Everywhere you look, people are coughing and sneezing. And if you hang out with the preschool set, you’ll see that they’re not just coughing and sneezing, they’re also rubbing their faces with the sneezed-upon items. Maybe even putting them in their mouths.

I’ll be honest: Colds and flu viruses are a huge inconvenience as a working mom. Not only am I worried about myself or one of my kiddos getting sick, but if my co-parent goes down, leaving me with all household and childcare duties, that is no fun either.

While I do feel sad for my son and daughter when the skin above their upper lips is so chapped from nose-wiping that they appear to have mustaches, here’s what I’m really thinking when they exhibit the beginning of cold and flu virus symptoms:

Gross germ-spreading behavior

Approaching cereal bowls spread on kitchen counter while sneezing

What goes through my mind

Get out of the kitchen

Gross germ-spreading behavior

Lying on the couch, using copious amounts of tissue and leaving used tissue next to their reclined bodies

What goes through my mind

Remind me to get a new couch. And why didn’t I buy stock in a facial tissue company?

Gross germ-spreading behavior

Running hand along every surface of the school as we exit the building

What goes through my mind

Must tell janitor to clean the heck out of those handrails

Gross germ-spreading behavior

Wiping runny nose on sleeve

What goes through my mind

At least it’s not my shirt

Gross germ-spreading behavior

Putting fingers in mouth, then nose, followed by eye-rubbing and tooth wiggling

What goes through my mind

I give up. WTFlu!

To see some of the funny images other exasperated, flu-flustered folks have created, visit the What The Flu Tumblr page.