Firstly, I apologise in advance if I offend anyone here, but I’ll take that chance. Please just skip over this post if you start getting annoyed – or failing that, get it all out your system in the comments below 🙂
Ever since the Little Monster was born there’s been an underlying obsessional talking point with just about every single mother and grandmother.
The obsession I’m talking about is Chicken Pox.
Every playgroup, play-date, softplay, nursery, mum’s group – the second someone mentions the ‘pox’ the conversation plunders into varying degrees of nostalgia (I had it when I was blah blah years old); personal experience (oh my little darling had it when she was 9 months. What a great age because there’s no scars on her beautiful face); diagnostics (has your child sneezed today? oh that could be chicken pox) and TMI (Oh she had it down there. It was red and….gag)
But I’m finding there’s a new approach nowadays (and maybe when I was young, but I was totally unaware of it then). Apparently its relatively common for mum’s to arrange ‘Chicken Pox parties’ and offer their children up as a disease catching machine, taking them to other kids with chicken pox with the aim of catching it (would you like jelly and ice cream with your itchiness?). The latest though probably goes just one step too far. I’ve now heard of something called ‘Chicken Pox Lollies’ in which mums are getting their chicken pox infested child to lick a lollipop and sending it to another kid to spread the germs.
Has this gone too far or have I just missed the point? I know full well how dangerous it is for a pregnant woman to get chicken pox, but doesn’t there come a point, when the ridiculous becomes reality, that we need to take a step back and stop putting pressure on every minute of our kids lives? I don’t know, maybe not. My little monster has been with a number of kids within a few days of them coming out with chicken pox and she still hasn’t caught it. I’m not feeling that stressed out about it yet. Maybe I should?
I have heard of chicken pox parties, urban myth or not I cannot say, but chicken pox lollies? That is just beyond any sane reasoning surely!? Yet we live in a world where fact belies belief on a regular basis, so it is most probably true.
My Daughter caught chicken pox in her own time, she caught it and suffered as nature saw fit, without any manipulation on our part. Would I allow my Daughter to eat a ‘second hand’ lolly, so that she could catch chicken pox? – not on your life! Nor would any sane person surely.
I do hope both parties and lollies are urban myth, but I do know of parents that take their kids to other children who have chicken pox.
I’m with you – i’ll wait until nature takes its course. And then if it still hasn’t happened, she can decide whether to look into having a vaccine – which is another option