While it is your decision to not vaccinate your children, don’t be surprised when you are on the receiving end of a salvo of insults and accusations from parents who actually care about their children’s health.

Everywhere we look lately, we see news about vaccinations. The majority of this news comes in the form of negative public opinion regarding the parents who are deciding not to vaccinate their children. Why would a parent make such a decision? The justifications are varied. Some parents claim that the illnesses are so “rare” that they aren’t worried about vaccinating their children against them, while other parents are convinced that the government and pharmaceutical companies are keeping secrets from the American public just to make money. There are even a few wayward folks who believe that maladies such as measles, mumps, meningitis or the whooping cough aren’t bad enough for children to be protected from potential infections. Just to clarify something for those unclear about the measles: You can die from the measles. Just pointing that out for you.

When you decide not to vaccinate a child, which is of course your right as an adult and as a parent, you are all but guaranteeing that your child is going to be a walking, talking petri dish at least once in their lifetime. Let’s say a child grows into adulthood and never gets vaccinated, doesn’t see the need for it and feels fit as the proverbial fiddle day in and day out. This child gets a job traveling to other countries for one reason or another, and gets exposed to a disease that was cured decades before. This person isn’t worried about exposure because they were raised to be unafraid of such situations. Next thing we know, there’s an epidemic with our unvaccinated adult filling in as patient zero of a full blown outbreak. Sounds like a fun scenario, huh?
This trend, because that’s all it really is, to not vaccinate children is idiotic in so many ways that it almost boggles the mind. Almost being the key word, of course. Making the decision to play literal Russian roulette with your child’s health is not a hallmark characteristic of a good parent.

If you don’t vaccinate your child does that mean you don’t love your child? Absolutely not the case at all. No one is questioning your love or devotion to your child, but what we do question is your ability to think logically and, consequently, intelligently. If you’re curious about how this ends, look at the average life span children enjoyed prior to vaccinations. Spoiler alert: They didn’t live as long as they do these days. Why is that? Because the inclusion of vaccinations into modern society is a good thing, and one that all parents should take advantage of.