The thing about having a toddler who goes to play group is they become germ incubators. They go around gathering germs wherever they go and bring the germs home to brew for a few days before displaying symptoms. By which time it is normally too late as you've been hugging, kissing and cuddling said germ-filled toddler for the past few days.
Which is why we had to cancel all activities this weekend. Zoey missed both her music and swimming classes today and will miss out on 2 play dates plus a birthday celebration tomorrow. She came down with a fever on Thursday night and her body has been fighting the germs ever since. Even though she is still active and playful, we decided to keep her home so as not to pass the germs on. Fortunately her body has been fighting the germs well, with the fever being fairly mild and only turning up in the evenings.
As you can see from this video taken this afternoon, she is very happy and active. You can't even tell that she's been having intermittent fever.
https://instagram.com/p/51246ZqiKT/?taken-by=ebelle24
Unfortunately, Irene has also come down with a throat infection that she is convinced she got from Zoey. So we are having a stay home weekend and not contributing to the vicious cycle of passing germs around.
This is the exact problem. Not enough people keep their children home when they are sick. Go to any childcare centre or play group and you will see one or two kids with a runny nose or cough. The kids normally look active and happy, but they are really germ infested and should be kept home. Yet many parents continue to send their unwell kids to school. I understand that some of them may not have alternative childcare options and they think a slight runny nose or cough should not matter. However, this is exactly how germs are spread. It is a vicious cycle. Which is why I feel more parents should be responsible and keep their children home from play group or school when their children are sick. At the same time, I feel play groups and schools should be more flexible when it comes to providing make up class options. This will encourage parents to miss classes when their children are sick, instead of worrying about how much the classes costs or how much their children are going to miss out. For us, we have selected schools with a fair policy when it comes to make up classes, so the decision to keep Zoey home is an easy choice.
Fortunately, quarantine weekends don't have to be boring. While Zoey didn't get to go to music or swimming class today, she got to dance around to music, run along our corridor catching bubbles, play make believe shopping by pushing Elmo around the house in her toy stroller and read a number of storybooks . Irene is spending the weekend resting and doing some online coding course. I've had time to upgrade to Windows 10, do a bit of writing and work on my book. So even though we've had to cancel our plans, we are still enjoying the weekend. :)
