"Oh ... Your Kid has WHAT?!"
By Mr.e

Who doesn’t like to get outside for some fresh air this time of year?

The clear blue skies and bright sunshine this morning clinched it. We hit the local playground with our daughter for some fun.
Another family who we’d never seen at this park before had the same idea.

In no time the kids were busy doing what kids do at playgrounds: play and have fun.

It wasn’t long before one of the other kids took an interest in the toy stroller that our daughter had schlepped along. The thought of her favorite doll being ‘kidnapped’ and her stroller used as a convenient get-away vehicle provided sufficient motive for her action. She rushed over to defend ‘her’ property, not yet able to distinguish between the natural curiosity of a younger toddler and brazen daylight thievery.

We quickly put the situation into toddler perspective and soon the two of them took turns pushing the toy stroller through the playground.

Then the other child, an older one, came over to see what was going on; all the while scratching at something under his shirt. The way his mother reminded him not to scratch alerted me that there was more than met the eye to this situation.

And when his mother physically picked up the boy and carried him a short distance away while over her shoulder telling us that they "really shouldn’t be in the playground because he has the Chicken Pox", I knew that we may be in for some unpleasantness a few days hence.

Gees, thanks Mrs. Mom. Thanks for waiting to tell us ‘after’ our daughter has played with your daughter for a while.

My first reaction was to administer a verbal assault on that woman and her husband; then run off with my daughter. No, I wanted to run off with my daughter and then come back and slap someone for being so irresponsible with other peoples’ health. OK, the slapping bit is a bit much and best left undone. I was a bit upset.

Well, the late news flash of the miserable affliction had the same effect as a party boat suddenly sinking. Things chilled between us pretty damned fast.

In terms of Chicken Pox, it may well be advisable to get it early and get it over with, but to whack someone with it broadside and not say anything until it’s too late? Not everyone thinks like that and people who do things like that end up looking like jerks, just because they assume that every parent thinks like that.

The practice of exposing their sick kids to other kids at playgrounds without telling the other parents that their kids have this or that contagious illness, prevents a more circumspect parent from making informed decisions re their children’s health.

I don’t like nasty surprises like this and of course I don’t look forward to seeing my wee one suffering through an illness that granted, could maim her for life if she were to contract it much later in life. No, I’ve never had any dealings with this illness and admit that I don’t want to either.

This may sound like the dark ages, but parents who think nothing of taking their ill kids out among healthy kids at playgrounds should at the very least carry a bell that sounds a warning if they don’t feel the need to verbally warn the people around them.

It would be a better world if everyone was a little more considerate of others health.