Banned from Nursery

To be considerate of the other twenty children in Nursery A and the ten Sunbeams in the B class, I'm staying home from church with my little ones today. They have runny noses and coughs and we decided not to recirculate the germs.

We hate being sick. I don't know anyone who especially enjoys it. I also don't like missing church. And there are times when I'm tempted to just pack up the little sick ones, wipe their noses really well and send them into Nursery/Primary. But, for years I've heard my mother-in-law complain in her not-so-soft church voice: "Just listen to that cough. They should be at home in bed and not spreading the germs." So true. If you're sick, why do you go to church? Do you think we will admire your dedication to come even with your head full of snot?

Now, my mother-in-law is the type that if she or a loved one gets sick, she'll try to track down the germs and if she could, she would sue for damages. We all know that it's nearly impossible to contain cold germs, the Swine flu, or the especially dreaded stomach bug. We can stay home. We can spray down the world with Lysol; wash our hands every few minutes and down copious amounts of Vitamin C but occasionally we will still get sick and even spread the misery.

During the summer of 2004, my husband and our two oldest children were living with my in-laws. On a Tuesday, Amberly, who was just one year old, threw up a few times. She didn't act very sick and was completely better and eating by Wednesday.

On Friday, I packed up Neal and Amberly and we drove to my parents' house in Vernal to attend a baby shower for a sister-in-law. My entire family was there. I put the kids to bed and stayed up late playing games and visiting with my siblings and their spouses. I finally headed to bed about one o'clock in the morning. I wasn't in bed for very long when I started to feel awful. I spent the rest of the night sprawled on the hallway floor outside the bathroom door or draped over the toilet.

I was just feeling better (although exhausted and weak) when the sun started coming up and Neal (three years old at the time) woke up crying. I wish he had been able to make it to the toilet. Neal and I quarantined ourselves to the back bedroom where we spent the day alternating between sleep and cleaning up messes. My mom watched Amberly and the others went to the baby shower.

Meanwhile, my in-law's home was full with the regular summer visitors. My husband's sister and her family were visiting from Texas. His brother was also visiting. The stomach bug was wreaking it's terror on them as well. Picture a house full of whining, sick adults--it's ugly. My husband and his sister were the only ones spared. They went out to dinner together and made grisly jokes about later vomiting their delicious meal.

My niece had gone with her fiance to meet his family that weekend. They were just arriving at the cabin when she started feeling sick. She made quite the impression on her "new" family.

Saturday evening, after the baby shower, my siblings headed back to their homes along the Wasatch Front. Still feeling weak, I decided that the kids and I better wait another day before driving home. I didn't want to clean up vomit in the car. By Sunday we were fine and ready to go home. We were barely out the door, when my mom got sick.

My brother and his wife and their little son and daughter were also sick by Sunday night. Her mother came to help take care of them and . . . well, you know the rest.

We never knew the full damage of that special stomach bug and although we tried, we weren't able to determine just where Amberly had picked up the germs (no one would admit anything). But I felt horrible and responsible and just really grateful that my family still speaks to me.

And so, today we are staying home. We are missing four baby blessings. My husband and Neal will have to report back on the meetings. This afternoon, we'll watch Legacy or The Testaments and read an extra chapter from The Book of Mormon while relaxing in our jammies and feeling confident that the sick kids in nursery didn't get it from us.

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