You don’t get to pick and choose when your child gets sick.

Any parent will tell you that some of the worst times of their parenting lives were when their kids got sick. They’re not just talking about when they had to clean their kid’s vomit off the floor. They’re talking about the stress and lack of control you have when your kid is sick. You can do all you can to make them feel comfortable, but you can’t cure their illness, no matter how much you want to. When your kid is really sick, you can’t fully relax until they’re better.

Shared custody makes sick days all the more stressful. If a kid is going back and forth between parents’ houses once every two or three days, it might not be optimal for their recovery. But then again, you don’t get to opt out of parenting your kid when they’re sick just because it’s inconvenient and you don’t want to get sick. Parents who run into another room when their sick kid approaches them are not stepping up as they should. They should be doing everything in their power to make their kid feel better, including comforting them.