Parents- PLEASE keep your sick child at home

[Anonymous]

Another single parent here. You do know PP that many people just can't up and change jobs because theirs isn't flexible enough. If that was the case. everyone would do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another single parent here. You do know PP that many people just can't up and change jobs because theirs isn't flexible enough. If that was the case. everyone would do it.

Yep I know -- but I also know a non-family friendly job would not work for me. Thankfully I have one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another single parent here. You do know PP that many people just can't up and change jobs because theirs isn't flexible enough. If that was the case. everyone would do it.

I'm not sure what the alternative is - do you send your kid to school sick if your job isn't flexible?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another single parent here. You do know PP that many people just can't up and change jobs because theirs isn't flexible enough. If that was the case. everyone would do it.

Yep I know -- but I also know a non-family friendly job would not work for me. Thankfully I have one.

I should add -- it took me 15 months to find this job and every day sucked until I found it. I do consider myself lucky.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Another single parent here. You do know PP that many people just can't up and change jobs because theirs isn't flexible enough. If that was the case. everyone would do it.

It's your responsibility to find a backup childcare situation then. You decided to be a parent....own up.

[Anonymous]

For high income families (or even middle income families), there are places that do last minute babysitting/nanny service for precisely this issue. White House Nannies is one, but I am sure there are others. You might also be able to find someone last minute at care.com.

I realize that's not an option for people with very low incomes, but, as the teacher noted, there are a lot of people in high income areas doing this sort of thing. This is another option for people with good incomes but low job flexibility.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach at the elementary level. Yesterday afternoon, I had a student repeatedly vomit in the classroom. I escorted the child to the health room and mom came to pick up the child from school. Well, the child was back in school today. The health tech called the parent who said the child felt better and “insisted” on coming to school today. Since the child didn’t have a fever, child was allowed to stay in school. There is a stomach virus going around the building. This wasn’t a case of the child ate something for lunch and it disagreed with them. This kid was vomiting large amounts over and over again. The child looked sick and miserable all day long. However, since child’s temperature was normal, there wasn’t a thing that could be done.

Parent won’t respond to phone calls, so I’m out of luck there.

Please keep your sick kids at home. Please.

I'm surprised. At our school, the child would be sent to the nurse's office to wait for pickup and they would keep calling the parent. And the child would be marked as out sick.

I also teach ES—my reaction to this chain of events would be to assume there’s a work-specific reason the parent can’t keep the child home. Two days left, OP. Two days.

Work-specific excuse - not an excuse in my book

Back up childcare is a must. It's just irresponsible of parents to assume the school will take care of their sick child. Find a sitter! Pay a stay-at-home mom to watch your kid. Take leave!

sorry - But we teachers are not babysitters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another single parent here. You do know PP that many people just can't up and change jobs because theirs isn't flexible enough. If that was the case. everyone would do it.

uh

1. How often is your kid sick? certainly not enough to get you fired from a job - So take a day here or there.
2. EVERY smart working parent has a back up plan. 'nuff said

You carried the kid for 9 months. Your job certainly isn't done now. Deal with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach at the elementary level. Yesterday afternoon, I had a student repeatedly vomit in the classroom. I escorted the child to the health room and mom came to pick up the child from school. Well, the child was back in school today. The health tech called the parent who said the child felt better and “insisted” on coming to school today. Since the child didn’t have a fever, child was allowed to stay in school. There is a stomach virus going around the building. This wasn’t a case of the child ate something for lunch and it disagreed with them. This kid was vomiting large amounts over and over again. The child looked sick and miserable all day long. However, since child’s temperature was normal, there wasn’t a thing that could be done.

Parent won’t respond to phone calls, so I’m out of luck there.

Please keep your sick kids at home. Please.

This wasn’t a case of the child ate something for lunch and it disagreed with them. This kid was vomiting large amounts over and over again.

Not defending the parents..but food poisoning does this too.

+1
That sounds horrible for YOU that a child was throwing up. Seriously?
I don't see any need to defend the parents because I don't know what they did wrong. As PP said, the child could have had food poisoning and felt better after throwing up. You don't know the specifics of how the child was feeling and acting in the evening and morning so you are in no place to judge. It sounds like you don't have kids yet.

Some people have mentioned a 24 hour no vomiting rule. If there is one why didn't the health tech just send the child home? That would have solved the problem. If there isn't one why would the health tech call the parent? Was the child acting sick again? Looking "miserable" is not a reason to send a kid home. Half the kids in DC's class look "miserable" on any given day and it could be they are sick, tired, someone bullied them or they just got yelled at for bouncing a ball in the hallway.

[Anonymous]

It looks like in MCPS there is a 24 hour rule that includes vomiting. Why didn't the health tech send the child home? That's on the health tech and you the teacher.

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/loiedermanms/departments/healthroom/healthroom.aspx

[Anonymous]

+1 If you knew it wasn't 24 hours yet and you knew the rule, you should be reprimanded for putting the other kids at risk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:+1 If you knew it wasn't 24 hours yet and you knew the rule, you should be reprimanded for putting the other kids[b] at risk.

As well as staff.

[Anonymous]

Bad parents but this is on the teacher/nurse - they need to call the parents and insist the kid be picked up as he was puking yesterday so clearly inside the 24hr rule.

[Anonymous]

I wish the teachers would stay home sick. My child has told me the teacher is sick and still there. Get a sub.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For high income families (or even middle income families), there are places that do last minute babysitting/nanny service for precisely this issue. White House Nannies is one, but I am sure there are others. You might also be able to find someone last minute at care.com.

I realize that's not an option for people with very low incomes, but, as the teacher noted, there are a lot of people in high income areas doing this sort of thing. This is another option for people with good incomes but low job flexibility.

Are there really parents willing to have a stranger come be with their sick kid? I'm not someone who goes overboard to vet babysitters but I can't imagine the first meeting being when the kid is sick enough to not be at school.