Why should anyone have to lie? To me, that is trying to hide the real issue, or gives the impression that you are ashamed of this fear. I don't think it is necessarily inreasonable to ask if anyone has been sick recently- it is your house, your kid, and you don't have to make excuses or justifications for asking.


However, you have to be prepared for the ramifications of the answer- what if one of the parents say that last week their daughter was sick, but now they are fine. What are you going to do? Tell her that she can't come? How is your daughter going to react? Is this knowledge just going to make you more anxious?


BUT- from what I understood from your post, you are only tal king about one child sleeping over, and a family member at that. If I were you, I would get it over with soon, as the longer you let the issue fester, the longer you have to build it up in your mind as a potential disaster. It's likely that you are going to be anxious about this no matter WHEN it occurs, so waiting is not necessarily an advantage to you.


Maybe to make yourself less anxious, you can make sure that they don't have a lot of junk and other stuff which may lead to an upset stomach. If you want to serve soda, serve ginger ale- instead of a lot of candy, maybe you guys can bake cookies together- instead of massive amounts of chips and popcorn, make sure that there are cut veggies and fruit with dip, etc. It will not only be better for them, but less likely to give them the stomach ickies.


Goodluck!


*amber*