A plea: please stop sending your sick kids to school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi, my kids actually "attended" kindergarten via zoom and then attended first grade completely masked with "distancing guidelines" in place that prevented their teachers from helping them learn to write with any kind of hand-over-hand assistance. Now they're in second grade, wonderful readers, smart and pleasant, but they can BARELY WRITE. They were in OT as preschoolers for their fine motor skills but "virtual OT" during 2020/2021- which is what was offered- provided little assistance, as you can imagine.

So if they have a cough and feel fine, they're going to school, because AT SOME POINT THEY NEED TO LEARN THINGS. Sorry, not sorry. And my husband and I both work full time so don't @ me about how I should homeschool them or whatever.

I’m confused. You think people are doing hand over hand with your child when they are visibly ill? When coughing kids show up in my class I steer clear of them. If they ask for help I stand back and ask them what they need. I’m not going to sit six inches away from a sick person, child or adult.

Read more closely. The teachers were not allowed to do hand over hand or help with pencil grip AT ALL in first grade because of distancing guidelines. My kids were not sick. They were in KF94 masks and perfectly healthy. And the year before they were on zoom. So yes I do expect that at some point in their lives a teacher will help them learn how to write- they work hard and they try but they need a teacher to teach them. And I pass no blame onto the teachers that couldn’t help them during K and 1st because there were rules in place. But I’m sorry if my kid has a mild
Runny nose and you won’t go anywhere near them maybe you need to find a work from home job because if you just wear a well fitted mask yourself, you won’t catch what they have. Signed, a physician who wears a well fitting mask as young children with myriad viruses spew germs into my face without masks on day in and day out and have somehow survived, thanks to my N95. You can buy them on Amazon if you’re that worried about a runny nose.

I wouldn’t trust a mask from Amazon, but thanks for the hot tip. I’m not worried that your child’s cough will kill me, but I’m not going to pass the flu or RSV to my infant by working closely with a sick child. Not sorry. You should certainly expect to work closely with sick people as a doctor, so I have little sympathy. Sick kids are not supposed to be at school (although they come in all the time) so the expectation is certainly not that I am hovering over a coughing child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look, lady, I sent my kid to school in a mask when she was sick so she wouldn't pass her cold on to other kids. Nobody else did that, so we stopped. We've been sick nonstop since September. It's not going to stop. Feel free to keep your own snowflake home, but nobody else is. Deal.

Neato. Enjoy your rotating cast of unqualified warm body subs. But we know, you don’t care, just as long as your kids are out of your house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter (9) just tested positive for flu A on Sunday. She is going back to to school tomorrow.
She was 100% fine on Friday. Towards the end of the school day she started coughing hard. Came home at usual time and started having a fever and very sore throat. She had high fever Saturday and Sunday when we decided to take her to the doctor. He told us she was contagious two days before onset of symptoms (Wednesday- Friday) and 3 days after (Saturday-Monday). She has been fever free since Monday, but we kept her home today (Tuesday) just to be safe.
She is going back to school tomorrow. Still has a bad cough. If she gave the flu to her classmates it was before having any symptoms… not much we can do to prevent the transmission.
Kids need to get sick… that’s it.

I’m the teacher who posted above about the outbreak in my class. I wish all parents thought like you. No, you can’t control any spread prior to the development of symptoms. My concern is always for the students who come to school with symptoms: fevers, fatigue, etc. I’m comfortable estimating that I have at least 3 students (out of 120) each day who feverishly sleep at their desks. I send them to the nurse, but by then they have shared germs with the class around them. It’s exhausting and, frankly, very selfish.

You make me sick

Parents who send their sick and/or feverish kids to school are terrible parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just keep in mind the kids - at least the little ones - tell us everything.

“Do you tell mommy you didn’t feel well?”
“Yes, but she told me she couldn’t stay home today.”

Or “Is anyone else sick at your house?”
“Yes, my brother threw up everything this morning.”

They tell us they took medicine, they tell us they asked to stay home, etc. And yes I have a touchless thermometer in my class and I use it. I also don’t let the sick kids do group work or come to the carpet. I feel badly for the 3 other kids at their table group.

Why are you grilling these kids? I keep my kids home when they are sick but this is really obnoxious. If you want to silently judge the parents, fine. If you think a kid is sick enough to need to be picked up, send them to the nurse and call the parents. But quizzing the kids on whether they asked to stay home or their parent took their temperature? It's gross.

FYI, my kid has gone through phases of school resistance where she will ask to stay home with a tummy ache. It's because she has had some social issues with a girl in her class, and also because she just really likes staying home. I know when my kid is sick and when she's just trying to get out of school because she'd rather stay home and hang out with mommy and play with her toys in her room than deal with some nonsense on the playground. My sense is that you probably don't know any of the kids in your class well enough to understand those kind of nuances.

Don’t teach your kid to lie about illness and no one at school will ask them questions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi, my kids actually "attended" kindergarten via zoom and then attended first grade completely masked with "distancing guidelines" in place that prevented their teachers from helping them learn to write with any kind of hand-over-hand assistance. Now they're in second grade, wonderful readers, smart and pleasant, but they can BARELY WRITE. They were in OT as preschoolers for their fine motor skills but "virtual OT" during 2020/2021- which is what was offered- provided little assistance, as you can imagine.

So if they have a cough and feel fine, they're going to school, because AT SOME POINT THEY NEED TO LEARN THINGS. Sorry, not sorry. And my husband and I both work full time so don't @ me about how I should homeschool them or whatever.

“Sorry not sorry?” Are you 12?

And no, distance learning during COVID is not an excuse to abduct your parental responsibility and send your kid in to make the teacher and other kids sick. Sorry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi, my kids actually "attended" kindergarten via zoom and then attended first grade completely masked with "distancing guidelines" in place that prevented their teachers from helping them learn to write with any kind of hand-over-hand assistance. Now they're in second grade, wonderful readers, smart and pleasant, but they can BARELY WRITE. They were in OT as preschoolers for their fine motor skills but "virtual OT" during 2020/2021- which is what was offered- provided little assistance, as you can imagine.

So if they have a cough and feel fine, they're going to school, because AT SOME POINT THEY NEED TO LEARN THINGS. Sorry, not sorry. And my husband and I both work full time so don't @ me about how I should homeschool them or whatever.

“Sorry not sorry?” Are you 12?

And no, distance learning during COVID is not an excuse to abduct your parental responsibility and send your kid in to make the teacher and other kids sick. Sorry.

*abdicate, not abduct. Thanks, Autocorrect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just keep in mind the kids - at least the little ones - tell us everything.

“Do you tell mommy you didn’t feel well?”
“Yes, but she told me she couldn’t stay home today.”

Or “Is anyone else sick at your house?”
“Yes, my brother threw up everything this morning.”

They tell us they took medicine, they tell us they asked to stay home, etc. And yes I have a touchless thermometer in my class and I use it. I also don’t let the sick kids do group work or come to the carpet. I feel badly for the 3 other kids at their table group.

Why are you grilling these kids? I keep my kids home when they are sick but this is really obnoxious. If you want to silently judge the parents, fine. If you think a kid is sick enough to need to be picked up, send them to the nurse and call the parents. But quizzing the kids on whether they asked to stay home or their parent took their temperature? It's gross.

FYI, my kid has gone through phases of school resistance where she will ask to stay home with a tummy ache. It's because she has had some social issues with a girl in her class, and also because she just really likes staying home. I know when my kid is sick and when she's just trying to get out of school because she'd rather stay home and hang out with mommy and play with her toys in her room than deal with some nonsense on the playground. My sense is that you probably don't know any of the kids in your class well enough to understand those kind of nuances.

Don’t teach your kid to lie about illness and no one at school will ask them questions.

Just retire, okay? You hate teaching, you hate parents, you hate kids. We get it. No one is coaching their child to lie about illness, but you are so deeply jaded about your job that you think they are. You're grilling elementary school kids about their parents like you're Sherlock Holmes uncovering the Great Respiratory Virus Caper of 2022.

It's cold and flu season. Kids are going to get sick. So are adults. Some of us have more leeway to keep our kids home when their sick, but some people don't. Some people are crappy parents, too. But do you think the crappy parents who don't care if their kids are well enough to attend school are going to listen to you snarking at them? They are not.

This is part of the job. You know who else works sick the time of year? Doctors, nurses, retail workers, restaurant servers, maids, flight attendants... basically anyone with a public facing job. And they don't have the convenient scapegoat of "parents" (which we all know really means "moms") to blame. They just accept that as people who work with a public population, they are probably going to catch what is going around and have to figure it out. Stop acting like this is something unique to schools or teachers, or like parents are just out to get you personally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just keep in mind the kids - at least the little ones - tell us everything.

“Do you tell mommy you didn’t feel well?”
“Yes, but she told me she couldn’t stay home today.”

Or “Is anyone else sick at your house?”
“Yes, my brother threw up everything this morning.”

They tell us they took medicine, they tell us they asked to stay home, etc. And yes I have a touchless thermometer in my class and I use it. I also don’t let the sick kids do group work or come to the carpet. I feel badly for the 3 other kids at their table group.

Why are you grilling these kids? I keep my kids home when they are sick but this is really obnoxious. If you want to silently judge the parents, fine. If you think a kid is sick enough to need to be picked up, send them to the nurse and call the parents. But quizzing the kids on whether they asked to stay home or their parent took their temperature? It's gross.

FYI, my kid has gone through phases of school resistance where she will ask to stay home with a tummy ache. It's because she has had some social issues with a girl in her class, and also because she just really likes staying home. I know when my kid is sick and when she's just trying to get out of school because she'd rather stay home and hang out with mommy and play with her toys in her room than deal with some nonsense on the playground. My sense is that you probably don't know any of the kids in your class well enough to understand those kind of nuances.

Don’t teach your kid to lie about illness and no one at school will ask them questions.

Just retire, okay? You hate teaching, you hate parents, you hate kids. We get it. No one is coaching their child to lie about illness, but you are so deeply jaded about your job that you think they are. You're grilling elementary school kids about their parents like you're Sherlock Holmes uncovering the Great Respiratory Virus Caper of 2022.

It's cold and flu season. Kids are going to get sick. So are adults. Some of us have more leeway to keep our kids home when their sick, but some people don't. Some people are crappy parents, too. But do you think the crappy parents who don't care if their kids are well enough to attend school are going to listen to you snarking at them? They are not.

This is part of the job. You know who else works sick the time of year? Doctors, nurses, retail workers, restaurant servers, maids, flight attendants... basically anyone with a public facing job. And they don't have the convenient scapegoat of "parents" (which we all know really means "moms") to blame. They just accept that as people who work with a public population, they are probably going to catch what is going around and have to figure it out. Stop acting like this is something unique to schools or teachers, or like parents are just out to get you personally.

Amen

[Anonymous]

Then teachers need to make it less stressful for then to miss. Starting n grade 4 i leave it up to my kids. Vomiting is stay home until 24hrs puke free, but anything else is up to them. Their classes are intense and they feel the pain if they miss important lessons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just keep in mind the kids - at least the little ones - tell us everything.

“Do you tell mommy you didn’t feel well?”
“Yes, but she told me she couldn’t stay home today.”

Or “Is anyone else sick at your house?”
“Yes, my brother threw up everything this morning.”

They tell us they took medicine, they tell us they asked to stay home, etc. And yes I have a touchless thermometer in my class and I use it. I also don’t let the sick kids do group work or come to the carpet. I feel badly for the 3 other kids at their table group.

Why are you grilling these kids? I keep my kids home when they are sick but this is really obnoxious. If you want to silently judge the parents, fine. If you think a kid is sick enough to need to be picked up, send them to the nurse and call the parents. But quizzing the kids on whether they asked to stay home or their parent took their temperature? It's gross.

FYI, my kid has gone through phases of school resistance where she will ask to stay home with a tummy ache. It's because she has had some social issues with a girl in her class, and also because she just really likes staying home. I know when my kid is sick and when she's just trying to get out of school because she'd rather stay home and hang out with mommy and play with her toys in her room than deal with some nonsense on the playground. My sense is that you probably don't know any of the kids in your class well enough to understand those kind of nuances.

Don’t teach your kid to lie about illness and no one at school will ask them questions.

Just retire, okay? You hate teaching, you hate parents, you hate kids. We get it. No one is coaching their child to lie about illness, but you are so deeply jaded about your job that you think they are. You're grilling elementary school kids about their parents like you're Sherlock Holmes uncovering the Great Respiratory Virus Caper of 2022.

It's cold and flu season. Kids are going to get sick. So are adults. Some of us have more leeway to keep our kids home when their sick, but some people don't. Some people are crappy parents, too. But do you think the crappy parents who don't care if their kids are well enough to attend school are going to listen to you snarking at them? They are not.

This is part of the job. You know who else works sick the time of year? Doctors, nurses, retail workers, restaurant servers, maids, flight attendants... basically anyone with a public facing job. And they don't have the convenient scapegoat of "parents" (which we all know really means "moms") to blame. They just accept that as people who work with a public population, they are probably going to catch what is going around and have to figure it out. Stop acting like this is something unique to schools or teachers, or like parents are just out to get you personally.

Right. Because all the kids who suddenly spike a fever halfway through the day and tell us how mommy gave them the pink medicine this morning are there because of some big mix up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just keep in mind the kids - at least the little ones - tell us everything.

“Do you tell mommy you didn’t feel well?”
“Yes, but she told me she couldn’t stay home today.”

Or “Is anyone else sick at your house?”
“Yes, my brother threw up everything this morning.”

They tell us they took medicine, they tell us they asked to stay home, etc. And yes I have a touchless thermometer in my class and I use it. I also don’t let the sick kids do group work or come to the carpet. I feel badly for the 3 other kids at their table group.

Why are you grilling these kids? I keep my kids home when they are sick but this is really obnoxious. If you want to silently judge the parents, fine. If you think a kid is sick enough to need to be picked up, send them to the nurse and call the parents. But quizzing the kids on whether they asked to stay home or their parent took their temperature? It's gross.

FYI, my kid has gone through phases of school resistance where she will ask to stay home with a tummy ache. It's because she has had some social issues with a girl in her class, and also because she just really likes staying home. I know when my kid is sick and when she's just trying to get out of school because she'd rather stay home and hang out with mommy and play with her toys in her room than deal with some nonsense on the playground. My sense is that you probably don't know any of the kids in your class well enough to understand those kind of nuances.

Don’t teach your kid to lie about illness and no one at school will ask them questions.

Just retire, okay? You hate teaching, you hate parents, you hate kids. We get it. No one is coaching their child to lie about illness, but you are so deeply jaded about your job that you think they are. You're grilling elementary school kids about their parents like you're Sherlock Holmes uncovering the Great Respiratory Virus Caper of 2022.

It's cold and flu season. Kids are going to get sick. So are adults. Some of us have more leeway to keep our kids home when their sick, but some people don't. Some people are crappy parents, too. But do you think the crappy parents who don't care if their kids are well enough to attend school are going to listen to you snarking at them? They are not.

This is part of the job. You know who else works sick the time of year? Doctors, nurses, retail workers, restaurant servers, maids, flight attendants... basically anyone with a public facing job. And they don't have the convenient scapegoat of "parents" (which we all know really means "moms") to blame. They just accept that as people who work with a public population, they are probably going to catch what is going around and have to figure it out. Stop acting like this is something unique to schools or teachers, or like parents are just out to get you personally.

Right. Because all the kids who suddenly spike a fever halfway through the day and tell us how mommy gave them the pink medicine this morning are there because of some big mix up.

I'm a different poster but I also think it's not cool to question kids about whether or not their parents sent them to school sick. Don't make the kids feel guilty, or uneasy about the decisions that adults made for them. I don't think parents should send feverish kids to school obviously, but I also wouldn't pile on to the kid who feels ill by asking him questions about whether or not his mom gave him medicine this morning or whether or not he asked to stay home and what his mom said about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just keep in mind the kids - at least the little ones - tell us everything.

“Do you tell mommy you didn’t feel well?”
“Yes, but she told me she couldn’t stay home today.”

Or “Is anyone else sick at your house?”
“Yes, my brother threw up everything this morning.”

They tell us they took medicine, they tell us they asked to stay home, etc. And yes I have a touchless thermometer in my class and I use it. I also don’t let the sick kids do group work or come to the carpet. I feel badly for the 3 other kids at their table group.

Why are you grilling these kids? I keep my kids home when they are sick but this is really obnoxious. If you want to silently judge the parents, fine. If you think a kid is sick enough to need to be picked up, send them to the nurse and call the parents. But quizzing the kids on whether they asked to stay home or their parent took their temperature? It's gross.

FYI, my kid has gone through phases of school resistance where she will ask to stay home with a tummy ache. It's because she has had some social issues with a girl in her class, and also because she just really likes staying home. I know when my kid is sick and when she's just trying to get out of school because she'd rather stay home and hang out with mommy and play with her toys in her room than deal with some nonsense on the playground. My sense is that you probably don't know any of the kids in your class well enough to understand those kind of nuances.

Don’t teach your kid to lie about illness and no one at school will ask them questions.

Just retire, okay? You hate teaching, you hate parents, you hate kids. We get it. No one is coaching their child to lie about illness, but you are so deeply jaded about your job that you think they are. You're grilling elementary school kids about their parents like you're Sherlock Holmes uncovering the Great Respiratory Virus Caper of 2022.

It's cold and flu season. Kids are going to get sick. So are adults. Some of us have more leeway to keep our kids home when their sick, but some people don't. Some people are crappy parents, too. But do you think the crappy parents who don't care if their kids are well enough to attend school are going to listen to you snarking at them? They are not.

This is part of the job. You know who else works sick the time of year? Doctors, nurses, retail workers, restaurant servers, maids, flight attendants... basically anyone with a public facing job. And they don't have the convenient scapegoat of "parents" (which we all know really means "moms") to blame. They just accept that as people who work with a public population, they are probably going to catch what is going around and have to figure it out. Stop acting like this is something unique to schools or teachers, or like parents are just out to get you personally.

Right. Because all the kids who suddenly spike a fever halfway through the day and tell us how mommy gave them the pink medicine this morning are there because of some big mix up.

You missed the entire point of the post. Just read it and think about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just keep in mind the kids - at least the little ones - tell us everything.

“Do you tell mommy you didn’t feel well?”
“Yes, but she told me she couldn’t stay home today.”

Or “Is anyone else sick at your house?”
“Yes, my brother threw up everything this morning.”

They tell us they took medicine, they tell us they asked to stay home, etc. And yes I have a touchless thermometer in my class and I use it. I also don’t let the sick kids do group work or come to the carpet. I feel badly for the 3 other kids at their table group.

Why are you grilling these kids? I keep my kids home when they are sick but this is really obnoxious. If you want to silently judge the parents, fine. If you think a kid is sick enough to need to be picked up, send them to the nurse and call the parents. But quizzing the kids on whether they asked to stay home or their parent took their temperature? It's gross.

FYI, my kid has gone through phases of school resistance where she will ask to stay home with a tummy ache. It's because she has had some social issues with a girl in her class, and also because she just really likes staying home. I know when my kid is sick and when she's just trying to get out of school because she'd rather stay home and hang out with mommy and play with her toys in her room than deal with some nonsense on the playground. My sense is that you probably don't know any of the kids in your class well enough to understand those kind of nuances.

Don’t teach your kid to lie about illness and no one at school will ask them questions.

Just retire, okay? You hate teaching, you hate parents, you hate kids. We get it. No one is coaching their child to lie about illness, but you are so deeply jaded about your job that you think they are. You're grilling elementary school kids about their parents like you're Sherlock Holmes uncovering the Great Respiratory Virus Caper of 2022.

It's cold and flu season. Kids are going to get sick. So are adults. Some of us have more leeway to keep our kids home when their sick, but some people don't. Some people are crappy parents, too. But do you think the crappy parents who don't care if their kids are well enough to attend school are going to listen to you snarking at them? They are not.

This is part of the job. You know who else works sick the time of year? Doctors, nurses, retail workers, restaurant servers, maids, flight attendants... basically anyone with a public facing job. And they don't have the convenient scapegoat of "parents" (which we all know really means "moms") to blame. They just accept that as people who work with a public population, they are probably going to catch what is going around and have to figure it out. Stop acting like this is something unique to schools or teachers, or like parents are just out to get you personally.

Right. Because all the kids who suddenly spike a fever halfway through the day and tell us how mommy gave them the pink medicine this morning are there because of some big mix up.

??? Are you even responding to PP?

If you don’t want to face the public (and children), quit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid has tested negative for everything and still is coughing three weeks in; this is lifetime pattern for him due to asthma. How long should I keep him out of school?

You don't actually know everything.

Bullshit. He has SOMETHING, just not what he's been tested for. Thanks for passing whatever it is along to others.

NP, but he's not contagious 3 weeks later with asthma. That's just lingering inflammation. You'd be back by then even with COVID.

Look, I don't send my kids if they feel badly, but if they have a runny nose with clear snot and are at normal energy levels, then they go. They've missed so much school that there's no way they're staying home for days at a time for the sniffles. I think it's a great idea to encourage masking for those kids, and I think the teachers at our school already do that.

NP and yup. One of my kids is chronically congested. Flonase takes care of it, but if we forget for a few days in a row he gets stuffy again - that’s just how he is (as per his pediatrician and allergist). I also don’t send my kids if they feel bad, or even if they feel fine but, say, puked the day before.

Honestly? People should have thought of the long-term consequences of keeping kids out of school as long as we did around here. When you stress the system as much as it was stressed, something has to give. You burned that bridge with over a year of remote, quarantining HEALTHY kids for 10 days, etc. Too bad, so sad.

Stop with your crap! Care about others if your kid is sick keep them home thats the message!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Then teachers need to make it less stressful for then to miss. Starting n grade 4 i leave it up to my kids. Vomiting is stay home until 24hrs puke free, but anything else is up to them. Their classes are intense and they feel the pain if they miss important lessons.

LOL...so you don't parent after they turn 10 got it