Kids today are soft. I grew up near the Village of Davenport and walked to Washington Elementary, Sudlow Jr. High (which was just at the top of the street), and finally Davenport Central. I walked in snow storms, rain, freezing rain, and heat. Sometimes, if my mom or my aunt felt sorry for me, I would get the occasional ride to school. Once in a while, when I was in high school, if one of my friends saw me walking to school they would pull over and give me a lift until I got my own car.

Now it seems like the drop off or pick up line is a mile long. I get it...  It's a different world then when I was a kid, but giving your kid a ride if you live a block away is nuts. Get a group of neighbor kids together and let them walk to school, interact and have conversations with their friends. For the record, I'm a divorced parent. I don't take my daughter to school and she lives close enough for the bus, but far enough where walking is a bit extreme for a 7-year-old.

One of the other things I did when I was a kid was I went to school even if I was feeling a little under the weather, and I walked too. My mom's rule was we had to have a fever over 100 in order to stay home. I didn't miss a lot of school. If I had the sniffles, we broke out the cold meds and were on our way. How sick does your kid have to be before you let them stay home? A new survey asked more than 1,400 parents if they'd still send their kids to school with these five symptoms.  And THIS is why we all get sick every year...

1.  88% of parents said they'd still send their kid to school with a runny nose and a dry cough, as long as they didn't have a fever.

2.  84% would still send them to school with red, watery eyes but no fever.

3.  51% said they'd still send them to school even if they DID have a slight fever, as long as they were acting normal.

4.  42% said they'd still send them to school if they'd THROWN UP, and didn't have any other symptoms.  But only if they'd thrown up once.

5.  And 20% would still send them to school if they had diarrhea.

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