No, the school calendar doesn't apply to your special snowflake. Keep him home whenever you want!

OP, maybe you should just homeschool. Really, just keep your kid home.

He might get sick going to the pediatrician. He might get sick at the mall. At the grocery store. Does he play soccer? Maybe he'll catch something at the Sportsplex.

How do you live in such fear?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son just recovered from flu. His ped actually hinted that I need to keep him home since he is still so exhausted. 3 days after his fever broke...

That makes more sense because your kid was ACTUALLY SICK. OP's kid is completely healthy. She just doesn't want him to get sick at an inconvenient time, so she's keeping him home from school. Crazy.

Correct. And the reason it's an inconvenient time is because they're going to visit a person with a compromised immune system. Are the last two days before winter break, in kindergarten, so important that OP should forgo visiting this person, or increase the possibility that the kindergartner will make the person with the compromised immune system sick?

ps - she did also come down with something in the last few days.

I asked my daughter if she wanted to stay home and she was incredulous and said "NO! We're having a party. I don't want to miss that!" lol Okay

A girl puked on the floor by her desk and was sent to the nurse. The teacher then asked my kid to put the sick girl's chair on her desk so it was out of the way. The next day my son came home with the bug.

I totally understand why the op is keeping her kid home.

Anonymous wrote:My son just recovered from flu. His ped actually hinted that I need to keep him home since he is still so exhausted. 3 days after his fever broke...

That makes more sense because your kid was ACTUALLY SICK. OP's kid is completely healthy. She just doesn't want him to get sick at an inconvenient time, so she's keeping him home from school. Crazy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought of this thread and asked my DD how many kids were absent today in her 2nd grade class. She said zero.

We're at a high FARMS rate school in one of the 'not-great' clusters in MoCo. I guess we're poor, but at least the families have a good work ethic and don't keep their kids home for BS reasons.

Op here. You'll be thrilled to know that we are at a school with a high farms rate so there goes your theory.

I'm glad your child's class (n=1) gave you accurate information representing the entire state of Maryland. The secretary at our school told me that a ton of kids had called out sick.

I don't regret pulling my child out. My Dh and I have a strong work ethic. Neither of us take random "mental health" days as some of our friends have done. My K student probably won't even remember these 2 days in the span of his lifetime.

That's probably true.

But, your kid is old enough to remember that his mom kept him out of school because he was afraid he'd catch a cold. You can justify it whatever way you want, but you're teaching your kid to live in fear of germs. You're changing around his entire schedule simply due to the possibility he might catch a cold. Pretty neurotic way to live.

My son just recovered from flu. His ped actually hinted that I need to keep him home since he is still so exhausted. 3 days after his fever broke...

Anonymous wrote:I thought of this thread and asked my DD how many kids were absent today in her 2nd grade class. She said zero.

We're at a high FARMS rate school in one of the 'not-great' clusters in MoCo. I guess we're poor, but at least the families have a good work ethic and don't keep their kids home for BS reasons.

Op here. You'll be thrilled to know that we are at a school with a high farms rate so there goes your theory.

I'm glad your child's class (n=1) gave you accurate information representing the entire state of Maryland. The secretary at our school told me that a ton of kids had called out sick.

I don't regret pulling my child out. My Dh and I have a strong work ethic. Neither of us take random "mental health" days as some of our friends have done. My K student probably won't even remember these 2 days in the span of his lifetime.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought of this thread and asked my DD how many kids were absent today in her 2nd grade class. She said zero.

We're at a high FARMS rate school in one of the 'not-great' clusters in MoCo. I guess we're poor, but at least the families have a good work ethic and don't keep their kids home for BS reasons.

If OP and OP's kindergartener are about to go visit somebody who is immunocompromised, I don't think it's a BS reason at all. In fact, I might be inclined to quarantine the kindergartener for a month beforehand.

My elementary-school child said that two children were absent today, both sick. My middle-school child said that 10 children were absent from science class last Thursday. Speaking of germ factories and quarantine.

This sounds like a fantastic idea. You're not missing much in MCPS K anyway.

Anonymous wrote:I thought of this thread and asked my DD how many kids were absent today in her 2nd grade class. She said zero.

We're at a high FARMS rate school in one of the 'not-great' clusters in MoCo. I guess we're poor, but at least the families have a good work ethic and don't keep their kids home for BS reasons.

If OP and OP's kindergartener are about to go visit somebody who is immunocompromised, I don't think it's a BS reason at all. In fact, I might be inclined to quarantine the kindergartener for a month beforehand.

My elementary-school child said that two children were absent today, both sick. My middle-school child said that 10 children were absent from science class last Thursday. Speaking of germ factories and quarantine.

I thought of this thread and asked my DD how many kids were absent today in her 2nd grade class. She said zero.

We're at a high FARMS rate school in one of the 'not-great' clusters in MoCo. I guess we're poor, but at least the families have a good work ethic and don't keep their kids home for BS reasons.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'm trying to get some individual assessments done on Monday and Tuesday. We've had a lot of kids absent lately due to illness so I have a lot of make-ups to do. I'm not planning on introducing any new content.

I honestly wish winter break had started on Friday. There are so many illnesses going around in our building (students and staff) that it just needs to be scrubbed down and left empty so that the germs stop spreading. If your kids are sick, please keep them home and please have current contact information in the office so that if your kid is sick we can reach you.

OP I don't blame you for wanting to keep your kid home. I wish I didn't have to go into the germ factory this week. Just know that it will be unexcused absences but as long as it's not a pattern it'll be fine.

-elementary teacher

Okay, this post from an ES teacher is crazy. Are you really that worried about germs? That's just crazy. Maybe being an ES teacher isn't the right job for you? You're calling the school a 'germ factory' and you wish you didn't have to go in this week? Truly sounds as if you need a career change!

How is it crazy? I'm an ES teacher (NP) home sick today. Last week there were kids puking all over the place, kids coming to school with fevers who couldn't be sent home because no one on their contact sheet answered the phone, an upper respiratory virus and the confirmed flu going around. Yes, you know about these things going into the job but it doesn't make it suck any less knowing that you will definitely be exposed to whatever's going around.

Do you love every aspect of your job? Doubt it. Does that mean your job isn't the right job for you and you needi a career change?

You're being unnecessarily harsh. Teachers are people with families too. Must be nice to be able to post on DCUM at 10:07 on a Monday morning. Since you have so much free time on your hands, maybe you could go volunteer at your child's school. At my school today they needed teachers to cover lunch and recess duty because so many staff members were sick and there aren't enough subs to cover. Some parent volunteer help would be much appreciated.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. I'm doing it! Not sending the kiddo to school today or tomorrow. And feel so relieved!

So, what do you plan to do these two days?

I have the same question as the other PP. Do you plan to go to a grocery store, or the mall? Or anywhere? Because it's just as likely your kids will be exposed to some germs there.

I guess if you're staying home the next two days, you might be able to avoid any illness.

Op again. I know some people think I'm crazy for doing this. I've never even considered it before, which is why I posted here to see if I was crazy (half of you think so!). To be fair I'm not usually a germaphobe (I work with young children on a daily basis). We are traveling and hope to see someone who is inmuno compromised and I know there are no guarantees, but I would prefer to be cautious. I told my kid the truth. That we won't normally do this, but since we want to see that family member and keep them healthy, we are doing it this way now.

I don't have any plans to take them to stores/malls. We just got the car washed! We bundle up and spend a lot of time outdoors anyway so it won't be too bad. The kids like being home so it won't be too much of a hardship. There just seemed to be so many friends posting on FB about their kids getting the flu! When I called the school to let them know, they said tons of people are sick.