HFMD, Parents and Me

Guess by now everyone had heard about HFMD that is making its waves around the schools especially the preschools...about the rise of children getting it and how some centres are closed due to its high number of cases.

In my centre its no difference. Some parents have even got into the HFMD phobia by insisting on us teachers to totally spring-clean the school at ALL TIMES - BEFORE and AFTER. My principal told them that such precaution is unnecessary as all the children are checked before they enter the class for any signs of HFMD and toys,equipments and whatever in the class is disinfected after the classes. Some have even got to the extent of saying that our classes has 'bugs' coz two of the children got mosquito bites. We told them that is not possible as all the classes are cleaned and disinfected before/after classes. But to not cause any panic or trouble with these kind of parents, we still use insecticide to spray the entire class, every nook and crany that we can find...apparently there isn't any 'bugs'. Coz if there is, there will bound to be any dead ones.

I guess all these HFMD have caused the parents to get into a paranoia stage where every single mark on their children's body could be another sign of sickness to come. But what I dont like is how some parents will use the school to blame on their children's sickness or for whatever causes. It is not only tiring for me to clean the class before and after, which is a safety precaution as well but to explain to these parents that it is not the school 'bugs' that is causing it that tires me.
I told them that it could be when they went to the playground or anywhere outside after school to get it and who knows, it can even be at their home. But of course, being the 'kiasu' and 'kiasi' parents, they would insist on clean homes and clean playgrounds. I mean, who have ever heard of clean public playgrounds before? Do you actually see anybody went to the public playground to wash, scruband disinfected the equipments? THe only time it is clean is when there's rain to wash it.
Our centre totally disinfect the whole and entire playground area, which is back-breaking, on every Fridays.
And there can never be such a thing as "My house don't have ants or mosquitoes." These 'bugs' are small and plus some of these insects can fly. So the possibility that they fly in and out of your home is there. Try explaining all these to these parents but still they will keep on insisting and persisting. Plus funny thing is,which I never said to the parents out loud, the 'bugs' sure know who to bite. Out of 23 children in the class and some of them are meaty and juicy, these 'bugs' only bite the skinny ones and only 2 out of 23. Do you think there are 'bugs' in my class? Weird, huh?

BUt I learn to just shrug it off and just hope that when Shadiq goes to school, I wont be like one of these parents who insist whenever something happen to their child,they blame it on the school not themselves.

Like there was this kid last year who had a blue and black mark on his thigh. It was lucky that I notice that mark before class starts and I told my principal about it. When I ask the boy about it, he told me he had fallen at home. But after school, the mother apparently 'attacked' me and demanded an explaination of why I had 'punished' or 'beaten' the boy. I was shocked to be accused in such a fierce manner and I called my principal to clarify the matter since she did not want to hear any explaination on my side but insist I apologised to the boy. My principal first hear her out then bluntly told her that she knew about the mark and that we saw it before class even starts. The boy told us that he had fallen at home. And my class is just next to my principal and there is a glass window is between so we can see each other's activities in class.The mother appeared to be quite awkward then after hearing her explaination but she did hot even have the courtesy to apologise to me for the accusation. She just walked off in a hurry without even saying anything to us.
The boy appeared quite scared and I dont blame the child. Its the mother who is unreasonable and quite rude actually. We got to know later from the father that the boy did fall at home while playing with his father. THe father forgot to tell the mother about it. My principal told the father about the wife's attitude towards me regarding the bruise. He was quite ashamed and apologised to me on his wife's behalf.
Needless to say, even after that incident, she still appeared quite bossy and always have alot to say about our centre, even to the extent of complaining to the other parents. My principal out of frustration called her and the husband to discuss about her attitude. She bluntly told them that if they are in anyway unhappy with us or the centre, they should just withdraw their child and place him to another school which is of their preferance instead of complaining and gossiping to others about the centre.
The husband was quite apologetic about these and scolded the wife for her attitude. He promised that she wont cause any more trouble after that. My principal however give the ultimatum to them that if in anyway she were to hear any more unhealthy gossips or complains from other parents which came from his wife, she would have no choice but to withdraw the child from the centre as it will affect the centre's reputation. So most of the time, we get to see the father dropping off and picking up the chlld to school. Even if we saw the mother, she would appear quite sullen and frowns at us. She did not cause any more trouble after that.

I wonder sometimes what made these parents so free to create gossips and complains? Do they have too much free time on their hands or are they the type who just cant keep their mouth shut? Who knows.... I just do my job as what is told to me.