Not keeping sick kids at home

[ellie09]

We had an overnight stay booked on Friday - me, DS, my mum and my 3 yo niece.

Niece had developed a nasty cough and looked loaded with cold, but my sister handed her over anyway. My little niece fell asleep during dinner and was coughing all night etc.

Next day she was brought home and still no better so we had advised my sister to keep her cuddled up and inside.

She gets worse on Saturday and Sunday, had a temperature, but sister decides to still take niece to a birthday party with a fever.

This morning child wakes up with a 42 degree fever and really unwell. Rush to A&E where child is told they have chest, ear and throat infection as well as high blood pressure and is being kept in hospital!

Myself and my mum now both have a terrible cough/chest and just waiting on my DS to now come down with it.

AIBU to think sister should have just kept sick child at home, if not for the overnight but definitely on the Sunday when she was a lot worse?! The child was sweating so much her hair was sticking to her head.

If anyone brought a child that unwell to my childs party I would be furious!

Definitely not being unreasonable, I’d be furious if someone brought their very clearly sick child to my child’s birthday party just before Christmas!

I know children don’t want to miss out and get upset when they feel they are losing out on the fun things when they are sick but it was up to your sister to take this seriously and realise that she was getting worse, not better.

Poor child

Did your sister give any reasons? I find it incredibly neglectful and all round poor judgment.

A mild cold - possibly ok for an overnight, but once she got worse they shouldn’t have taken her to the party.

Plain irresponsible on your sisters behalf, I'm afraid. Hope your niece is OK & you don't get it as badly as she did 🙏

Niece had developed a nasty cough and looked loaded with cold, but my sister handed her over anyway.

This is where you should have told your sister to take your niece home and not have allowed her to leave your niece with you.

We didnt realise how poorly she was until we got there as she was just bundled straight into the car for a 2 hour journey where she slept most of the way

If you look at this a different way, and instead of a party, it was school, you'll get an awful lot of people saying they're not keeping their child off school with a cold, particularly if they have to go to work.

My immune system is compromised and I get seriously ill each time my kids bring colds back. A friend of mine and her child met up with us once and the infection tore through our family, bigger one ill for a fortnight, little one vomiting, me in hospital. This happened twice, once with a cold and once with covid.

I homeschool my kids now.

The short answer is, yes it's very unreasonable of her. But there's very little any of us can do to prevent it happening.

Can't speak for all schools but since covid, my child's school sends home children that are sniffly, coughing etc.

My son woke up once saying he was tired, but we took him to school anyway hoping he would perk up. They rang me at 9:30am saying to collect him because he seemed tired. Another 2 times I had to collect him because he only said (wasnt actually) he was sick and he needed to go home.

They seem to be stricter and rightly so. A lot of homes can have people with underlying health issues who can get really sick.

My kids were once at a party where one of the mums, having just helped her son into the ball pit, announced that he had been throwing up all night and morning but didn’t want to miss the party so she just brought him.

Yes your sister should have kept her DD at home but she isn’t the first and wont’t be the last to do something like this. Some people are just stupid and inconsiderate.