Attending When Sick

[jbergsing]

I'm curious about what people really do on Sunday morning when they aren't feeling 100%. This is a major struggle with us as we have 4 kids and someone always seems to be sick or at least have a cough or runny nose. For me, I don't like to miss service so just give me some drugs to counter the effects and I'm there. But my wife disagrees. It seems that if one kid has even a mild sniffle, she's calling off service for that day. So I threw this poll up to see other's ideas on the matter.

 

[Contra Marcion]

I'm an ER nurse by trade, so my poor kids have to be sicker than the patients I see at work for me to call off worship. They probably hate that!

 

[Ivan]

Its no act of Christian love to assemble and spread your germs. One need not be stoic to be a good Christian. If sick, rest at home and keep your germs to yourself.

Which means you have to be "real sick" not to attend.

 

[G.Wetmore]

I think this all depends about if you have kids and how old they are. My daughter is 2 1/2 and if there ond of the kids in her sunday school class is sick, they all get sick. If you have kids that don't know how to contain their germs, you should keep them home, even if they are well enought to make it through Church. The question shouldn't just be can I do this, but do you want to go get a bunch of other families sick. I always get annoyed if I go to pick my daughter up from her sunday school class and I can tell that another kid is sick. Because inevitable our whole family gets sick and I'll often end up missing a day of work, etc.

So if you have young germ spreading kids, I say keep them home if they show signs of being sick, not because they can't make it through the service, but for the sake of all the other families. I know some people think that they are die hard and are just being good Christians when they still come to church when their sick, but it's not always loving to your neighbor


If you don't have young kids it's a different story. Go if you feel like you aren't a germ threat and you like you can make it through the service.

 

[kvanlaan]

We actually have rules at fellowship with regards to that sort of thing. Green/yellow streamers down the face = no Sunday school. They can stay with you in the service then, but there are a lot of kids at our fellowship, and I'm sort with Trevor on the whole germ thing.

Trevor, check your U2U.

 

[Davidius]

I chose the first one.

 

[jbergsing]

We actually have rules at fellowship with regards to that sort of thing. Green/yellow streamers down the face = no Sunday school. They can stay with you in the service then, but there are a lot of kids at our fellowship, and I'm sort with Trevor on the whole germ thing.

This isn't a bad rule. I don't tend to catch everything that's going around so the germ thing doesn't really bother me personally. However, we do have four children all 7 yrs. and under. I think if parents would apply the 'colored snot' rule there would be a significant decrease in children who are sick toward the middle of the week.

 

[reformedman]

Only if contagious, otherwise, even if I'm in pain or aches, I'd rather go to church than vegetate at home doing nothing.

When I have a severe headache I can't read so staying home would be a waste of time, I just wear ear plugs to lower the volume and sit in the pew at church, and absorb.

 

[Davidius]

Only if contagious, otherwise, even if I'm in pain or aches, I'd rather go to church than vegetate at home doing nothing.

I'm sure that those who stay at home don't opt to "vegetate at home doing nothing" as their alternative. Those I know who stay home when a family member is sick at least listen to a sermon, read the bible together, sing Psalms, etc.

 

[edb19]

As a practicing pediatric nurse for going on 30 years let me state for the record that the color of "snot" has nothing to do with how sick the person is (common old wives tale). Nasal drainage can ge discolored simply because it has been sitting in the nasal passages for a long time - but green or yellow drainage doesn't mean the infection is more severe.

At our house - a common cold or feeling "icky" is no reason to stay home. Either major fever or persistant vomiting/diarrhea would be a reason to miss worship.

 

[LadyFlynt]

I can't vote without the multiple choices.

When sick to the stomach.
Fever.
Colds depending on who and how long.

 

[Augusta]

Obviously someone with a fever or some other such thing is staying home. With colds it depends on the age of the kid and if they are good at covering their mouth etc. Our autistic son used to just cough all over and covered his mouth after the cough.

He is better at it now but he would not be going if he had fluids coming out. A cough may keep a kid home if it is severe and would be distracting in the service.

Diarrhea, of course, is a stay homer, especially if its the uncontrollable kind.

Stomach ache if it's a painful one is a stay homer.

With just a little thought it shouldn't be tough and the whole family doesn't have to stay home. We send whoever isn't sick with one parent and the other stays home as nurse.

 

[IanWatson]

I chose first option.

 

[calgal]

I can't vote without the multiple choices.

When sick to the stomach.
Fever.
Colds depending on who and how long.

Exactly! And are there lots of people who have compromised immune systems (going through chemo for example) who I would make sicker?

 

[JonathanHunt]

FOr me personally, I have to be physically prevented from going - rarely but usually because I have to stay near the bathroom!!!

For my wife, who has MS, much smaller issues can keep her away as she loses her balance, etc.

 

[5solasmom]

For us, if our children are "feeling icky" we stay home. If dh or I weren't feeling so great, we'd be more likely to all go.

We have 3 children age 8 and under. I am always very careful if they have runny noses or coughs (especially coughs...we had whooping cough go through our previous church and it hospitalized an infant who almost didn't make it and several other children in the church with the frightening "turn blue" coughing attacks for months after that). We want to be as considerate to others as we'd hope for them to be towards us if their children had the same thing.

The hard part for us is discerning when it's a cold vs. an allergy. Sometimes we stay home if we don't know, just to be safe.



So all that to say, I agree with Trevor -

Its no act of Christian love to assemble and spread your germs.