The Chicken Pox Post Got me Thinking

[lolane]

Does anyone else remember chicken pox parties? When I was a kid I remember it was standard for parents to bring their children who had not yet had chicken pox over to play with a child who was currently infected. It seemed every parent wanted their child to get it, and get it over with. I remember too that once you gave someone else chicken pox you could go over and play with them once you were better.

Maybe it's just me...

[RegionMom]

When a class at my kids preschool had several come down with the Pox, I escorted my kids to go and play in that classroom!
They did NoT get it, and I had to do the vaccine for school 2 years later. 
Now I hear the vaccine is only for 10 years?  What about shingles?
i dunno. 
Chicken Pox was not so bad. 
Toughens you up as a child?  I know most vaccines are great to prevent deadly and debilitating diseases.  Pox was to me just itchy.
oh well. 
have not heard of any Pox parties in decades now. 

[Clara Bow]

I infected the entire second grade when I had it as a kid and nearly killed a little boy who had leukemia...I still feel awful about that and he's been dead for nearly twenty years. I remember it so clearly....

[Venus193]

Oddly, I had never heard of this when I was a child, and I don't think my mother had, either.  I think I got it in kindergarten and the measles a year later, but I think it must have spread quickly without having to encourage it this way.

[Reika]

I don't remember parties or gatherings for chicken pox, I got off relatively lucky with a mild case of it, just a few sores, no fever or anything else. The doctor definitely said it was chicken pox and wished all of his patients got off so easily, or so mom says. I don't really remember age 4 too well.

What I do remember was being highly popular as a babysitter when it was making the rounds amongst the little ones of friends of my mother and stepfather because mom knew I had chicken pox. With the number of kids I watched if I was going to get it again, I would've then, instead I had the joy of figuring out how to keep kids who were suffering from cabin fever busy. I think that's where I learned to think on my feet.

[Sandi Papaya]

I don't remember chicken pox parties, but I remember my 3-year-old cousin came home with it one day and we were encouraged to play with him, not that it was much fun playing with a cranky, itchy, crying toddler, even though he was nowhere near as ill as I was when I finally caught it.

A few days later, my 7-year-old brother caught it and I was encouraged to play with him, too, although I was at school most of the day, my mom was at work, and my brother was at my grandma's house. So by the time my mom collected my brother from my grandma's and me from school, I had too much homework (as a fifth-grader) and he was feeling too under the weather to play. It took me a couple more weeks, until about early February, to get it- I was ten, and since I was a little older than my brother and my cousin, I was ridiculously sick. I didn't get sores on the inside of my mouth, thank goodness, but I was covered in sores - especially my scalp - ouch. I couldn't even wash my hair, I was in such pain.

I wish they'd thought to expose me to someone else with the chicken pox when I was younger, so I could have gotten it over with earlier. The week(s) I was off school was one of the weeks our school spelling bee took place, and I had been our class winner. I had to miss the spelling bee, though, and I was devastated. Plus, that year brought some of the worst late-season storms and flooding in my lifetime, so I was trapped inside in miserable weather, sick and bored. Thank goodness I was also sent to stay at my grandma's, but I was so weak and sick that I begged my mom to let me stay at my grandma's house that whole two-week period (I say my grandma's, but we were just used to calling it that - both my grandparents on my mom's side are still alive). My mom would come over in the evenings and give me an oatmeal bath and a calamine rub and soothe me before she went back home every night for the whole two weeks I was sick.

That year brought some of the worst late-winter storm weather EVER to Northern CA, too, so I was glad I didn't have to go to school in that, even if I was pretty miserable. We didn't get a majority of the flooding and etc, but it was constant rain for the whole two weeks I was sick. I think my grandparents' basement flooded; I forget if it was that time or another time. It was torture - being sick, weak, itchy and being told not to scratch - but being with my grandparents was fun because I was grandpa's little girl (and still am) so I got all the treats I wanted (candy, ice cream, books and games to pass the time, etc), and my grandpa did everything he could to comfort me once my mom went home. It was a big help to my low spirits. He hated to see his little girl sick and suffering.

To this day, whenever I'm under the weather and my grandpa is here at my house, I will go and snuggle up with him because the reassurance always helps. Of course, I don't do this when I'm actually SICK, just when I'm not feeling emotionally well, because he's 81 now and in frailer health than when I was 10.

Still...I've never been to a chicken pox party. I don't think they're all that common now that there's a vaccine for the chicken pox, are they?

[Linda1967]

I don't remember going to a chicken pox party, so I don't remember how I caught it. I just remember that it was going around school when I was in the fourth grade, and I caught it over Christmas break. That was one miserable Christmas break because I was itching like crazy and because I couldn't go outside and play with my friends during our two weeks off from school (in Texas, the weather is often nice for outside play around Christmas). I got well just in time to go back to school, so I didn't even miss any school because of chicken pox.

I would rather have had it at 9 years old, however, than be like my poor co-worker who caught it earlier this year at age 40+. She thought she had chicken pox when she was a child, but it turns out that she didn't. She was very sick.

I now have a whole week off for Christmas because my university closes down the last weekday just before Christmas Eve and doesn't open again until Jan. 2. Last year - wouldn't you know it! - I had the flu over most of my Christmas break. I was miserable from Dec. 27 until Jan. 3 - I went back to work a day late because I had to see my doctor on Jan. 2. I'm hoping to stay healthy next week!
     

[Chartreuse]

I caught it over Christmas break. That was one miserable Christmas break because I was itching like crazy and because I couldn't go outside and play with my friends during our two weeks off from school (in Texas, the weather is often nice for outside play around Christmas). I got well just in time to go back to school, so I didn't even miss any school because of chicken pox.   

I had the same experience as a first grader.  Because all my cousins and siblings were younger than I was, there was a lot of hope in the extended family that the family festivities would infect everybody and we could get the chicken pox all taken care of as a bunch.  It didn't work out as planned at all.  My parents thought it was great that I didn't have to miss school, but I remember being ticked off that I felt like crap over my holiday break.   

[Gwywnnydd]

Does anyone else remember chicken pox parties?

I don't remember them for myself, but I know several mothers who are frank about the fact that they took their children to play with the local CP patient, in the hopes that they would catch it at a time when they would (probably) have an easy time, and wouldn't miss (too much) important schooling.

It's not an issue for me, as my DS had the Varicella vaccine (don't remember if it was required, but if not it was strongly recommended). But I didn't want the possibility of my DS getting it and giving it to my father (who hasn't had it, and wouldn't handle it well, now that he's in his 70s). 

[girlmusic]

For me it was kindergarten. According to my mom, one kid in the class infected everyone else. We were dropping like flies, table by table. I got it from the boy who sat next to me. He got it from the kid on the other side of him, etc. I just remember being told not to scratch because it would leave scars and being drenched in calamine lotion.

[Sandi Papaya]

I just remember being told not to scratch because it would leave scars and being drenched in calamine lotion.

That was both the best and worst part. Best: being drenched in calamine lotion (and being given plenty of Benadryl, so I was able to sleep at night, and not wake up itching) after a soothing bath with oatmeal soap. Worst: the itching and being told not to scratch b/c it would leave scars.

[blue2000]

I don't recall chicken pox parties, but we had an "accidental" one, lol!
There are three kids in my family, and we had three kids visiting us for a couple of weeks, and we all caught it at once! My mother was beside herself trying to deal with six itchy, bored, housebound kids (age two to nine, I think) but all I remember is being happy I didn't have to go to school.

[LadyJaneinMD]

I remember my mother trying to expose me, several times (to chicken pox!), but I never caught it.  In my 30s, I babysat 3 little boys who had it.  Nope, not me.  I'd hate to get it now, at 47, but it looks like I'm immune. 
My sister got it at 15 and she was totally miserable, while my little brother breezed through it at 7.  Oh well.

I did get my tonsils taken out when I was 23. That was a totally miserable experience.

[Gwywnnydd]

... but all I remember is being happy I didn't have to go to school.

I got mine before I started school, while we were on vacation, visiting my mother's family (across the country from home). Our return was delayed by a week and a half, and I got the unenviable (for a four-almost-five year old) experience of missing halloween, cause I was still quarantined. Oh, and when Daddy came out to join us for the shorter period of time he got vacation, he couldn't come into the same room as me, cause he hadn't had it. I was not a happy camper :}.

[kareng57]

Does anyone else remember chicken pox parties? When I was a kid I remember it was standard for parents to bring their children who had not yet had chicken pox over to play with a child who was currently infected. It seemed every parent wanted their child to get it, and get it over with. I remember too that once you gave someone else chicken pox you could go over and play with them once you were better.

Maybe it's just me...

I don't really "remember" them per se, but I do understand the sentiment.  Often, when kids who are only 3 or 4 get CP, they really don't feel that sick.  Just a few bothersome spots, no worse than mosquito bites.

But kids who are 6 and up often do feel much more ill.  So, in the pre-vaccine days I can understand parents wanting their kids to be exposed to CP before school-age.