Sometimes, something can develop suddenly. Once, shortly after getting to school, I vomited without warning. My mother, who was at the school, immediately took me home. I definitely would have been kept home if my mother had any idea I was sick.
We lived about 5 minutes away, but I’m sure if I’d been a bus rider, it would have happened on my way to school without my mom having any idea.

On the other hand, my daughter threw up once at school (in the middle of the day), and I was never notified. I found out when I went in to help with an after school program and the other kids were telling me about it. After I tracked down my daughter, I discovered that she had thrown up and was still feeling nauseous (which the vomit in her hair wasn’t helping). At that point, I took her home, but would have much preferred to have been able to take her home when it happened to both spare her discomfort and her classmates exposure to her illness. After that, I instructed her and her sister that if either ever got sick at school again, they should insist on calling me. Fortunately, it wasn’t necessary.

Anonymous wrote:Scenario: kid running a low-grade (99 degree) fever for 2+ weeks, sent home by Dr as a common cold, school starts complaining about absences. On 2nd visit to Dr (persistent fever/lethargy) they find walking pneumonia, clears up with another week of antibiotics.

It’s a no win situation, by the end of it we are getting truancy calls even with the Dr note. Would you send your kid in?

I wouldn't use a thermometer on a child who wasn't displaying signs of fever (hot to touch, lethargic) in the first place. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2025/01/kids-temperature-thermometers/681200/

If my kid were so sick (lethargic) that I didn't feel comfortable sending them to school, I would have gone back to the doctor and/or gotten a second opinion well before 2 weeks had passed.

When my kid got pneumonia this fall, doctor wrote a note that they could immediately return to school after starting antibiotic.

Anonymous wrote:Scenario: kid running a low-grade (99 degree) fever for 2+ weeks, sent home by Dr as a common cold, school starts complaining about absences. On 2nd visit to Dr (persistent fever/lethargy) they find walking pneumonia, clears up with another week of antibiotics.

It’s a no win situation, by the end of it we are getting truancy calls even with the Dr note. Would you send your kid in?

I absolutely would for MS+. The school content is important then and they have good enough hygiene to avoid crazy spread.

Scenario: kid running a low-grade (99 degree) fever for 2+ weeks, sent home by Dr as a common cold, school starts complaining about absences. On 2nd visit to Dr (persistent fever/lethargy) they find walking pneumonia, clears up with another week of antibiotics.

It’s a no win situation, by the end of it we are getting truancy calls even with the Dr note. Would you send your kid in?

Anonymous wrote:I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had students come to school saying they took medicine for their fever or threw up on the way to school.

DCUM darlings: why do you do it? You are the target demographic and are the ones who most likely send their sick kids to school. How do you justify it?

OP, if you think that the average DCUMers are the people so desperate to send a kid with fever to school with two pills of Ibuprofen you are beyond clueless. Most people here can work remotely if they need to or can take the day off. Those who can’t (i.e. doctors) can pay for back up care.

I have not done this, but for the sake of the argument, kids will sometimes misreport what their parents said, unintentionally (or not).

They send their sick kids to school because they are selfish.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People will blame “but I had to go to work!”

Nope. You chose to have kids. Kids get sick. Have a plan. Have a backup. Hell, have two. A job is no excuse to be a self-centered jerk.

Single moms who fear staying home from work means losing their jobs, without which they can't pay rent or put food on the table, are not self-centered jerks. Your position is very privileged and out of touch with many Americans.

Not PP. don’t hide behind single moms and low paid wage workers. You’re not one of them. You probably work from home.

Lets not argue. I was the poor low wage worker, illegal for over a decade. I didn't sent my kid to school sick because I worked nights and weekend.There were few other times I had to find last minute sitter in order not to get fired.
It wasn't about not making money that day. Extra shift are almost always available to low income workers. What some of you don't see, is what an employer does to a person who doesn't show up to work even though they have a reason. The employer doesn't care what your reason is. Mine was particular harsh on women even though we were the hardest workers.
They cut your hours, cut your pay, came up with new duties. It was also the mental games the employer played. Mine screamed every night at closing what bleeding b--tches women are.
I have thrown up in the bathroom every 30 minutes and continued to make the drinks. It was expected even though we usually had plenty of people to cover a person. Since the boss didn't even pay the $2.17-$2.77 an hour, he wanted more of us there.
Doctor told my co-worker to quit her job asap or she was going to have a heart-attack.
We were reminded constantly how grateful we should be to have jobs. I stayed way too long as I had been homeless before. This seemed like a better option. I don't think about the homelessness and how scary it was, I think about the mistreatment at that bar.
By the way, he wasn't even the only bad boss I had.