Should You Send Sick Kids to Daycare?

@latinspice, as a parent it’s your job to find alternate care. Especially if your child being there at that time is against the schools policy. Having kids comes with sacrifices of missing work or being in tough situations like that. It’s not the schools responsibility.

I get what you're saying and it sucks but as others stated they may not be able to miss work. I've known people to get fired for missing a shift because their child got sick. It may not be selfishness or not caring on the parent's part but truly the inability to have alternate care because they have to do to work no matter what.

@scruffy.nerf.herder, I know the stuffy nose and basic cold . Read the previous comments . Fever , vomiting , diarrhea , a virus , your kid should be staying home with you. Us as parents know when our kids are off . And if you have to come in saying “my kid was doing this this and this last night , or he was up all night doing this so he’ll probably nap all day “ then you know they shouldn’t be there

My kiddo got roseola and campylobacter (non-stop diarrhea for days) from his daycare. Illness gets passed around daycare, often before symptoms are even present.

My child went to daycare with runny nose, stuffiness, etc. but if he had fever or vomiting, he was kept home.

You can’t ask a child to stay home for the whole week that it takes to recover from a cold. Working parents don’t have the ability to do that. There’s only so much flexibility an employer allows.

it’s an every other week occurrence . And read my precious comment . We have standards . But at that point director left to take her daughter to school and is as teachers aren’t aloud to refuse care . So we have to wait and by that point they’re ignoring our calls .

your kid is going to get sick from time to time it’s unfortunate but you can’t avoid it unless you’re keeping him home 24/7

that’s the same reason the other parents are sending their children. Not everyone has help if their child is sick. But it should be up to the daycare to refuse children for the day. Daycares need to have standards. If a child has visible illness it’s the daycares fault for keeping them there. My son got croup from daycare because the kid there was contagious before symptoms showed. It happens. I’m still not mad about it though.

No, I send MY child to daycare cause I have to make money and not everyone can be a stay at home mom. 🤷🏻‍♀️ not because I expect my kid to come home with freaking hfm, croup , or fevers because other parents are irresponsible and say it’s “just teething “ 🤷🏻‍♀️

@latinspice, thank you for getting the realities for many parents!!

My husband can’t take days, after 3 excused absences he gets fired. Luckily my employer is more flexible, so I handled all the sick days when my son was little in daycare getting sick all the time.

But not everyone has that kind of flexibility with work, nor do they have natural supports locally that can help them with sick children. If the choice is send sniffly child to school or get fired, parent needs to keep their job so they can provide for the child and have insurance for the child.

Yes so much of this. It's amazing to me that folks can understand the unfairness of sending a child sick to school but not understand the unfairness of a parent who has to work and who's job offers no flexibility. I am lucky i work from home and have sick hours I can take whenever I need to. If I run out my job will look for alternatives like flexing my schedule for the week. But even as flexible as my job is I have seen folks fired because their child is sick, they've taken all sick hours available for the year and there is no availability to trade their days. At that point they take the day as unexcused and that's and instant max level warning. If they are on a write up for anything else its dismissal. So some parents truly face the decision of get fired or send my child to school sick.

Oh no 😣 I would die

Yeah I said above that runny nose is one thing

both my kids were in daycare at 4 days old and are both the healthiest kids

@briannalynn547 have you ever worked a job that was outside of the daycare after you had your child though?

yes . Multiple different jobs. And he’s gotten sent home multiple times . But I had to leave work or make arrangements . And I’ve never had a place where that was easy. The daycare I work at I still wouldn’t be able to leave . I’d have to find arrangements

DSS childcare only covers the hours you’re working, and your child attends, the remaining balance is left for the parents to pay. So when you pay for five days a week, and your kid is sick one day, if you keep them home, you have to pay 1/5th of the cost of childcare. I’ve been on both ends, receiving help paying for childcare, and being the childcare getting paid through the state. If the child attends and is at daycare for less than four hours, the parents typically need to pay.

Yeah, that’s not cool ☹️

@massgirl Yes CPS was called and mom was talked to many times. At that time we were also able to take the kids to the dr. So we took him several times to make sure it wasn't hurting his kidneys and liver.

People do this at my daycare too . One time we found Tylenol in a girls sippy 😣

My son’s been fine being in school, and has missed hardly any days, maybe 3 since he started school (and he’s now in 2nd grade). He was exposed to everything when he was little at daycare, and now his immune system is good! 😆

@briannalynn547, I took my kiddo out. Being a stay at home mom is better than worrying 24/7 what sickness my child is going to come down with next being at daycare. I know it isn’t an option for everyone

@patty_girlmomx3 that happens it's life. Until the child builds up an immune system. That's why it's so common for children to be sick in daycare environments. They're young and haven't built up a tolerance yet. The same thing would happen if a child goes to kindergarten having never been exposed to germs previously. My daughter's best friend was out sick the second day of school and she was out by the third. She's in Pre-K and there were other kids with germs around. It happens

Exactly! My son was sick a lot his first couple of years in daycare. It felt like every fall he had a cold from August through November. It sucked, but that’s the reality of a lot of people sharing a space. He hasn’t been sick in a long time now that he’s built up a tolerance.

Yes so much of this. It's amazing to me that folks can understand the unfairness of sending a child sick to school but not understand the unfairness of a parent who has to work and who's job offers no flexibility. I am lucky i work from home and have sick hours I can take whenever I need to. If I run out my job will look for alternatives like flexing my schedule for the week. But even as flexible as my job is I have seen folks fired because their child is sick, they've taken all sick hours available for the year and there is no availability to trade their days. At that point they take the day as unexcused and that's and instant max level warning. If they are on a write up for anything else its dismissal. So some parents truly face the decision of get fired or send my child to school sick.

thank you for getting the realities for many parents!!

My husband can’t take days, after 3 excused absences he gets fired. Luckily my employer is more flexible, so I handled all the sick days when my son was little in daycare getting sick all the time.

But not everyone has that kind of flexibility with work, nor do they have natural supports locally that can help them with sick children. If the choice is send sniffly child to school or get fired, parent needs to keep their job so they can provide for the child and have insurance for the child.

I freaking wish 🤣

@scruffy.nerf.herder, I know the stuffy nose and basic cold . Read the previous comments . Fever , vomiting , diarrhea , a virus , your kid should be staying home with you. Us as parents know when our kids are off . And if you have to come in saying “my kid was doing this this and this last night , or he was up all night doing this so he’ll probably nap all day “ then you know they shouldn’t be there

I get what you're saying and it sucks but as others stated they may not be able to miss work. I've known people to get fired for missing a shift because their child got sick. It may not be selfishness or not caring on the parent's part but truly the inability to have alternate care because they have to do to work no matter what.

as a parent it’s your job to find alternate care. Especially if your child being there at that time is against the schools policy. Having kids comes with sacrifices of missing work or being in tough situations like that. It’s not the schools responsibility.

When their are toddlers and infants present at the school in the room you shouldn’t be sending your child if they’re sick. Runny nose of course just a common cold . But when your kid is sneezing green snot down their nose every five seconds , or has a nasty seal like cough, hand foot mouth, a fever , etc etc it’s literally against daycare rules (atleast in my state ) and people still be sending their kids . I work in my sons daycare, and most parents just don’t care cause it’s an inconvenience to them and their work schedule or whatever . It’s pathetic

oh that is bad!!! Yes even at my daughters school, they call you to pick up your child of they are too sick and especially if they have a fever. Why doesn’t the daycare call the parents to pick them up and if they refuse expel them?

we do, but at that point most parents already know their kids are sick and you’d be so surprised at how many of them ignore our phone calls . We have an app where we mark everything down about your kids everyday. Including fever, coughing , sneezing , meals etc etc . Most parents don’t even care to look. It’s actually sad . And then they’re not supposed to return until all symptoms are gone for 24 hours and a lot of them will wait til the director leaves to take her daughter in cause they know we have to wait for her to refuse a kid. We’re not aloud to as teachers.