The biggest sin a daycare parent can commit.

Every mother needs a T-shirt that reads ‘He’s not infectious, people!’

They look at me sideways and almost mutter their disgust through thin lips.

One obviously couldn’t stand it anymore and decided to take the direct approach.

“I care about you. I care for your family. But I question whether this is the right thing, for the other children?”

One blatantly lifted her son away from mine.

I want to write a sign. I want to send out a group email. I want to emblazon it across my four-year old’s forehead.

HE IS NOT INFECTIOUS.

But still the looks.

It’s an eye thing. It looks pretty rank. I am not sure I would want to touch it myself but again I state (and again I really want the world to know).

HE IS NOT INFECTIOUS.

I understand, mothers-with-jobs-more-important-than-mine, you don’t want your kids to get sick.

I get it, mothers-with-precious-newborn-babies, you don’t want exposure to unknown germs.

I get it, mothers-with-those-little-ones-with-weak-immune-systems, you can’t risk it.

But again.

HE IS NOT INFECTIOUS.

It’s an eye thing.

The season of germs and lurgies and swine flu and 24-hour vomiting bugs is upon us.

And with it comes the continual battle of whether or not to send your little one to daycare or preschool while they are under the weather.

Some Mums just do. Some Mums may not have a choice about it.

Some Mums don’t have the luxury of a husband with a flexible job, or grandparents with a flexible timetable.

These Mums do their best, but occasionally the day might just come when the choice to send their sick kid to school or daycare isn’t quite as easy as it is for the rest of us.

A mother I won’t name for fear of even more reprisals was completely shocked recently at the vitriol she suffered when she posted on a Facebook group as to whether or not she should send her twins to daycare with snotty noses and slight coughs.

The backlash she received was nothing short of pure bile and hostility.

She was called selfish, thoughtless, a bitch, a bad mother. One even went as far as calling her a potential murderer: “ You must be kidding. My child has a compromised immune system. How dare you even consider it. I can’t believe people like you. Your snotty nose could be fatal for my son.”

All she did was ask the question.

But have we gone too far in our quest to avoid germs?

We encounter hand sanitisers at shopping centres, in classrooms, at children’s play centres. Cleaning products are labelled anti-bacterial. And children are taught to sneeze in their elbows these days as to not get the germs on their hands.

Surely there is a fine line between over-cleanliness and the common garden-variety snotty nosed kids that were around when I was a kid.

Many childcare centres have a green snot rule: If it’s green send them home.

But according to GPs these days that rule is outdated and purely incorrect.

From Dr Rahman Zamani of healthychild.net “In most cases, green or yellow nasal mucus (usually found toward the end of the cold) is no more contagious than clear mucus and may be even less contagious. The runny nose usually starts with clear mucus, which then becomes whitish or greenish as the cold dries up and gets better.”

Remember the days of the nit rule?  When children with nits were sent straight home to be treated.

If my son’s school had that rule now half the student body would be at home playing X-box.

Aren’t we all just doing our best? No one would deliberately send their child out to infect another with a contagious illness. No parent is really going to send their child off to care unless they actually had no other choice. We are all so quick to judge and criticise these days we don’t seem to ever take a second to ask if instead we could help out.

My son’s eye is probably going to get worse before it gets better.

It’s probably going to look really bad when it’s patched and oozing after the operation.

But it’s not deliberate. And it’s not CONTAGIOUS.

But I am not really sure why I feel I have to tell you that over and over.

Perhaps I am worried you will judge me too.

How sick is too sick when it comes to daycare?