This irks me - JAWM vent

[klmama]

This is a JAWM vent.  Thanks.

Vaccination may be a good idea in general, but it annoys me when people who are not in a medical field try to pressure others into it, especially when those others are minors.  I just found out my teen has been repeatedly pressured to get vaccinated by the adults in charge of several already masked and distanced extracurricular activities.  They throw in qualifying statements to try to make it less pushy, but their intent is still clear.  "You really should get vaccinated.  I mean, you don't have to... we aren't requiring it... it's just that we kind of want everyone to be vaccinated.  Entirely your decision, of course!  It would just be so GREAT if everyone involved were vaccinated....  Oh, and I'll send you a bunch of links, so you know where you can go to get vaccinated."  Apparently, this has been happening weekly.  If they want only vaccinated kids in their activities, they should make that a rule.  If they aren't going to make it a rule, they should stop talking about it. Either way, they need to recognize that the kids' parents and doctors will make the decision based on the kids' medical histories, not on their activity leaders' preferences. 

End of vent.  

 

[marbel]

My kids are adults so I've not experienced this, but I'll happily agree with you. I wonder if these leaders don't trust the parents to take care of their own kids.  Ugh I'm sorry you have to deal with that!

[RootAnn]

I am a big believer that adults should be able to make their own medical decisions (assuming no mental illness, in right mind, etc). Adults who are not their parents pressuring minors is beyond the pale. I'd be giving those leaders a piece of my mind!!

[Arcadia]

1 hour ago, klmama said:

If they want only vaccinated kids in their activities, they should make that a rule.  If they aren't going to make it a rule, they should stop talking about it.

If this is a parks and recreation activity, I don’t think they are allowed to make such a rule. Maybe they just want to do away with wearing masks.  

I have one who is 16 but his tennis group is for 13-17 so the instructors won’t know who are the 16 and above kids unless they specifically ask. I would be annoyed if any of their instructors does that.

[Bambam]

It is not acceptable for adults to pressure kids. There is an imbalance of power. Inappropriate, and I would complain loudly.  And I would consider complaining/reporting up the chain of command. If they are going to do this re vaccination, will they do this with anything else? I'd also consider pulling my kids (would depend upon activity, how old my kids were, etc). 

[EKS]

I agree that it isn't acceptable for adults to be pressuring kids to get vaccinated.  But I also think that people shouldn't be surprised when they find activities being cancelled because the adults running them don't want to deal with unvaccinated participants.

[klmama]

12 minutes ago, EKS said:

I agree that it isn't acceptable for adults to be pressuring kids to get vaccinated.  But I also think that people shouldn't be surprised when they find activities being cancelled because the adults running them don't want to deal with unvaccinated participants.

Absolutely.  That would make perfect sense to me, and I would respect their decision.  But they started these activities knowing that the students weren't vaccinated, and it's only recently that any of them could be.  It just really bothers me that they would pressure kids without any understanding of their individual health situations.   

30 minutes ago, Bambam said:

I would consider complaining/reporting up the chain of command. 

These people are the ones in charge.  That makes this a bit tricky; even though I'm peeved, these activities are extremely important to dc, and I need to be very gracious in how I tell them to back off.  I know they care about dc and mean well, but they are overstepping.   

[mommyoffive]

Yeah not ok.  If you want to make the rule that they need to do it then do that.   I get it we all want this to be over and be safe again.  But adults pressuring kids is not ok by far.

[Zebra]

I completely agree.   I hate when adults do this to minors in ANY situation.   Go straight to the parents, or leave it alone.  

Either require the vax, or don't.   And if your employer won't require the vax and you are that upset about it, then quit your job. 

   

[SKL]

I'd be unhappy if that was done to my kids, but to my kids, I'd probably tell them it's the same as what we adults deal with sometimes.  (And, depending on how it's said, it irks me when it's done to me as an adult too.  🙂  Not that it happens much.)

Thankfully (IMO), minors still need their parents' permission to get the vax.

My kids used to come home from middle school and tell me that their teacher said I shouldn't make them do XYZ outside of school.  I told my kids exactly what I thought of that, LOL.  Among other things, I told them they could invite their teacher to call me if they felt it needed more discussion.  🙂