adywan said:

One thing that makes me sick with some parents now is that they will have "sickness parties". If one child gets chicken pox (yes i know this isn't part of the vaccinations unless its changed since my children were young), measles, mumps etc these parents will gather all their children together and have these so called parties in the hope that all their children will also get whichever illness the one child has so they can get it earlier in life, instead of getting any of the vaccinations. Now this has become acceptable without any regard for the safety of their children or anyone elses.

I'm not sure these are new. My mom took my to these when I was little, since chicken pox is so much less dangerous when you're young. I have a friend whose wife was hospitalized from adult chicken pox. Before the chickenpox vaccine was developed, these parties seem to have made a lot of sense.

I think the chicken pox vaccine only dates from the late 90s (I could be wrong). The MMR vaccine predates that a lot, so I can't imagine why people would have a 'party' for mumps or measles.