Den of Ill

From the day a child is born, you do everything in your power to steer clear of all danger; vehicular, recreational, bacterial, viral, all of it.  You don't let him play with others when their upper lip is slick with snot, you wash hands, Purell probably too much, on and on and on with the protecting and the fretting. And then when they're three (or so) you toss them into the veritable vat of microbes called preschool and wish them a good day.  Nice.

Since Poopies has started preschool not even two months ago, he's had at least six colds and the Cap'n and I have caught about half that.  If there are any veteran moms out there...how long does the insanity last?  Because we're getting nothing done, sludging through our days, barely looking forward to getting better for a few days before the next invasion.  I do wish parents would be more discerning when determining whether or not to send their kids to school.  I understand that you can't dodge work for a little runny nose (though I hate to see that too, frankly, when it's having lunch next to my momentarily healthy little guy) but when I see totally miserable, glassy-eyed, flu-stricken kids trying their best to forge on, it makes me mad.  I know it sucks to miss work when you're not even sick, but it is so not cool to your kid to make them do anything other than lie on the couch and watch movies when they're that sick, and obviously not fair to the others that will suffer from being exposed to your little viral incubator. At the preschool Halloween party on Wednesday there was a little boy dressed as a chicken that was barely vertical and clearly very sick.  I can only assume that our current mini-flu is courtesy of the poor little chicken...oh my, does that make this Avian Flu?