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Kathryn has been a bit under the weather the last several days. Just your general pink eye, with cold symptoms, complicated by asthma troubles that seem to have flared up here with the pollution. So I took her to the Dr. yesterday just to be cautious. She said she thought all the symptoms were a related virus. Her eyes were clearing up and she wasn't running much of a fever. "Should I send her back to school?", I asked.
"Sure. Why not?"
"I mean, is she contagious?"
"Well probably, but not more than anyone else!"

Hmmm....

I always base my decisions about "should I send her to school?" on this premise: If I were another kid's parent, would I appreciate you sending your kid to be around my kid? You know those days when they aren't THAT sick and you just REALLY want to send them but you KNOW you shouldn't?? I try to stick to my gut here. But after doing a little investigation spurred on by this conversation, I discovered Chinese parents don't have this philosophy. They more you expose them to germs, the more their bodies will become immune to them. I think I'm OK with this to a degree, as long as you're not talking about flu, chicken pox, and other such highly infectious and nasty bugs which land you in bed for weeks... I mean if Kathryn's classmates are sick just like her, then why not just send her with pink eye just to help their immune systems grow?? It's a wonder any of us ever make it to adulthood!