Two years and counting since the last stomach virus...

Jay at The Daily Rant posts about getting sick a lot more after you have kids.

Very good points, but here's a bonus:

Regardless of how people feel about nursery school/daycare/preschool versus keeping the kids at home until Kindergarten, I've noticed a marked reduction in illnesses in my kids once they hit 4 yrs old or so, because, being in daycare and preschool since they were 6 months old, they've caught everything they're going to catch and have built up some immunities.

When they were 6mo - 3 years old, they got everything a normal school-aged kid would get: RSV, Rotovirus, ear infections, eye infections (well, they both didn't get all of those, that's just the sum total).

But now that my girl is 3-1/2 and my son is 7 and in 1st Grade, they (and subsequently, we) haven't been sick nearly as much. I averaged 2-3 stomach viruses a year when they were little, which, if you know me know that I consider them to be more torturous than 1,000 flu's, colds, bacterial infections, etc. But that's another story.

Anyway, C.'s only missed a couple days of school since he started Kindergarten, even though I hear daily of other kids in his class that are always sick from various ailments. I would bet the majority of them didn't go to daycare.

So, as I say, rant and rave anyone who wants to about the benefits of staying home with your kids until they start school, but there is one HUGE advantage...