Anonymous wrote:PSA - get your flu shots in August. people! At least two weeks before school opens.

There is no reason to delay flu shots till October so that it can last till March. Your kids will mostly fall ill in Sept, Oct, Nov and Dec - when school opens, and when there is much holiday travelling.

It all calms down by Jan, Feb, March - because people get immunity. So, don't wait for your flu vaccine.

We tried to get our toddler his flu shot at his 18 month checkup in mid September but my pediatrician didn't have them yet. We then got an appointment for last week but we had to cancel because he was sick. Weren't able to reschedule until next Friday. Very frustrating.

Our worst so far was RSV last month (kid one got it; kid two got it; I got it; both kids got ear infections the next day -- I think we missed two weeks of childcare overall but honestly it's a bit of a blur). I feel like we just finished that round of antibiotics when kid 2 came home with another daycare cold.

I don't know if it's different kids or there's more or worse stuff circulating this year or if I just hadn't realized how much a cold every 1-2 months compounded with two kids but I'm exhausted.

I'm with you. I thought last year was going to be the worst year because my kid had to catch up on all the illnesses she'd missed out on during school closures. I thought for sure this year would be better.

Nope. She's been sick twice already and both times bad enough to miss a full week of school (like not just little cold viruses -- RSV and then something else that was like RSV but not Covid but taking forever to resolve). It's exhausting. I've been working at night the last week because I have work deadlines I can't push back but I've also had a sick kid at home that needed lots of actual care (not just some sniffles but like vomiting and fever). I'm so tired and the worst part is that last night I started to feel sick, so now I'm going to have to work through that. Ugh.

Anonymous wrote:PSA - get your flu shots in August. people! At least two weeks before school opens.

There is no reason to delay flu shots till October so that it can last till March. Your kids will mostly fall ill in Sept, Oct, Nov and Dec - when school opens, and when there is much holiday travelling.

It all calms down by Jan, Feb, March - because people get immunity. So, don't wait for your flu vaccine.

Rounding up my kids to go to Kaiser permanente for flu shots during their limited hours is a struggle. We don’t live close. I know I should just go to CVS but it’s like $100+ for us.

Anonymous wrote:So sorry to hear this.
I would have helped you if you were my neighbor. At least your house would be clean, laundry done and meals cooked. I could babysit your children as long as they were not contagious.

Op here. Thanks but even laundry is insane right now. I did 7 loads yesterday (5 were just sheets, quilts and mattress pads). Vomiting is not good. Im pretty type A and so the disaster of a house is adding to my mood. But how can I pickup or clean when the baby just wants held and cries on my shoulder all day?

PSA - get your flu shots in August. people! At least two weeks before school opens.

There is no reason to delay flu shots till October so that it can last till March. Your kids will mostly fall ill in Sept, Oct, Nov and Dec - when school opens, and when there is much holiday travelling.

It all calms down by Jan, Feb, March - because people get immunity. So, don't wait for your flu vaccine.

Anonymous wrote:Hang in there it gets better. Hopefully you have hit a run of bad luck.

Just one suggestion - book drop in daycare or school day out camps for those 2 Mondays. Assuming your kids are healthy enough to go, you'll be able to work.

This is exactly what I was going to suggest. If they are elementary age, there are day camps for these random days off. I always book a few as soon I read about them. I don't mind taking off a day here or there, but I don't want to do all of them, so having a camp already booked helps us all.

Also, your DH needs to be doing more to keep the house running when he is at home. If the house is a wreck, he's not pulling his weight.

So sorry to hear this.
I would have helped you if you were my neighbor. At least your house would be clean, laundry done and meals cooked. I could babysit your children as long as they were not contagious.

Anonymous wrote:We have a baby in the house and an older preschooler and second grader. In the last 52 weeks, I have had a kid sick enough to stay home 43 of them. That included staying home from camp this summer too. I also tend to be more liberal on sending my kids to school so they aren’t staying home for just a runny nose. Name the illness and one of my kids has it. One even had chicken pox though she was vaccinated against it.

Also, I can’t attribute it to being masked up as neither of my older kids were required to mask in daycare and as someone who worked for FEMA, I was still in the office during covid.

Omg that’s insane!

My kids have been sick nonstop. My kids actually got influenza in the summer. My aunt and 90 year old grandma flew to visit us. We were perfectly fine and then my kids got sick halfway through. Both my aunt and grandma ended up in the hospital. My aunt for a week. Basically my kids tried to kill them.

I feel you. I just have one toddler and he's been sick for a week. This is his first sickness of the season but I'm already nearly out of leave (we had a lot of sicknesses in the spring). Sounds like a lot of my coworkers kids of have been sick the past few weeks as well.

Anonymous wrote:Hang in there it gets better. Hopefully you have hit a run of bad luck.

Just one suggestion - book drop in daycare or school day out camps for those 2 Mondays. Assuming your kids are healthy enough to go, you'll be able to work.

Definitely. My preschooler is open on all school holidays and kid is going if healthy. The ES kid is going to aftercare for days off.

Yup. My 3 year old started preschool as we said goodbye to nanny in summer and shes been sick every other week since Labor day. The 6 year old has been sick too but less. And then i get at every cold from the kids. We all had covid in summer and these colds are worse and linger much longer for me.

We have a baby in the house and an older preschooler and second grader. In the last 52 weeks, I have had a kid sick enough to stay home 43 of them. That included staying home from camp this summer too. I also tend to be more liberal on sending my kids to school so they aren’t staying home for just a runny nose. Name the illness and one of my kids has it. One even had chicken pox though she was vaccinated against it.

Also, I can’t attribute it to being masked up as neither of my older kids were required to mask in daycare and as someone who worked for FEMA, I was still in the office during covid.

Hang in there it gets better. Hopefully you have hit a run of bad luck.

Just one suggestion - book drop in daycare or school day out camps for those 2 Mondays. Assuming your kids are healthy enough to go, you'll be able to work.

It’s the middle of October and my kids have collectively already been sick for 3 weeks straight. I’m just so worn out, the house is trashed and now I’m sick too (just weak, congested and dizzy). I’m dreading winter. It’s giving me flashbacks to Covid too where i worked at home with screaming kids all day and had no help available.

Dh and I are working together to fill in gaps but he can’t telework and I can. I haven’t been able to get any work done and things are falling apart at work. My family is immunocompromised so they can’t help. We’re running out of leave and likely won’t be able to see our families over the holidays now too. Oh and the next two Monday’s are school holidays too that we need to take off for.

Anyone else here already? Normally I only feel this way in late January or early February when I’m out of leave.