Contagious?? Please stay away!

Last week we hosted my daughter’s 1st birthday. Doesn’t she look cute?

All was well and good. She’s our fourth kid so we’ve gone from hosting Gatsby-like parties for our first child, to just having close family over. Being family, no one wants to miss out. In some ways there is a social obligation for family members to turn up even if you are the carrier of Ebola. To speed the story up a bit, well-meaning family turned up to the party carrying what appeared to be the plague. Nameless individuals proceeded to hug, kiss and smooch my daughter. It was her first birthday after all. Fast forward a week and this is the outcome.

We have had many sleepless nights, fevers, tears and boogers galore. The contagion has spread to my wife who has remained in bed for the past two days. My son appears to be the next victim in the line-up. Five other family members from the disease fest birthday have also succumbed to the dreaded plague. I had pondered nuking the house á la the movie Outbreak to stop the spread of the disease, but decided the E.T. ‘lockdown’ approach was more reasonable.

While nursing a screeching baby from 2-5am, I have had the chance to stop and reflect a little. Why is spreading illness not considered a massive faux pas in Western society? In some ways having someone turn up and punching me in the nuts would leave less lasting damage. It also wouldn’t adversely affect my wife and kids. Having a household rockin’ zombie-esque symptoms means almost a fortnight of suffering as the colds are shared back and forth.

Not all cultures around the world are like this however. I used to find those that wore face masks on their faces to look a little humorous. Are they doctors on their way to surgery? What’s that about? was my obtuse thinking.
In my travels to Japan I queried the use of facial masks. “We use it for two reasons: For protection against germs and to protect others from germs,” a local informed me. Sitting there on a crowded subway coughing and spluttering is considered to epitomise selfishness. This makes logical sense. Transmitting disease amongst thirty people on a train with your germs seems the pinnacle of insensitivity.

I don’t blame my family for ‘spreading the love’ on my daughter’s birthday. Okay that’s a lie. There’s evidently a tone in this post that reflects that I do. Perhaps, what I mean to say is that I get it. On one extreme calling up and coughing into the mouthpiece to say “I can’t make it. I’m sick,” makes you seem like a disinterested faker. If I’ve ever rarely needed to call in sick at work, those phone calls make me feel squeamish.

On the other hand there can be a desire not to miss out on important events. If you are a grandparent, there will be only one first birthday for each grandchild, so I get it. You’d want to be there come hell or high water.

Another possibility is that the transmission of diseases is essentially invisible. As a disease carrier, you are unwittingly a silent assassin. No one can definitively put the blame on you. How can you truly link an illness to another person? You might have a hunch, but you wouldn’t bet the ranch over it.

Most likely there was nothing even remotely sinister that occurred. People simply don’t realise how diseases are transmitted.

In my workplace I get affectionately heckled for eating pizza with a knife and fork and for washing my hands on a continual basis.
“Germophobe.”
“Howard Hughes."
Either way my 37 years gastro free is testament to the virtues of good hygiene.

Maybe germs, colds and illnesses are a necessary fact of life. Perhaps this writing will offend my family and I should have used an alter ego when creating my Steemit account. Either way, I just wish that my family were all well and we could all feel secure enough to say that we are sick and cannot make it to an important family event.

Maybe one day technology will bridge the gap and help those who are sick to participate in their own Skype styled party.

Maybe we will adopt Japanese principles where people can unabashedly say they are sick.

Who knows? I don’t really have the answer. Sometimes it is just hard to see your family sick. Thanks for allowing me to vent Steemit!