Maria Jordan MacKeigan is the mother of two daughters, Ana Maria and Jordan Grace.
Their story is a little different to most families, with Jordan born with Down Syndrome.
Jordan having Down Syndrome means Maria has to be constantly thinking ahead: the therapies and surgeries she may need, slight behavioural differences, and the constant worry of sickness.
In reality, there is only so much that Maria can do to protect her youngest daughter from illness, which could leave her hospitalised.
Maria has to trust other people to make safe decisions around her daughter to protect her life.
Recently, while taking Jordan to school, Maria turned up to see another mum dropping off her daughter, who was clearly very sick. When Maria explained the various impacts this could have on their family, the mum ignored her and left her daughter at school.
“I took Jordan Grace home. When my child gets the simple cold she may end up like this!” Maria wrote on Instagram.
“I can’t for the life of me understand why people would put others at risk ‘because they have so many things to do’ (FYI school is not the babysitting club) not only are others at risk but your own child needs you to cuddle them, to love them, to care for them back to health.
“I don’t want my child to go get others sick especially those who may end up in the hospital because their little bodies can’t fight the sickness off on their own.
“If we cared more about the world around us and not just ourselves this world would be a much better place!”
Vanessa Cranfield speaks to Mia Freedman about watching her daughter with Downs Syndrome become an adult. (Post continues after audio.)
Speaking to Cafe Mom, Maria explained the excuse the other mum to leave her daughter at school.
“Her daughter was coughing her poor little heart out, she was lethargic and attached to her mother,” she said.
“And she said that another kid was there sick, basically making it an excuse to leave her daughter…[the mother said] she had a lot of things to do, so she was bringing her to school.”
Jordan’s low immune system means contraction of an illness could have her in hospital, in need of breathing treatments and oxygen.
As we all struggle to get things done, face the battle as parents to take days of work, it still serves as an important reminder that our decisions do not occur in isolation.
They have very real impacts, particularly on children like Jordan.
Maria is a writer and down syndrome advocate. You can read more of her writing on her website and follow her on Instagram.
Top Comments
Unfortunately people only really think of themselves. Working in day care I have heard every excuse for sending a sick child. "They caught it here" is not a reason to send a sick child to care. "They wanted to come" is not a reason to send a sick child to care.
The worst I had was a parent try to drop off their 1 yo who had been in hospital with the flu the day after she got home, the child was still very sick but the older sibling didn't want to come without the 1yo so they decided to drop them both off then come and get the 1yo in an hour or 2. They couldn't understand why we wouldn't allow it. Their child was in intensive care and could have died but they still thought it was ok to expose other children to the illness because it suited their other child.
This why I avoided sending both my little ones to child care centers like the plague. Those places are like a petrie dish. I was happy to be a stay at home dad who works weekends & give them the healthiest of starts. At least with kindy, you know other parents are in a similar boat & are less likely to just send their kids along sick anyway. Kind of dreading when they start school though if this is the typical malarkey they can expect.
But childcare is where the kids build their immunity.
Nope, childcare is where kids get sick more often. If it "built their immunity" they would only get sick for a short time, and then TADAAAAAAA! No more snotty noses! Colds - never again! Ah, what a wonderful world that would be... (Tell her she's dreamin')
They don't need to go to childcare to build immunity lol. What on earth did we do before childcare centres existed? Our immune systems must have been non-existent 😉