Do other people send their kids to childcare sick? When I first returned to work I hated my job and was very conscientious about keeping my son home when he was sick, and was very censorious about parents who sent their kids to childcare sick……
…….But now I have two kids and a new job that I love. One or other of my kids have been constantly sick for the past two weeks. Frankly it is painful to have to spend a day at home with them grizzling and getting stir crazy, and I would vastly prefer to be at work. I notice everyone else is sending their kids to childcare sick – there are runny noses, coughs and crying kids lying around everywhere. Is it so wrong to send them to childcare?
Jodi
This is too funny because the day before I received this, I sent Coco to daycare with a sniffle. This winter (and autumn!) I'm finding it hard to determine where one cold ends and another begins so I figured she was either at the start or end of something and every other kid at kindy is sick and there is literally NEVER a day in living memory when everyone in our house has been totally well.
Anyway. She had no fever and wasn't coughing and spluttering and she's had SO MANY days at home skulking bored around the house so I figured it was OK. The phone rang at lunchtime and her teacher asked "Has Coco been sick?" and I immediately felt totally guilty. "Um, well, you know, not really, well a little bit but no fever and you know….is she sick now?" and the teacher says "She's pretty miserable and she says her body hurts." Her body hurts! Oh……my heart hurt a bit when I heard that and I was straight into the car to pick her up.
Fortunately, working from home I can do that but lordy it's hard when you're working outside the house.
Over to you guys……
And if you have an issue that could benefit from some collective wisdom, send me an email here….(I won't publish your name)
Top Comments
There are children who, for various reasons, are more susceptible to complications from common illnesses such as colds (a friend of mine gets croup every time he has a cold, with various trips to the hosital); or they might have people at home who are high risk (young babies, grandparents with cancer, etc). It's also not fair to subject the teachers and other children to those illnesses as well. Yes, it is annoying to have kids at home sick, but it is part of the job description, even if you work another job as well.
I have worked in child care for quite a while now (over 10years), and every centre should have a policy on sick children and how sick they will take them (which is based on research and studies)... A sniffle is fine, usually, but having a temperature or oozy green runny noses is usually not fine (very contagious).. If in doubt, ask you child's teachers.
It's not just about passing the germs onto other children, but to staff as well. If staff get sick then casuals have to be called in, which in turn means increased fees, if casuals are called in frequently.
If you think it is bad staying home to care for one or two, please spare a thought for the teachers, who if everyone sends sick children in, then they are caring for a room full of sick children.
Think about how you feel when you are sick, and go to work, sick children have a miserable day in care, and there isn't the opportunity for extended sleep, nor for one person to sit and cuddle them all day, its noisy, busy and not very relaxing...
I have seen parents dose their child up on panadol to drop them off at care in the morning, and pretend the child is fine, but when the panadol wears off, the child is just as miserable, and still contagious. Staff follow protocol, and call the parent to come collect their child, which the parent is usually unhappy about, but should the child have been sent in the first place, not if they are that sick.
Sorry to rant on, but your priority should be your child/ren.