Had family over today, and all the little ones were poorly

[brilliantjustbrilliant]

We had five under fives in the house today.

They were all under the weather - streaming noses, coughs, sneezing, temperatures. All brushed off by the parents as teething or just a virus. They were all timing the calpol doses so that the kids were on fine form at the start of the day but it soon descended into them all being clearly unwell, by which point all the parents had started to have a drink and therefore had to wait for the taxis. I volunteered to take them all home in pairs but they all said no, because the kids were “fine”.

argh I’m so angry. That’s the rest of this year and the start of next written off with another bug.

I think this is tough. Clearly if a kid has a sickness bug then you need to cancel and stay home. However some kids basically constantly have colds and it can be hard to judge as some people get arsey if you cancel last min.

Personally I wouldn’t lose too much sleep over catching a cold. It’s that time of year at the min.

Next time you have a gathering. Tell them all beforehand that if their kids have a sniff of being out of sorts, whether teething or whatnot, they're to get babysitters.

First defence on the shop, kiwis about to go on. I’m trying to avoid supplements for now as I’m probably going to need some blood tests and I don’t want to skew them funny!

YANBU. I have an immunocompromised child and had to stop contact with one side of the family who continuously brought over their kids with various viruses that were “just” viruses to them but resulted in hospital stints for my LO. Sounds like you might be similar and suffer worse than most so you have my sympathy. Hope you manage to avoid it.

Christmas or not, both parents drinking when they have very unwell children is also just poor form. 🤦🏼‍♀️

I’ve got adult kids and have done the nursery/primary school years. Back then I was in my 20’s/30’s and shook colds off. Now I’m in my 50’s and I can’t just shake things (like a cold) off and carry on as normal.

As parents we know when it's just a cold or they are ill, not always easy to judge first thing in the morning. We go to work, send them to school, so it's only later in the day you know if they're ill. At this point it's our responsibility to look after them and not pass germs around.

I say this as an 80s child, get up and get on with it but when we were lethargic and high temp we stayed home. Xx

I’m with you op! I would be really cross about it. Annoys me when people knowingly and willingly go spreading their germs about and upsets me to see the poor children clearly suffering but still being dragged along behind their parents who are exclaiming ‘it’s just a sniffle’. So selfish

I think it’s so selfish and I wish people would just give you a heads up so you can decide whether you fancy being ill!

I have post viral fatigue which is bloody awful. I don’t want to be exposed to anything on top
of that.

If people’s kids are sick they should say ‘Jimmy has a cold - shall we postpone?’ then you have the choice.

It would also normalise this.

As far as I’m aware I’m not immunocompromised but what I am is someone who just gets knocked for six. I’ve just been really knocked by what was by all accounts a minor cold. It’s taken me three weeks to get over it

Behave? Wtf?

You didn't have cold. Good for you. How is it relevant for the OP?

And kiwis! They have more Vitamin C than oranges.

My clients are primary age and nursery age. There is a huge difference between a child with a runny nose, and a child so unwell they’re lethargic and not themselves. If they’ve got a slightly runny nose we’ll go out and about as normal (albeit I avoid soft play and give anyone we’re visiting a heads up and the final say!), if they’re clearly unwell with a temp then we stay in. It’s just common sense isn’t it?!

Not entirely sure why it’s apparently unbelievable that a group of cousins all close in age and location would all be poorly at the same time after spending much of the last month together!

I think it's okay to be upset when people who have colds or have children with colds don't at least warn you beforehand and offer you the option to reschedule. An illness doesn't have to be life-threatening to make you miserable and ruin your plans.

They don't offer a warning or an easy out because either they're too selfish to risk missing out or they're so used to being around ill kids that they don't realise it might matter to someone else. Generally, I think they're just selfish.

You’d think so!

Behave. It’s an expression. It means as if. Bollocks. You’re full of shit

It’s relevant because she’s acting like her life is ruined since she’s been around sick children. I have had sick children. I haven’t been sick. She’ll likely be fine. So much fucking drama

Congrats to you. I know that I am a) worn down because of some health issues I have going on b) just getting over a horrid virus and c) more likely to get a bug after being around multiple poorly children.

I didn’t say every child who entered the home did. But I said a group of them were. They’re cousins, close in age, all live in the same town and go to the same nursery. If you can’t see how they’d all pick up the same bugs then more fool you.

My toddler literally had a snotty nose for a year when he started nursery so I wouldn’t have thought twice about taking him out just for being snotty. I don’t think I’d have taken him out if he needed calpol to be well enough to go out though, as much for his sake as everyone else’s.

They should have declined the invitation if their child was running a temperature, but kids go downhill fast, so a sniffle might have turned into a full blown bug during the course of the day.

Also, it's December. If you host gatherings, odds are someone will be harbouring a virus or two. That's life, you need to be a bit more pragmatic.

This.

What makes you think that your immune system is so poor that you’ll get ill?

Because I’ve had a very tough year health wise, I pick things up fairly easily and I’m just getting over a bug that knocked me for six.

You’re not unreasonable, they should have at the very least checked with you. We always do as we know a few kids who even a cold sends them in for hospital stints. Although I wouldn’t be annoyed by a cold as they’re so frequent but it sounds like the kids were actually poorly anyway which isn’t fair on them!

children of nursery and school age generally have the cold/sniffles/illness from September until April. So if parents didn’t go out when they’re ill they would barely go anywhere.