swine flu parties (house, neighborhood, high school)

[nismospec]

just saw this on the news this morning. parents opting to have "swine flu parties" to purposely expose their children to the virus so they can prepare for the illness.

C'MON!!!! is this what the world has come to? purposely subjecting your children to an illness so you can save time?

that's just sick parents......just plain sick.

[merc11ty]

sounds like what people did with the chicken pox.

[dmmjsm]

Yes- sounds like chicken pox parties. No thanks.

[20yrsinBranson]

Originally Posted by nismospec

just saw this on the news this morning. parents opting to have "swine flu parties" to purposely expose their children to the virus so they can prepare for the illness.

C'MON!!!! is this what the world has come to? purposely subjecting your children to an illness so you can save time?

that's just sick parents......just plain sick.

Strangely enough people have been doing this for decades. It's called building up your immune system. Back in the 1960s when I was a kid, when someone in the neighborhood got chicken pox or measles or some other such childhood malady *everybody* shuttled their offspring over to the house and exposed their kids to the illness, hoping that they would all get it at the same time and a good, strong, immunity would be built up. People who never "catch" anything do not have any antibodies and are prone to a lot of illness later on.

I think it is a fantastic idea myself. MUCH better and more effective than injecting KNOWN poisons into your child, IMHO.

Besides, the "swine flu" pandemic that the government keeps spouting about just doesn't seem to be happening to the degree that they warned us about. Better to get it now, get over it in a week or 10 days and move on with your life.

20yrsinBranson

[nismospec]

so if anyone sends their kids to these parties and they have a severe reaction that results in a death, i'd better not hear any crying from any parents....

[Texan in Virginia]

I never understood nor participated in chicken pox parties and this strikes me as even worse.

Have to wonder when a child becomes critically ill or dies, whose fault will it be? Certainly the parents who chose to expose their child will NOT accept the responsibility!

Stupid is as stupid does!

Lori

[eger]

Do they at least serve cake at these parties, have entertainment for the kids, or do they just sneeze on one another?

[dmarie123]

That is so irresponsible. If you don't give your kid the shot, at least let nature take it's course. What if your child was starting to come down the regular flu, and wasn't showing symptoms yet... and the next thing you know your child is battling both flus at the same time, on a ventilator, and ends up dying. That's a lot of guilt for the rest of your life.

[eger]

Natural Selection

[stoneoak]

I understand wanting to expose the kids to chicken pox when they were young (and before the vaccine). My mom and doc were beside themselves as I went through grade school, middle, high school and college with no chicken pox. (Had an aunt who didn't have the pox until adulthood and she became seriously ill.) So yes, I was thrown next to Bobby or Janie or whoever happened to have the chicken pox that week while growing up.

But the swine flu...ah, no. As a mom I would not take the risk. More than 400 people have died from this virus since April, including two young children just last week. I'm not making the kids live in a bubble, if we get it we'll deal with it, but I'm also not going to intentionally jump into that line of fire. Play with fire, you get burned.