Earlier this year we had an outbreak of whooping cough at the university. We haven't had measles yet, but the Department of Health is worried about the outbreaks elsewhere spreading here. And now we have a case of chickenpox in a nearby small town. The parents sent the kid to school before they knew they had chickenpox, so the whole school is at risk.
Many local parents are shrugging this off. Getting chickenpox is good for the immune system, they ignorantly claim. Why, my grandmother had a "chickenpox party" for my mother when she was....
I mean, yeah. Parents did used to do that, because getting chickenpox as a child was safer than getting it as an adult, and no vaccine existed yet. But as someone who had chickenpox as a kid, I absolutely do not recommend this practice, now that we have a safe and tested vaccine.
You can tell these local parents have never been really sick in their lives. If they had lived through measles, mumps, and chickenpox all one winter when they were six years old (me), not to mention endless cases of strep throat (two or three times a year from the time I was five) and flu, they wouldn't think this was something to just shrug off.
Much less congratulate yourself over.
What terrible parenting.
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