Marguerite Copel, the director of communications for Texas company Dean Foods, is anticipating having to keep her 14-year-old twin daughters home Friday.
The teens also had to cope with a theater event canceled because of concerns over the illness.
"I'm sure you've heard about the canceling of sports activities in this area, too? And have you heard something about how we like our high school sports in Texas?" she said.
Texas school officials have postponed all interscholastic sports until at least May 11. Alabama has taken a similar step, stopping competitions until at least Tuesday.
In Montgomery County, Maryland, 1,250-student Rockville High School joined the closed list Friday when state health authorities closed it until further notice because of a suspected swine flu case.
There, too, athletics were taking a big hit, Assistant Principal Dyan Gomez said. Rockville's teams were even banned from traveling to other schools to compete this weekend, she said.
The National Capitol Area Scottish Festival, hosted by Rockville's Pipe Band and scheduled for Saturday at the school, was in jeopardy, Gomez said.
With kids affected directly, rumors are spreading among them. In the past few days, Copel and her husband tried to talk to their daughters to dispel swine flu rumors circulating on text messages the girls have received.
"One of them came home and said, 'I'm really scared,' " Copel recounted. "My job is to get the facts out to 26,000 employees around the country, so I'd like to think I have information that I can bring back to my family. We're already a pretty hand-washing family, and we are very calm about any of these things, so I think we're okay."
Andy Bogle, the president of Equipment & Technical Services in Fort Worth, was busy preparing his 15 employees with a refreshing course about hand washing and telling them to stay home if they feel ill.
According to the Houston Chronicle, memos and e-mails are being circulated and meetings are being held with employees about the swine flu, how to avoid it and what to do if they think they've caught it.