger - one of the adults could have gone to the chemist. Why did they both need to go?

PunkrockerGirl · 10/04/2015 16:34

YANBU. If there were 2 adults, 1 of them could have stayed at home with the little girl.
If there's only one adult, there's no choice, obviously.
It doesn't take much to work out that being a chemist, several of the customers are likely to be sick, pregnant, elderly and therefore more vulnerable to infectious diseases

Number3cometome · 10/04/2015 16:34

(known the risks, not that she had CP obvs)

Notso · 10/04/2015 16:35

I was told by the Doctors surgery to take DC to the pharmacy to get chicken pox confirmed.
Are you angry about all the other sick people for going to the pharmacy as well?

StayingSamVimesGirl · 10/04/2015 16:35

Number3 - in the OP, it says that the woman was talking about her dd's chicken pox - how can you suggest she might not know?

StayingSamVimesGirl · 10/04/2015 16:36

Oops - cross posted - sorry, Number3.

Number3cometome · 10/04/2015 16:36

StayingSamVimesGirl see my second note - the parents(?) may not have known the risks.

Number3cometome · 10/04/2015 16:36

Ha I didn't see yours either until I posted!

Number3cometome · 10/04/2015 16:37

(FYI when my DS had chickenpox I was pregnant with DD - I called the docs who told me the risks - I have not taken my kids in public when they have had the pox)

Original poster

beginnerrunner · 10/04/2015 16:38

I don't think I'm being unreasonable at all. There is a huge difference between the everyday risks of illnesses when you go to public places and someone deliberately taking a child with chicken pox to a public place. Particularly because there was an alternative and one adult could have kept the child outside. I think it's so bloody irresponsible.

OP posts:

Flobadobblibblobblib · 10/04/2015 16:46

A lady in the office where I used to work was sent home because, not her, but her young daughter at home had chicken pox, and there were 2 pregnant women in the office. Not sure if that was OTT or not. When my ds came out in an unidentified rash, the school still told us we had to send his older brother in. It probably is sensible to quarantine chicken pox if possible.

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