How much sick leave to save up for 1 year old entering daycare?

[Anonymous]

Realized I posted in the infant toddler discussion, but here's my question.....Baby is entering daycare soon. 1 year old and so far no illnesses, not even a cold, so I'm guessing we will be in for all the illnesses once she enters daycare. How are parents managing work and sick leave for actual sicknesses and leave for any required quarantine periods?

[Anonymous]

I’d want at least 10 days in a normal year.

[Anonymous]

You never know what you are going to need. Most parents I know hoard their days to deal with child illnesses and many went over their allowed amount. Then some of us have kids who never get sick. I was in the latter group, but, like others, hoarded my leave, so am constantly in a use or lose state.

[Anonymous]

Between you and other parent, 4 weeks.

[Anonymous]

I don't really understand "saving up sick leave"? What else are you going to use it for? Do you have other options?

I never had sick leave, only PTO. So I did save it to use (meaning I didn't use as much for my own personal days or for trips etc). But for sick days, you can only use them when sick or a family member is sick. So...what else would you use them for?

[Anonymous]

Same as PP, I'm not sure how this works. Only use sick leave if you need it. Is your sick/vacation mixed into PTO?

As much as possible Ideally, you and your partner can trade off, and/or maybe you can have a flex schedule where you can make up some of the hours (i.e. be out of office for 2 days but still get in 8 hours and only take 1 day of work). It is impossible to predict. I do know that my kid was rarely sick this past year due to COVID protocols and reduced class size, but I expect next year will be more normal.

[Anonymous]

I don't quite understand the question either, unless you have straight PTO and no dedicated sick leave.

When my kids were little we had no telework, so I had to use sick leave every time they were running a fever or recovering and couldn't go to daycare. Probably that was 5-10 days per kid, per year. I was lucky enough to be able to split that with my husband and my mom who helped out a ton.

I also had to use sick time to take kids to the doctor and dentist, which can be several visits per year. My kids were overall very healthy, but they both got a few colds per year, HFM, etc. The worst is when you would take sick leave for the kid and then have to take sick leave for yourself a few days later because you caught the same cold.

[Anonymous]

Not PP- as a Dcps teacher I get 8 sick days and 2 personal days per year.