A plea: please stop sending your sick kids to school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:oh my god, PP. Have you heard of RETAIL? Of course there are people that are getting coughed on regularly at work.

+1, I've worked in both retail and food service and been coughed and sneezed on, had people touch me with hands they just coughed or sneezed into. Also, in these jobs you are constantly cleaning. I've had to clean the bathroom in restaurant jobs before. Ever scrubbed a toilet that a bunch of random strangers who'd been drinking recently used?

I would take being a preschool teacher over these jobs every day of the week and twice on Sundays. Yes, I'm sure I'd also catch viruses from the kids all the time. But there is no way that a bunch of 4 year olds would treat me worse or that I'd have to deal with as much disgusting behavior as I have had to in the many service industry jobs I've had. At least with kids you go into it knowing they are going to be kind of gross and it's because they don't yet know better.

Absolutely I have worked in retail. I worked at a beer serving Chuck E. Cheese during college so yes I have cleaned up after strangers and when the toilet overflows I worked in macys during Christmas and nope you do not get as close to people in retail because they are strangers and we keep a certain amount of social distance from people we don’t know. In retail you are not talking eye to eye with a child comforting them when they cry when they just sneeze in your face. As a caregiver the kids naturally get very close to you. Strangers in a retail store keep more distance because they don’t know you as well . Kids are cuter and I clean up their crap snot and pee everyday. Come be a preschool teacher- or at least sub! Besides pee is mostly sterile even when it is in the floor and toilet seat.

It's my favorite when teachers argue that it's people who clean up pee are in the privileged position.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:oh my god, PP. Have you heard of RETAIL? Of course there are people that are getting coughed on regularly at work.

+1, I've worked in both retail and food service and been coughed and sneezed on, had people touch me with hands they just coughed or sneezed into. Also, in these jobs you are constantly cleaning. I've had to clean the bathroom in restaurant jobs before. Ever scrubbed a toilet that a bunch of random strangers who'd been drinking recently used?

I would take being a preschool teacher over these jobs every day of the week and twice on Sundays. Yes, I'm sure I'd also catch viruses from the kids all the time. But there is no way that a bunch of 4 year olds would treat me worse or that I'd have to deal with as much disgusting behavior as I have had to in the many service industry jobs I've had. At least with kids you go into it knowing they are going to be kind of gross and it's because they don't yet know better.

Absolutely I have worked in retail. I worked at a beer serving Chuck E. Cheese during college so yes I have cleaned up after strangers and when the toilet overflows I worked in macys during Christmas and nope you do not get as close to people in retail because they are strangers and we keep a certain amount of social distance from people we don’t know. In retail you are not talking eye to eye with a child comforting them when they cry when they just sneeze in your face. As a caregiver the kids naturally get very close to you. Strangers in a retail store keep more distance because they don’t know you as well . Kids are cuter and I clean up their crap snot and pee everyday. Come be a preschool teacher- or at least sub! Besides pee is mostly sterile even when it is in the floor and toilet seat.

It's my favorite when teachers argue that it's people who clean up pee are in the privileged position.

Why? It is hilarious to me when people think they are above peeing or cleaning it up or look down upon those who deal with it. Who are you to be disrespectful to custodians and caretakers? No one is above that.

If you have enough money to pay someone else to deal with your crap, that doesn't make you a better person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I meet virtually with my sick AP students at the end of the school day and deliver the whole lesson to them. I want them HOME.

I’m reading through these posts astounded at the “teachers signed up for this” and “my kid is going to school no matter what” posts. We really have lost all sense of community.

It is great you are willing to reteach a lesson virtually after school. The vast majority of teachers are not, nor should they be expected to. If a kid has a lingering cough or runny nose, they should be at school. If they have a fever or are very ill they should be resting not trying to learn a lesson on zoom from the day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:oh my god, PP. Have you heard of RETAIL? Of course there are people that are getting coughed on regularly at work.

+1, I've worked in both retail and food service and been coughed and sneezed on, had people touch me with hands they just coughed or sneezed into. Also, in these jobs you are constantly cleaning. I've had to clean the bathroom in restaurant jobs before. Ever scrubbed a toilet that a bunch of random strangers who'd been drinking recently used?

I would take being a preschool teacher over these jobs every day of the week and twice on Sundays. Yes, I'm sure I'd also catch viruses from the kids all the time. But there is no way that a bunch of 4 year olds would treat me worse or that I'd have to deal with as much disgusting behavior as I have had to in the many service industry jobs I've had. At least with kids you go into it knowing they are going to be kind of gross and it's because they don't yet know better.

Absolutely I have worked in retail. I worked at a beer serving Chuck E. Cheese during college so yes I have cleaned up after strangers and when the toilet overflows I worked in macys during Christmas and nope you do not get as close to people in retail because they are strangers and we keep a certain amount of social distance from people we don’t know. In retail you are not talking eye to eye with a child comforting them when they cry when they just sneeze in your face. As a caregiver the kids naturally get very close to you. Strangers in a retail store keep more distance because they don’t know you as well . Kids are cuter and I clean up their crap snot and pee everyday. Come be a preschool teacher- or at least sub! Besides pee is mostly sterile even when it is in the floor and toilet seat.

It's my favorite when teachers argue that it's people who clean up pee are in the privileged position.

Why? It is hilarious to me when people think they are above peeing or cleaning it up or look down upon those who deal with it. Who are you to be disrespectful to custodians and caretakers? No one is above that.

If you have enough money to pay someone else to deal with your crap, that doesn't make you a better person.

I'm saying that the teacher is saying she's got it worse than the person who cleans up pee. But delightful twisting you've done there. It's like the "ah by calling out racism YOU are the actual racist!"

[Anonymous]

Yes, teachers should be honored, respected, and paid like custodians.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look I get it, you need to work. So does everyone else. The system is strained with RSV, flu, strep, and covid. Schools have so many staff members and teachers out - they're not invincible. Your kid doesn't just have a little sniffles and it's not allergies - they're hacking their lungs out, have green snot falling from their nostrils, your write angry emails when we send them to the nurse, and your kids are suffering when you send them to school. They complain their throat hurts, ear hurts, and you keep sending them back when they're still sick (and contagious). You gotta let them heal completely.

You gotta break the cycle. We all have to do it. It sucks, but keep your sick kids home from school. Their chin strap of a mask doesn't do jack shit. You gotta keep them home. Please. I beg you.

Why? Keeping them home cuts into my me time and I'd have to miss pilates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:oh my god, PP. Have you heard of RETAIL? Of course there are people that are getting coughed on regularly at work.

+1, I've worked in both retail and food service and been coughed and sneezed on, had people touch me with hands they just coughed or sneezed into. Also, in these jobs you are constantly cleaning. I've had to clean the bathroom in restaurant jobs before. Ever scrubbed a toilet that a bunch of random strangers who'd been drinking recently used?

I would take being a preschool teacher over these jobs every day of the week and twice on Sundays. Yes, I'm sure I'd also catch viruses from the kids all the time. But there is no way that a bunch of 4 year olds would treat me worse or that I'd have to deal with as much disgusting behavior as I have had to in the many service industry jobs I've had. At least with kids you go into it knowing they are going to be kind of gross and it's because they don't yet know better.

Absolutely I have worked in retail. I worked at a beer serving Chuck E. Cheese during college so yes I have cleaned up after strangers and when the toilet overflows I worked in macys during Christmas and nope you do not get as close to people in retail because they are strangers and we keep a certain amount of social distance from people we don’t know. In retail you are not talking eye to eye with a child comforting them when they cry when they just sneeze in your face. As a caregiver the kids naturally get very close to you. Strangers in a retail store keep more distance because they don’t know you as well . Kids are cuter and I clean up their crap snot and pee everyday. Come be a preschool teacher- or at least sub! Besides pee is mostly sterile even when it is in the floor and toilet seat.

It's my favorite when teachers argue that it's people who clean up pee are in the privileged position.

Why? It is hilarious to me when people think they are above peeing or cleaning it up or look down upon those who deal with it. Who are you to be disrespectful to custodians and caretakers? No one is above that.

If you have enough money to pay someone else to deal with your crap, that doesn't make you a better person.

I'm saying that the teacher is saying she's got it worse than the person who cleans up pee. But delightful twisting you've done there. It's like the "ah by calling out racism YOU are the actual racist!"

I am a teacher AND the person who cleans up the pee. Do you really think I wait for the custodian in between every drop the three year olds leave on the toilet seat and floor? If I did there would be another three/four year old who had an accident while waiting for the bathroom because the custodian takes forever. My point is that you don’t seem to understand what early childhood classrooms involve. Early childhood is a part of every major district in the DMV. I am white I clean up pee from black and brown children all day. I am not complaining nor did I say your comment was racist. I am trying to point out that there is dignity in every job no matter how demeaning You believe it to be.

[Anonymous]

It's weird to argue that parents don't understand what it's like to be in charge of small children. I... have kids. Yes I have had a 3 year old with a cold randomly put her hand in my mouth. Yes, I have been handed any number of randomly wet items and been unsure why they were wet or where they had come from. I've been sneezed on, peed on, vomited on. I've cleaned poop out of underwear and carpets and the drain in the bathtub. I'm a mom. This is how kids are.

And, it stands to reason, I don't want my kid getting sick at school or daycare because, as the main person cleaning up after their bodily fluid, I'm going to get it. So of course I think parents should keep their kids home when sick, and I do. BUT I'm also aware that they don't always, and that germs spread even when parents keep the very sick kids home, and that inevitably my kid will get sick, and inevitably I will get sick too. It is what it is.

It's just strange to argue that the parents of your preschoolers don't know what it's like to work with preschoolers or to act like we are selfishly sending our sick kids to you so that we can go to more fun things. They are our kids. We know what is up.

[Anonymous]

I’m also tired of parents calling on call sitters to care for their sick kids AND NOT DISCLOSING ILLNESS. I arrived to a booking today through an agency and promptly left when I found out the kids were super sick. Parents were so mad and the agency supported me. Enough with parents being so inconsiderate!!!!! I’m not your nanny, I’m an on call sitter. I’m not risking getting sick when you don’t give me sick days. I get sick, I can’t work. So selfish!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's weird to argue that parents don't understand what it's like to be in charge of small children. I... have kids. Yes I have had a 3 year old with a cold randomly put her hand in my mouth. Yes, I have been handed any number of randomly wet items and been unsure why they were wet or where they had come from. I've been sneezed on, peed on, vomited on. I've cleaned poop out of underwear and carpets and the drain in the bathtub. I'm a mom. This is how kids are.

And, it stands to reason, I don't want my kid getting sick at school or daycare because, as the main person cleaning up after their bodily fluid, I'm going to get it. So of course I think parents should keep their kids home when sick, and I do. BUT I'm also aware that they don't always, and that germs spread even when parents keep the very sick kids home, and that inevitably my kid will get sick, and inevitably I will get sick too. It is what it is.

It's just strange to argue that the parents of your preschoolers don't know what it's like to work with preschoolers or to act like we are selfishly sending our sick kids to you so that we can go to more fun things. They are our kids. We know what is up.

Exactly. So then why were the PPs arguing that teachers don't have to do tasks like that? I dunno, but I had to argue it. It is strange! I'm not arguing with parents of my preschoolers as they are absolutely awesome. I'm arguing with people on this thread that stated teachers don't have to do that kind of work when I do. Everyday, in a public school, here in the DVM. That is all. If you think we aren't highly exposed to germs, think again. I didn't act like anyone was being selfish or even say kids with runny noses and coughs shouldn't be in school. Maybe that was said by another PP?

[Anonymous]

DC was home 4 days last week with temps. Still congested and slight cough. No temp for 24 hours now and if that continues they will be going back to school, with congestion and slight cough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's weird to argue that parents don't understand what it's like to be in charge of small children. I... have kids. Yes I have had a 3 year old with a cold randomly put her hand in my mouth. Yes, I have been handed any number of randomly wet items and been unsure why they were wet or where they had come from. I've been sneezed on, peed on, vomited on. I've cleaned poop out of underwear and carpets and the drain in the bathtub. I'm a mom. This is how kids are.

And, it stands to reason, I don't want my kid getting sick at school or daycare because, as the main person cleaning up after their bodily fluid, I'm going to get it. So of course I think parents should keep their kids home when sick, and I do. BUT I'm also aware that they don't always, and that germs spread even when parents keep the very sick kids home, and that inevitably my kid will get sick, and inevitably I will get sick too. It is what it is.

It's just strange to argue that the parents of your preschoolers don't know what it's like to work with preschoolers or to act like we are selfishly sending our sick kids to you so that we can go to more fun things. They are our kids. We know what is up.

Exactly. So then why were the PPs arguing that teachers don't have to do tasks like that? I dunno, but I had to argue it. It is strange! I'm not arguing with parents of my preschoolers as they are absolutely awesome. I'm arguing with people on this thread that stated teachers don't have to do that kind of work when I do. Everyday, in a public school, here in the DVM. That is all. If you think we aren't highly exposed to germs, think again. I didn't act like anyone was being selfish or even say kids with runny noses and coughs shouldn't be in school. Maybe that was said by another PP?

I don't think anyone was saying that teachers don't have to do tasks like that. We were saying that there are other jobs where you have to be in close contact with people who might be sick, even clean up their bodily fluids. And that while of course everyone wants people who are sick to stay home, typically if you are in one of these jobs, you accept that you will be exposed to other people's germs and have a higher risk of getting sick, especially during cold and flu season. Which is why when a teacher comes on and says "you don't understand, people are sending these kids to school and some of them are sick and it's going to get me sick!" the response is often, "yes, and?" It's the same for flight attendants, nurses and doctors, some retail workers, childcare workers, etc. etc. AND its' the same for parents, whose kids often come home from school or daycare with illnesses and not only do the kids infect the rest of the family but then the parents must care for the sick kids and for themselves while everyone is sick. It sucks! It's also just kind of the way it is.

I say this as someone who keeps my kid home when sick. In fact, my kid has been home this week with a brutal cold which I now also have. But she didn't get it at school -- her dad brought it home from a work trip and despite our best efforts it's working its way through the family. But he's not yelling at his colleagues or the people on the plane or in airports or whoever gave it to him. He just accepts that it's November, it's an extra bad year for these viruses, and somehow he got sick. Oh well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m also tired of parents calling on call sitters to care for their sick kids AND NOT DISCLOSING ILLNESS. I arrived to a booking today through an agency and promptly left when I found out the kids were super sick. Parents were so mad and the agency supported me. Enough with parents being so inconsiderate!!!!! I’m not your nanny, I’m an on call sitter. I’m not risking getting sick when you don’t give me sick days. I get sick, I can’t work. So selfish!!

Humm... why do you think a family would use a sitter for school aged kids during the school day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m also tired of parents calling on call sitters to care for their sick kids AND NOT DISCLOSING ILLNESS. I arrived to a booking today through an agency and promptly left when I found out the kids were super sick. Parents were so mad and the agency supported me. Enough with parents being so inconsiderate!!!!! I’m not your nanny, I’m an on call sitter. I’m not risking getting sick when you don’t give me sick days. I get sick, I can’t work. So selfish!!

Humm... why do you think a family would use a sitter for school aged kids during the school day.

Yeah, I mean the family should still disclose the illness but the main reason on call sitter services exist is for families who can't send their kids to school or daycare due to illness. Sometimes it might be something like a nanny going out of town or a SAHP who is sick or has to travel. but I'd bet more than half of the people using those services are just looking for emergency care for sick kids. You'd think one of the first questions the service would ask is "are the kids sick? what are their symptoms? what is your policy on masks?" It's just practical.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I meet virtually with my sick AP students at the end of the school day and deliver the whole lesson to them. I want them HOME.

I’m reading through these posts astounded at the “teachers signed up for this” and “my kid is going to school no matter what” posts. We really have lost all sense of community.

It is great you are willing to reteach a lesson virtually after school. The vast majority of teachers are not, nor should they be expected to. If a kid has a lingering cough or runny nose, they should be at school. If they have a fever or are very ill they should be resting not trying to learn a lesson on zoom from the day.

No, sick people should stay home and not spread it so these teachers don't have to work overtime to fix your selfish behavior. The spread needs to stop. Sick kids in school are not learning anything and just spreading their illness to others.