Parents of course ultimately have the right to make that decision for their children with the guidance of their pediatrician. The vaccine is probably more critical for children with underlying health concerns such as Asthma...etc. Our whole family gets the vaccine every year. I am a former “flu nurse” for a state health department and my husband is a physician. He reports to me that the pediatric ICU at our hospital is full and they are now using beds in other parts of the hospital. My college freshman has Asthma and she knows at the first sign of flu to head to the clinic for Tamiflu. But, to your question is it worth it to get the vaccine to decrease severity and stay out of the hospital? For us the answer is absolutely, Yes.
Hubs and I got flu shots through work. DS1 did not. He was in terrible shape for about a week and missed work — most unlike him. Then we got it. It was like a super bad cold ... even so we had to reschedule Christmas so we wouldn’t infect my parents. For me the cough was the worst ... I was afraid I was getting pneumonia again, but we made it through. I coughed for about two weeks then. I think we would have been pretty bad off.