To hunt down these bastards who exposed my son to chicken pox

[littleredbumblebee]

User name changed as outing

went on a caravan holiday last week for 5 nights and my son who is 11 played with some kids from other families and had a great time- all good

On the last night one of the smaller boys was running around with no shirt on and he has spots, one of the other families asked and his mum said oh he has chicken pox but we though getting away would do him good.

I told her my son had never had chicken pox and said I bloody hoped my son was not going to come down with them. One of the other parents also said they should not have brought the kid. Basically it ended up with them going inside the caravan in a huff. The next day we all left

So today the day before my son is use to start at high school he woke up covered in spots and now has chicken pox and won’t be in for his first week at high school. Tonight he is now crying saying he won’t name any friends now and he won’t know his way around and no amount of comforting will calm him down. Very few kids for his school are going to this high school and he is so upset he will have missed out on making friends.

We have been in touch with his form tutor who has been great and has said they will support him and catch him up but I could bloody scream. How can some people be so bloody selfish.

My friend paid out for CP vaccine and both hers still caught it - really nasty dose of it too.£300 down drain. I don't think CP vaccine guarantees they won't get it. Hope your son is OK and settles well.

The family on the caravan site were selfish twats

Vaccine or no vaccine, ‘better now than later’ or not, it isn’t OK to take your pox ridden kid into a social situation like a caravan site, and especially not to then warn people.

And the smug complacent victim blaming that has derailed this thread may well have the effect of giving other selfish twats the idea that they have no responsibility for keeping their own infected child at home because people should be vaccinated.

Your poor Ds , OP. He will be ok at school very quickly but of course this is upsetting for him.

I hope your son is not too poorly with CO@littleredbumblebee and is able to start high school ASAP. The timing sucks, but it's a done deal now. When he does start school (next week?) i bet someone will be put in charge of buddying him, and he'll have personal guide round school for a few days, and fit right in.

only found out recently there’s a vaccine against chicken pox, not usual here in Ireland and of course she feels strongly after her son got it! Saying that op you do need to calm down because part of your son being this upset will be him getting from you that he shouldn’t have got it

not only that it is not recommended because risks outweigh benefit for chickenpox. Personally I remember when I m had chickenpox and it was not a big deal. My friend who got vaccinated and never had it had suffered from internal shingles so bad she was hospitalized and suffered from lingering nerve pain for years.

Oh, your poor son. Mine is starting secondary school this week too and I can imagine how upsetting this is on top of the nerves and excitement he was already feeling. Sending hugs. Is the school arranging a trip for Year 7? Mine is going on a short camping trip later in September which will be great for bonding/making friends so I wonder if there's something like that for him to look forward to?

Remind him there are usually at least one or two children who join later in the year as well and within a very short time the kids barely remember who joined later, year 7 especially is a time when everyone is finding their feet and finding friendships and that doesn't get set in stone in the first week at all! Within a few days of starting he'll be so busy and enjoying it all (and will have found lots of friendly people) that he won't give this another thought.

I'd be so furious with those other parents at the camp site though, just absolute selfish arses.

Good grief OP - some people are missing an empathy chip aren’t they? Apparently getting to feel smug for a bit is more desirable than just being… nice 🙄

I’m sorry this has happened and it’s incredibly shitty timing. I would also be raging. Being exposed accidentally when a kid is infectious before the spots appear is one thing, letting your kid knowingly spread their nasty virus everywhere is something else to entirely. They’re dick heads.

I feel for him, it’s a horrible time to get it. But he could have caught it in the supermarket, or anywhere. Only way to prevent it is paying for the vaccine, but bit late for that now. I’m sure he will still make friends but I know he won’t want to hear that now. Poor kid

Can't believe OP is being flamed for not getting her DS the vaccine and not the people who knowingly went on holiday with a poxy child! What utter utter arseholes.

I've been on MN threads where OPs have been flamed for bringing a poxy child to a pharmacy in a buggy under the rain cover to get essentials. Perfect illustration of the anti OP bias on MN.

The timing is shit OP but at least he’s had it now! My DH never ever had it and ended up with bloody shingles as an adult he was in a terrible state. At least he’s finally had it now, and I bet he’ll catch up in school so fast (I had to swap forms halfway through year 7 in high school and it felt like the end of the world at the time but I made lots of wonderful friends)

Exactly!

It's terrible timing and I can understand why he would now be upset and anxious about missing the first week at a new school.

If it helps at all, neither of my children started secondary school with close friends. They started from scratch and none of their close friendship groups formed in the first few weeks. My daughter (who has now left school and is starting all over yet again at sixth form college today) went through several friendship groups before she found her tribe. My son starts y8 this week and found a new best mate and wider group of friends last year but that was a while into his y7 journey.

I think because it can be terrible for some children. We, as a nation, seem to be incredibly risk averse nowadays.

The more well off people on here are showing how out of touch they are. £150 is a lot of money for some people. And then if you have more than 1 kid, it's even more.

Having a chickenpox party at your house with everyone's consent is one thing. Turning strangers' holidays into a chickenpox party without their knowledge is something else entirely.

Totally agree with you OP, selfish fuckers with no regards for others. This happened in my daughters class where kids mum sent her in with shingles, so as to not miss out on the attendance award!.

Better to get it now than as an adult. They've done him a favour, have you never heard of chicken pox parties

Nit read the whole thread but this reply sums up my thoughts perfectly!!!

Whilst it’s not ideal timing I think you and son need to stop being so dramatic. It’s chicken pox!!!! Missing 1 week, though I’d have thought only a few days would need to be missed, he will very quickly make friends.

You can only get shingles if you have had cp . Your husband must of had cp .

Dare you to name change and post an AIBU "DD has chickenpox, we're due to go away and don't want to cancel. AIBU to just go anyway? The distraction will do her good!" and see what response you get.

OP's son will of course be fine but it's not the start to secondary school that any of us would want for our DC, and it's not just one of those things, that family knowingly took a decision that directly caused it.

I had 2 doses and caught CP the following year.

The vaccine didn't work for me.

In the UK it’s only just come onto the vaccine schedule for babies - we don’t get it otherwise. You have to pay privately and it’s not readily available. I tried for a year to get my youngest booked in but in the end he caught it at school.

Honestly, so long as he's coping well, I'd be grateful he's getting it now, as you know it's worse the older they get and a few days of Y7 is preferable to GCSEs or adulthood. I don't mean being grateful to the other parent of course...but it would be a relief to me to know he's now had it.

When dgs was just a few months old the ndn’s ds got chicken pox and they asked dd if she wanted to take dgs round so he could get it over with.
A tiny baby!
Of course dd said no.