I read a strange bit of news over the weekend. It seems that people want their children to get chicken pox instead of the vaccination so they are having pox parties and mailing virus laden lollipops and such to other who cannot get their children to a pox party. I think that is a little strange.
I can understand wanting your child to get chicken pox, to a point. When Hailey was four her pediatrician wanted to vaccinate her against chicken pox. The vaccine was fairly new at the time and I was unsure of it so I asked if we could wait until before she went to kindergarten. My reasoning was chicken pox is almost a rite of passage, everyone gets it and gets over it. If Hailey hadn’t gotten the chicken pox before she started school I was willing to vaccinate her, I know the older you are when you get chicken pox the worse they can be.
Hailey had been exposed to chicken pox several times but hadn’t gotten them. I guess we were, in our own way, having pox parties. If a child in the neighborhood had chicken pox, the rest of us sent our children over to play at the infected child’s house. Our reasoning was get them and get it over with. So when Hailey’s daycare mom called and said all three of her girls had chicken pox I wasn’t concerned. I thought if she gets them great, if she doesn’t, oh well. Of, course, I was married at the time so everything didn’t rest on my shoulders.
Anna’s children had fairly mild cases and Hailey did manage to catch them. At first I was grateful that she wouldn’t have to be vaccinated. By the second day I decided I was out of my mind. My poor daughter was miserable, she had chicken pox on the bottom of her feet so bad that it hurt to walk but the ones on her torso made it excruciating for us to pick her up. I spent a lot of time kicking myself for not getting her vaccinated.
Once I was divorced it was my goal to keep Hailey as healthy as possible, I would never have exposed her to a contagious disease at that time. My priorities had changed. If Hailey was sick I couldn’t work, if I couldn’t work, I couldn’t support us, I needed to keep her well.
Now I think children are better off vaccinated. Not only does it eliminate a week of being miserable for your child but it also cuts down on the time single mothers need to miss from work. If I had to do it all over again I would have vaccinated when her pediatrician recommended it.