To find it increasingly annoying, that parents send clearly ill children into school

Yes they do they are now asking for medical evidence for a cold and fining parents !! Educate yourself

Not if its just a sniffle, but I do think the schools are the problem. We've all had the flu (and it was flu not a cold) last week and still not completely over it, so my daughter had a week off. I got a shitty phone call from the school pretty much demanding she went in today. She's a tough little cookie, but she's had one thing after another this year and it has worn her out. She did go in today as seems better, but if she starts to feel crap again I will pull her back out.

The general advice is that if a child feels well enough to be in school then they should be in school, unless it’s something like chickenpox, d&v and similar for which schools will have exclusion policies. There will be loads of children who are clearly snottery, sneezing and coughing but don’t have a temperature and feel otherwise well, who will be in school. Spreading it all around yeah, but not ill enough to be off. If we always kept children off with things that are contagious but don’t cause serious illness, the schools would be up in arms. Keep them off for a common cold why not keep them off for headlice and cold sores?
If your child is well but contagious, it can be hard to justify having time off work. You aren’t ill yourself so what sort of leave do you take? Parental leave? Limited in many workplaces. Self certification? Yeah, but hit the trigger for this (which you could easily do over the course of a winter) you face absence management procedures. Annual leave? Difficult when it’s often stretched thinly enough as it is covering all the holidays they get.
Don’t get me wrong if my child is actually too ill to be in school I’m keeping her off and always have, but there are a lot grey areas meaning its a hard judgement call to make sometimes and not necessarily just about being selfish.

@Howarewealldoing “Parents have to work but if children are ill they need to come first . The same.way an adult would have time off if clearly sick . School don’t have an issue children having time of if ill . They have an issue with parents lying and taking kids on holiday”

do you live in cuckoo land?
I, and many friends, are unfortunate enough to have employers that would rather you at deaths door but working than take any time off AND require any childcare days to be either unpaid or time paid back.

So if my child/ren are well enough to hold a conversation, eat reasonably normally and function within reason, I am not keeping them off school.

And yes, I do take my kids out of school for holidays because 1. We cannot afford it in school holiday time and 2. Myself and husband cannot get a full week off together during the holidays.

what a bloody blessed life you live

Our school has told parents that coughs and colds are a good enough reason to be absent............

Kept my daughter off today - she is not so unwell she can't go to school but it's end of term, she needs rest, and I don't want her spreading it around... if we ALL thought like that then we wouldn't have such an awful flu season.

I have a disabled child who is off more and I can tell you that yes they absolutely do have an issue with it when children are ill. Or at hospital appointments.

Completely agree - mine have very strong immune systems and never kept them off for a sniffle. If they are feeling very ill and theres absolutely no chance of concentrating on work, then ofcourse they would be able to stay home but I dont think they have ever exceeded a day or two and that would be a very bad cough/cold.

Sickness bugs are another thing all together.

We got a shitty attendance letter off the school a couple of weeks after DC missed 5 days of school with chicken pox. They had been nothing but lovely on the phone each time I called to say DC wasn't better yet.

I'll still keep mine off when ill but it's definitely sending mixed messages.

Absolutely this. The presenteeism culture we have in this country, that says people should still show up even if they have an infectious disease, does way more harm than good. And the schools' finger-wagging over attendance ensures the brainwashing starts very early in life.

I've said YABU but I suppose YANBU if you are talking about children in school with serious illnesses or vomiting.

Children (and adults too for that matter) don't need a day off for every sniffle and coughs and colds are needed to build the immune system.

Very unusual to be able to work around each other specifically to cover illness. I’d say the majority of the population either work normal full time hours or one parent working school hours to do school runs. How many days sick does your child have a year? Obviously if they have long-term health conditions, it would be understandable to try and find jobs you can do that. For most people, its a couple of days a year (usually abit worse in the younger years nursery etc). I dont think mine have ever exceeded 2-3 days a year.

Yes. They are.

The employer probably won’t make it obvious that that is why they’ve been fired but they will absolutely be managed out.

Illnesses develop though, the “clearly ill” later in the day could have been a “sniffle” in the morning. My child is absolutely more important than my job but if it looks like a minor illness, the impact it has for me to be off for a day is so great that I do have to take that risk. I have been wrong from time to time and had to collect a poorly child later. There are far more times I’ve been right and if I’d taken the day off for every one of those I’d have caused significant issues at work.

I once had a teacher say to me in a pissed off way at pick up “whatever you gave to him this morning has worn off and he’s got a temperature now” I hadn’t given him anything! He had mild cold symptoms in the morning and developed a temperature later in the day. I don’t have a crystal ball 🤷‍♀️ I also know plenty of parents who keep their child off at the first sign of any illness and always have them off for the whole week. I expect they get letters.

It depends on what the illness is - coughs/colds would be ridiculous to keep them home every time if they are well in themselves as alot of children catch those all through winter. Both our primary and secondary have made it clear that they are fine to come to school with coughs and colds if they are ok to learn. I work in the NHS and unless symptoms are severe, you come to work with coughs, colds, Covid and put on a mask (not suggesting children wear masks but adults have to just get on with these things too).

Stomach bug/sickness goes without saying to keep them off as that can really bring down the whole class.

Both my kids generally have 1-2 sick days a year and I find going back to school is better than lounging around. In our house, if you’re well enough to play video games, your well enough for school.

I have a child with a medical condition and if he’s off I get letters sent - so yes they do! I have never taken my kids out for a day trip or holiday ever. The government stance is tough on absence.

3 reasons

• Have to work
• Can't be assed to look after child
• School letters regarding absence make them worried to let their child have too much time off

I agree with you. Selfish. No concern for others

Schools definitely do have an issue with genuinely ill absences.. even when children are sent home I'll from school they call every day demanding to know when they'll be back in. Happened with my DD l. She has also came home and told me theyve had assemblies about going to school every day even if they don't feel well.
My DN (different county) had a bad case of chickenpox recently.. the school phoned her ever day..

My children’s have said if your child is ill you must send them anyway and if we think they are too ill to be in school we will ask you to collect them!!

Yes they do

YANBU and I will say that my eldest was sick with a vomiting virus for a good 2 weeks, I think he missed 11 days of school because of the way it fell, he was taken to the doctor at least twice and stool tests taken inconclusive the school kept calling and I just kept telling them he was still ill. I didn’t have to be off work towards the end of it because he was 15 and I worked shifts so could make it work with his dad popping in/dropping younger siblings. I’m not saying it’s easy but no one could’ve made me take him into school -he would’ve collapsed anyway he was so weak 😳

Oh my, can you imagine if you had rocked up and dropped your kids in with unscabbed chicken pox!! ???

Same for my DC in secondary. They have attendance events every half term so if your attendance fell below 97% that half term, you can’t attend. They reward 100% attendance at the end of each year too. In secondaries it’s a massive deal to be there. We’ve actually had teachers say, come in even if you feel sick and we’ll only send you home if you actually vomit.

I had really snooty remarks in a school report when my DC were 5 and 6 because they got chicken pox so had a full week off and their attendance was below 97%. It said something like “they would perform better academically with improved attendance”. They expected me to send them in with chicken pox?!

Few things. If they’re vomiting or completely unwell to the extent they have a fever and can barely move then you’re right. If it’s just a snotty nose, cough and they’re a bit under the weather then they should go in. Kids constantly get sick, it’s actually important for their immune systems.

If you keep them off school for every little sniffle and cough, they’d barely be in. Parents need to work, the country needs to function and also schools would be massively on at any parent who kept their kids off constantly anyway for attendance.