Two WOH parents and sick/snow days

[Anonymous]

If you and/or your spouse can telework, how do you handle sick days or snow days? Do you take the day off or work from home? And if you work from home, what are your strategies for keeping child(ren) occupied? Unlimited screen time? I know that the federal gov't says you have to have child care when you're working from home (I'm not a Fed), but do people actually do that for sick days/snow days, or do you "work from home" while also keeping half an eye on a kid who is occupied with a craft/screen/whatever?

[Anonymous]

Sick days are easier to deal with often, because there will be large blocks of time where the sick child is resting, allowing me to work. Snow days, not so much. In both cases, I let them know what's going on, that I'll be working but possibly not at 100%, and either work late, or work extra hours on other days to makeup the rest. No one at work cares about the # of hours worked, as long as the job gets done.

[Anonymous]

Either we rotate who has to stay home, or we both work from home that day and then split the day. We decide that spouse A is working from 8-12, and then spouse B is on duty during that time. And then we rotate. Just dpeneds on who has what meetings, etc. We use TV a lot for those days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sick days are easier to deal with often, because there will be large blocks of time where the sick child is resting, allowing me to work. Snow days, not so much. In both cases, I let them know what's going on, that I'll be working but possibly not at 100%, and either work late, or work extra hours on other days to makeup the rest. No one at work cares about the # of hours worked, as long as the job gets done.

depending on the age of the child it is illegal to care and work at the same time. You take time off or pto.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Either we rotate who has to stay home, or we both work from home that day and then split the day. We decide that spouse A is working from 8-12, and then spouse B is on duty during that time. And then we rotate. Just dpeneds on who has what meetings, etc. We use TV a lot for those days.

+1. Same. We frequently split days in half depending on meeting schedules.

[Anonymous]

We are lucky to both have fairly flexible schedules. The one whose work is currently a little slower will usually do the sick/snow day or we each take a half day -- one takes morning, one takes afternoon. The kids are old enough now that they can entertain themselves quite a bit (they are 6 and 8) and they play together well. That sure is nice because it wasn't possible a few years ago. I'm not above lots of screentime too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sick days are easier to deal with often, because there will be large blocks of time where the sick child is resting, allowing me to work. Snow days, not so much. In both cases, I let them know what's going on, that I'll be working but possibly not at 100%, and either work late, or work extra hours on other days to makeup the rest. No one at work cares about the # of hours worked, as long as the job gets done.

depending on the age of the child it is illegal to care and work at the same time. You take time off or pto.

Um...okay

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sick days are easier to deal with often, because there will be large blocks of time where the sick child is resting, allowing me to work. Snow days, not so much. In both cases, I let them know what's going on, that I'll be working but possibly not at 100%, and either work late, or work extra hours on other days to makeup the rest. No one at work cares about the # of hours worked, as long as the job gets done.

Same. Business owners do this all the time

[Anonymous]

It depends. I try to stay realistic and make it clear I won't be working all day. A 1 year old with a cold can actually be incredibly hands on. A 5 year old with a cold will most likely sit on the couch much of the day.

Snow days I'd never even attempt to work more than a 1/2 day. My DH and I would break it up based on phone calls or time sensitive stuff.

But when I can, I'll take the whole day off. It's much easier now that my kids have been healthy for the most part, so we don't have lots of sick days. They are 3 and 5. The last year things have finally been better on the illness front! I'm worried we are due for some serious illness this winter, but maybe just maybe their little immune systems are nice and strong!

[Anonymous]

Amazes me that people have all these high powered jobs with great salary and benefits and can take weeks and weeks of vacation all around the world, and yet they can't take a day off to take care of a sick kid.

Here's how we handle it:

"Sorry, my kid's sick. I won't be in today."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Either we rotate who has to stay home, or we both work from home that day and then split the day. We decide that spouse A is working from 8-12, and then spouse B is on duty during that time. And then we rotate. Just dpeneds on who has what meetings, etc. We use TV a lot for those days.

We do this too. It's so much easier with both of us at home. We are looser in how we trade off - we generally just say "ok, I need an hour to take a call at 11" and negotiate from there on jointly triaging our days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Amazes me that people have all these high powered jobs with great salary and benefits and can take weeks and weeks of vacation all around the world, and yet they can't take a day off to take care of a sick kid.

Here's how we handle it:

"Sorry, my kid's sick. I won't be in today."

I have one of those jobs, and the point you're forgetting is that most of us are working on those great trips. I generally work anywhere from 2 hours to 6 hours every day of vacation, plugging the work in where I can (nap time, early mornings, late at night, etc.). It's the same for when the kids are sick. You just clear your plate as much as you can, and keep working on things that cannot be pushed.

[Anonymous]

We both are fortunate to have flexible jobs where we can telework regularly, but both our offices also close when the Fed Govt is closed. Unfortunately that doesn't mean we're off work, so we are usually both home and tag team kid duty. It gets better when they're older and can start to play outside with friends without you being there.

As for sick days, we usually rotate based on who was last to stay home, but honestly there have been days when we've both been ready to head out the door and someone pukes or has a fever and we start wheeling and dealing with each other. The worst is when it's a kid who technically shouldn't be at school or child care but is starting to feel themselves again. I feel guilty when I can't give them my full attention, so I usually write out a schedule for the day to add structure and break up the time. When they were little I'd make sure movie time was time I could be heads-down with work or had calls. But I'd take breaks to read to them, do crafts, help them with math worksheets, etc. I also would make up small chores for them to do if they were feeling well (sort clean laundry by family member was something the loved).

[Anonymous]

Sick days are easier, I work my normal 6:30-2:30, DH works at night. It sucks but we both get in our hours. Snow days depend on if the government closes. If the government closes, then I am home and my DH goes to work. If the government is open, I go in early and husband later, I work closer to home so the drive is less problematic for me.

[Anonymous]

It's usually me who stays because I can work from home. DH would have to take PTO. I have a very low-stress job, so other than scheduled conference calls, I can take frequent breaks as needed. DD gets a lot of screen time on these days, but I can also send her to play in the backyard.