Back to the point about people not going to work etc when they're sick. It doesn't bother me too much when adults go to work sick (unless they're telling me all the gory details!) because I figure if they feel unwell they will go to the bathroom, when they've been will flush and wash their hands and so on.

Wat does bother me is when parents knowingly send their children to school sick. I work with 4-7 year olds who don't always know when they're going to vomit (or have diarrhoea!), they don't always wash their hands (at all, never mind with soap and for 20 seconds!) Besides, we are a school, for teaching kids, not a hospital for sick kids, or a daycare just for looking after kids. If our attention is taken up by one child who is unwell, it means the other kids are missing out. We can't teach a kid who is sick. And the parents seem to think that it's OK to do this so they don't have to take time off work, so they'd rather expose all the kids and staff and make them have to have time off!

Obviously, I don't expect parents to keep kids off for every little sniffle or cough, but we have had kids sent in with chickenpox, hand foot and mouth, and all sorts before, this is a big deal because there are two members of staff who are taking immune suppressant drugs and children with chronic health problems, who could get very ill from viruses like these.