As a mom, the beginning of the new school year brings out a lot of
emotions: anticipation about who my boys’ new teachers will be; judgment about
the new friends they might make (admit it, you do it); excitement that school
starting means football season; and resignation that my baby boys are growing
up too quickly. But there is another resounding emotion that the
beginning of school elicits from me – dread. Consuming dread and anxiety about
the little germ factories that the boys become after a week into the new school
year.
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Photo: Dimitry Rabkin, Flickr creative commons |
Maybe one’s immune system instantly gets weaker after turning 40.
Or, maybe someone was listening a couple of years ago when Taylor was
projectile vomiting whilst crying, and simultaneously, nastiness was coming out
of Harlan’s … south end zone … when I yelled, “Let me be the sick
one. Give it all to me and spare my precious children!” Either way, since then
I catch every stupid bug that my little Petri dishes bring home.
And this is not a theory. Harvard
researchers matched hacking adults' visits to Boston-area emergency rooms with
Census data for 55 ZIP codes. Flu-like symptoms struck first and worst in the ZIP codes that were home to the most kids. I live in Denver's Stapleton neighborhood, where we
average about 10 kids for every house. We are like the mother ship for urgent
care facilities and drug companies.
But really, common sense tells us that, if
we take precautions, we can reduce the number of times that we, and those in
our families, get sick. Of course, I don’t believe that for a minute. I am
still convinced that I will get everything that goes around due to my deal with
some higher power to spare my children. The sacrifices we mothers make.
Nonetheless, I want to pass along some tips anyhow.
There are plenty of ways to pick up a bug,
but there is also information online about how to protect your family (and
yourself). The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has some
helpful information about immunizations,
and some illness prevention
guidelines for schools and daycare centers. And the federal government has lots good information about the flu.
So, happy back to school to you! May you
have a year free of Kleenex stock-boosting nose blows and purple Dimetapp barf.