Friday, February 23, 2018

School is a giant petri dish

When my son went to daycare for the very first time, he got sick. When he moved from the infant room to the next room, he got sick. When a new child joined his room, he got sick.

And when he got sick, we got sick. And we thought about how he was new to the world, and new to germs and we hoped his getting sick now would make him stronger later on in life.

I can say now - seven years later - my son doesn't get sick very often. Is it due to all the germs he picked up as an infant? I don't have proof, but I'd like to think so. 

Now, when I visit his current school, I notice that there is never a time when everyone there is healthy. Some poor little child is always sick, and I feel bad for the teachers that are constantly exposed to what must be a giant Petri dish of infectious diseases.

What I can also say now - seven years later - is that my husband and I don't get sick very often either. Is this because our immune systems are made stronger from those years of exposure during daycare? There's some evidence to support that theory. And that is great news for us, because when we do get sick as adults, it takes us way longer to recover.

(Why the scientific community hasn't studied teacher's immune systems yet, astounds me. I mean, those brave souls are exposed to every disease known to mankind and probably a dozen that we don't have names for yet, and still rarely come down with illnesses. I am pretty sure they are all super human at this point.)

So, whenever a parent tells me that they are about to enroll their child into daycare, I try to give them the warning that they will all get sick. But I also try to tell them that it will be OK in the long run.

What's the worst sickness your child brought home from school that you also caught? Tell me (but not in a ton of yucky details) in the comments.

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