Birthday Celebrations Banned in Australia

[Edwin]

Some people have a germ phobia. My mother who has been dead since 2005, and my sister has a germ phobia. My sister probably still does. They would bleach everything! The dishes, the counters, and everything else would get a bleach coating every little while! The bleach gave our son-in-law a headache, so while he and his family were there, they had to back off on the bleach. Some people are afraid of everything, and even afraid of going out of their germ free houses. In Walmart they have have germ killing wipes to clean and sterilize the chopping carts handles. The containers are there supplied by the store, and sometimes we use them, and sometimes we don't. Years ago when I was substitute teaching, there was one teacher that as the sub was leaving she would spray everything down with disinfectants. It is interesting that the teachers in a particular school build an immunity to the sicknesses that are in their buildings, but substituted teachers carry disease germs from other schools that they are not immune to, to their schools, and then the teachers get sick, because they have no immunity to sicknesses in other schools in other towns and cities. Our kids are somewhat afraid of the germs. They have this idea of sicknesses having an incubation period, during which people's sicknesses are very contageous, and after that, they might be sick, but they are no longer contageous. The lumber yard where our son-in-law works will send their employees home if they think they are sick, so that everyone else will not catch it. I/we have never worried that much about germs or getting sick. We just tried to live healthy lives, and then if we got sick, we got sick, and we got over it!

What do you think on this subject?

I found this article on Yahoo News about the banning of birthday parties in Australian schools because they are afraid that the kids will get germs on the cakes while blowing out the candles, and then someone else will eat a piece of that cake and get sick! I thought you would be interested to see the article:


Australian Kids Banned from Birthday Tradition at School
By Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine
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By Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine | Parenting – 2 hours 8 minutes ag

Celebrating birthdays at school just got a little less fun for kids in Australia. New guidelines issued Tuesday by the country's National Health and Medical Research Council say that children can no longer blow out the candles on cakes at school because doing so spreads too many germs.


"We introduced new national standards to lift the quality of child care across Australia because we believe parents deserve peace of mind when they drop their child off they are receiving quality care to a high standard," Australia's Minister for Early Childhood and Child Care, Kate Elliss, explained in a statement. "All services across the country will be assessed and rated against new National Quality Standard which will ensure that services are meeting basic requirements including children's health, safety and wellbeing."


But parents aren't feeling much peace of mind. Instead, they're outraged, saying that the new rules are so nit-picky that they take all the fun out of being a kid.

"I think that we are protecting our kids too much," one parent told the Telegraph newspaper in Sydney, Australia. "Let the kids be kids, get some germs, build up the immunity, and get on with it. How about the politicians focus on getting other things right."

"This rubbish has got to stop," said another, who works as a scrub nurse in New South Wales. "Kids have been playing in sand pits for years. Kids have been playing in dirt for years. Kids have also been playing with communal toys for years … Kids need to be subjected to these things to build a healthy immune system. These so called experts who seem to know more about health than doctors, won't be happy until kids are kept in a sterile environment, which will then put the child at risk every time it leaves the house."

Australian medical professionals agree that the new guidelines go a bit too far.

"If somebody sneezes on a cake, I probably don't want to eat it either," Australian Medical Association President Steve Hambleton told the Telegraph. "But if you're blowing out candles, how many organisms are transferred to a communal cake, for goodness sake?"

The guide, called "Staying Healthy: Preventing infectious diseases in early childhood education and care services," does offer a solution. "To prevent the spread of germs when the child blows out the candles, parents should either: provide a separate cupcake (with a candle if they wish) for the birthday child and enough cupcakes for all the other children [or] provide a separate cupcake (with a candle if they wish) for the birthday child and a large cake that can be cut and shared."

But daycare providers think the suggestions are not going to be satisfying to little kids.

"It will be very sad for the children," Kristy Strong, a daycare supervisor, told the Telegraph. "It will take away the excitement of it all."

Some of the new regulations are specific to Australia -- "Australian bats may harbour a lyssavirus that is very similar to the rabies virus," the guide warns before offering advice on what to do if you get bitten -- but other rules don't make much sense no matter where you live. According to the guide, children are now expected to wash their hands before digging in the sandbox or playing outside, as well as after. And while all toys, door handles, floors, and even cushion covers must be washed daily, kids with head lice don't have to be sent home from school.

"Just wash your hands before you eat," Hambleton said. "If you live in a plastic bubble, you're going to get infections that you can't handle."

The new regulations also allow day care centers to disregard doctors' notes about when a child is well enough to return to school, instead requiring them to comply with government-determined "exclusion periods" for various illnesses.

"Our nanny-state government just can't help itself," quipped Mark of Hobart, Australia, to the Daily Mail. "We've just dodged Internet filtering and new hurt feelings laws so onto the next target -- the kiddies' birthday parties."