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.

Better now than later on.
I'm surprised he hasn't caught it before now.

It takes a while for the new Y7 to settle down and I'm sure he'll make friends and catch up with the help of his new form teacher. In the meantime, keep him calm, reassure him - and stop him scratching!

Why do people keep saying it's not expensive? It's £150 for both doses, that's a lot of money!

It gets nastier as you get older I believe. Not guaranteed to catch it. I’d say first week of high school is actually probably one of the worst times he could have caught it in his whole life.

Really silly comment. If you're concerned about a particular illness and there is a vaccine available, get it. It's common sense.

My mum had it as an adult and was apparently very poorly.

Certain counties in the UK do not support the chicken pox vaccine so you cannot have it privately.

Chicken pox I mean, not the vaccine

Edit -Sorry misread!

So suck it up and pay, or deal with the fact that your child may catch it if you can't afford it.

Fuck I didn't know there was a chicken pox vaccine available in the UK tbh or I'd have had my kids done 🤦

Am I the only one who didn’t know a chickenpox vaccine even existed…?

Poor thing, the timing is a bit miserable. He is however still young and getting it out of the way. I had it as an adult and it was so bad (I cried every day for at least two weeks) 😞

Better he catches it now, than as an adult. Because shingles is far more painful and more likely to be admitted to hospital.

Cross posted with you @Allie47! Clearly I’m not the only one who didn’t know.

(Also, £150 is not “basically nothing” for a lot of people…)

If you chose not to have your child vaccinated, you accepted the risk that precisely this would happen. I don't think you ca blame anyone else.

I do, they are quite frowned upon now. That said when DS had chickenpox he was playing in the garden and someone popped by with their child. I explained that normally I’d invite them in but as we were pox- ridden best not. Her reply was she wasn’t worried as it’d actually be quite convenient to catch them now as they’d had their summer holiday and was wfh for the rest of the summer. I was a bit bemused but the kid popped in the garden for a quick play.

Youngest got chicken pox at a really inconvenient time and missed out on something they’d been training for, for months which was a real shame. I do think it’s better to get it done and over with or vaccinate as Sod’s law it alwayx crops up when least convenient.

YABU- age 11 is quite old to only just be getting it - he would be much sicker if he caught it in in his teens/young adulthood

This makes no sense.

You can only catch shingles if you've had chicken pox.

If you've never had it, you can't.

£150 is £3/week for just one year. Definitely worth it. Awful timing for the poor lad but could so easily have been avoided. People need to take responsibility for their health and that of their DC. If there’s a vaccine, have it! So much better than the alternative.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240229-why-dont-some-countries-vaccinate-against-chickenpox#:~:text=While%20numerous%20countries%20have%20since,as%20a%20routine%20childhood%20jab.

Another one chiming in to say they didn’t know we had a CP vaccine! All mine had it when they were little, didn’t make me want to hunt down the people that gave it to them but I can understand the feelings of missing the settling in to a new school.

Don't know why anyone would pay £150 for chicken pox vaccine to be honest. I mean it's bad timing but the virus is infectious before the spots even come out and I remember pox parties to get it over with so I don't think kids should just be locked up in the room all day if they have it

I had chicken pox twice as a child so not sure the vaccine would be foolproof even if he had it.

Yes op why don't you go back in time and get your son the CP vaccine?! The one that isn't on the immunisation list and costs £££. Some posters on here are unbelievable.

What's genuinely baffling is the sheer entitlement of people who think if they can't have it for free then they would simply cut off their nose to spite their face. It's a one time investment into lifetime protection for your child against a potentially serious virus (or a disruptive one at the very least). Nobody can claim they cannot afford the hundred pounds or so if they REALLY WANTED to. If your car breaks down or you want a new household gadget or you get a fine or you end up spending an extra night on holiday, then you manage to find the money.

If you look at it logically, a child coming down with chicken pox might mean at least 2 weeks of family disruption. One family member may not be able to work and would have a loss of income that easily equals or exceeds the cost of the vaccine. If a child comes down with chicken pox before a holiday and things get cancelled, you also lose far more than the cost of the vaccine. It's a no brainer really.

I really feel for your son, OP. Hope he is okay and as others have said, he will settle in and this panic will be a distant memory.

I agree the family should not have brought their child away around other people as they knew he was contagious. However, CP is contagious before there are any symptoms, so it’s not always something that can be prevented. I appreciate in this situation it probably could have been though.

Anyway, I hope he has a smooth transition into high school and gets plenty of rest whilst he is poorly.

I caught CP from my DH’s cousin’s child. I’ve never forgiven her. It was at a family anniversary party and she knew he had them but wanted to attend the party and didn’t have a babysitter. She didn’t admit it until after the party and was quite unapologetic as she figured the adults would have all had it and it wouldn’t be a problem for the other children.

I was 30 and I got it really badly. I was off work for weeks and took ages to recover, was post viral and caught everything going for months.

I have honestly never spoken to the cousin since or attended any family parties that she is at.