Went to bed last night, did NOT get up even once. I woke to him YELLING at Summer to get him a pop tart! Nice. Hope it wasn't just a fluke and it continues tonight.A BIG thank you to you all for support on the big boy bed saga and especially for supporting me on my "thing" that most of you knew nothing about. I cannot tell you how badly I needed my friends on this. I will say one last thing about the entire situation. There is a lot of bad things that can happen to our families. Getting our children vaccinated is an important way to keep them safe, as well as a responsibility to the community that we live in. Anyone not vaccinated is a danger to our kids and our community as a whole. PERIOD. I have taken so called "risks" and have vaccinated all my children, as I am sure most(if not all) of you have. So after making that decision, how can we possibly expose our babies to someone who chooses not to follow Doctors guidelines and refuses to vaccinate? It would be irresponsible. These people are depending on the rest of us to keep their kids safe. I am just putting it out there that even if your kids have all of their shots, they are still at risk of contracting illness from an unvaccinated child. Know who your kids play with, know if these children come into your home or are even accepted at your daycare(usually they are not accepted). And know that it only takes 1 unvaccinated child, exposed to someone who has been out of the country(even at the grocery store, as these are highly contagious diseases) to catch and spread disease that most of us think of as being wiped out. and it only takes one vaccine that was not properly stored to allow OUR children to catch this. This doesn't even bring into account mutations.
So that is it. Longer than I had planned. I felt responsible to share what I have learned on this subject over the last 2 weeks.
I have lost a dear friend over her choice not to vaccinate her son. Its gotten a bit nasty. And that sucks. Many have told me that hers is such a selfish decision that I am better off. We'll see. It just makes me so sad. The support here was overwhelming. And again, thank you. Thanks for listening to more of the story.
6 comments:
Oh Jennie, I am very sorry that you had tho go through your "thing", but you are 100% right. I think it is very selfish on the "other" mom's part to think that she has the "right" not to. Yes, there maybe a risk, but the risk for catching a horrible disease is SO MUCH GREATER!!! And to know that your child could potentially have something "go wrong" is not acceptable. There are plenty of things in life that we have zero control over, but things that we do, as mom's we have to keep our control. It is our job...NO MATTER WHAT...to keep our children safe...NO MATTER WHAT THE COST. I am sorry if you lost a friendship over this. For the record, I do vaccinate my children and give them the flu shot. That is an issue in itself. I know plenty of people (including kids at my daycare that do not) and you know "those" kids are the ones (until this year) that were in school and would "bring" it to daycare. Not good. All I can do is continue giving them the flu shot and hoping for the best. But every year when one of MY kids gets sick, you can bet that Jimmy and I cursing the other mom!!! Some would say that proves the flu shot does not work. I disagree, I think they get it "less" and if everyone did it, it might PREVENT something.
Sorry about that...just know I have your back and agree with you 100%
Good job Grady on sleeping in your bed all night. The question is mom, were you up all night waiting for him to wake up or did you actually get some sleep???
WAY TO GO GRADY! This is such a big step! As for your "thing", Way to Go for being so strong. I knew you could do it! At least you will know your children are safe and YOU DID make the right choice!!
Hi Jen... I am living vicariously (sp?)through your postings and I totally appreciate your prespective and sharing your challenges... I am not really at liberty to give advice because I am not a mommy (yet!) but I can do my best to offer support!
I had to comment about the vaccinations - during our small group on Sunday, this was THE topic. Holy Cow. We had a pretty lively debate going on, and it was all very educational to me. I could not agree with you more, and your kids should be so proud to have a strong mom like you (same goes for my other mommy friends out there - you all ROCK!)
I am learning so much from you all... lets just hope I can get pregnant : )
I, too, vaccinate my children. There are no other options for me. Diseases that we thought were "gone" are back in the US again because of ignorance. Way to be strong!! I truly am sorry for your loss. What a hard pill to swallow. Rock on, girlfriend!!
(this is in response to the comment left by Kristen about the flu shot)
Just for the record- I also vaccinate my children, but I choose not to give them the "flu" shot. I have my own reasons why I do not give them this vaccination. I do not feel this makes me an irresponsible parent and it should not put me in the classification of one of "THOSE" moms. The flu shot protects againist INFLUENZA. Influenza is not a case of a low fever and sniffles that keeps you home in bed for a day or an upset stomach.... Which I am sure is what you are referring to that your children got from day care. Influenza is a viral infection of the lungs characterized by fever, cough, and severe muscle aches that will usually leave you on your back for days. There are hundreds of influenza strains and the actual vaccination only safe guards you 60-70% for a small handful of these strains.
P.S. I hope Jen doesn't mind her blog being used as a "flu" vaccination debate! :)
-Lori
I could probably write a book on this subject but I'll try to keep it short. Number one, I think everyone needs to vaccinate their children. Not only as a measure to protect your children but as a measure to protect others children as well. We go to a church where there are several homeschool families that do not vaccinate. I stronly dissagree with this practice. The reasons why our generation has not suffered from deaths and such from the effects from mumps, measels, and rubella is because of the vaccinations we received as children. Do we want our children to suffer these illnesses? no. I also believe the flu vaccination is VERY important for EVERYONE to get. We made the horrible mistake of not vaccinating last year. Half of my family including my little Joey were extremely ill with influenza for 3 weeks. Joey then got another strand of it 6 weeks later and was sick for another 2 weeks. I think if more people would get the vaccine we would have less influenza outbreaks to begin with. We are a family that keep our children home when they are sick. our motto is fever free and vomit free for 24 hours before they go back into public.
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