just need to moan

isitunusual - nope, nothing of the sort and not directed at you

Is the comment by crace meaning that I feel guilty for sending my child to nursery rather than a CM? Or that he gets send anywhere at all?

FWIW I understand what the OP was saying about the difference between colds/being really unwell. Unfortunately though as also said its not always easy to tell first thing in the morning. I'm sure the parents would want to be informed if their child really wasn't well enough to be there - I would.

oh here it goes again...if a child is ill and needs to rest has temp being sick diarhea etc etc they must stay home regardless of nursery or cm, a cm doesnt only accept perfectly healthy children, but if your poorly child makes us poorly, we then have to close, we are one person, not a whole nursry of poeple, meaning that child and everyother child gets turned away, childminder loses money and parents then HAVE to find alternative care.

Childminderss are on the whole much more flexible than nurseries but get so much crap thrown at us, no wonder we're seen as the under dog, no proffesional staus and told we are being 'awkward' if we say we dont want to wet nurse a sick child!

Hi frany. I too feel your pain and agree with your last post and with Craces. So, have you phoned the parents to collect yet?

I was just having the same moan as frannyfroo an hour ago with some friends. One is another cm and the other 2 own/ work at diff nurseries.
Im sending everyone who has this problem a >.
My sickness policy says "if your child is too sick to go to school/ nursery then they are too sick to come to me." The Care Commission told me that I should change it as it might offend service users.
I havent changed it cos it doesnt work and they still send their children doped up on calpol and full of green snot.

Franny, exactly right - I would be furious as a parent too and this is likely the case when there is a very ill child in the setting. No need to apologise!

Oh my good gracious, not yet another nursery vs childminder thread. Me thinks this is more of a guilt thing Also sick children who need to stay in the setting are holding other children back if there are places to go to - so everyone misses out.

ANYWAY.....

Franny, you have my deepest sympathy, I felt this way last week. Sometimes kids just need their parents, and despite all the lovely cuddles we give them it's their parents they need.

Sorry obviously not welcome as not a childminder!!

My nursery is great actually they do have commons sense and as long as the kid just has a cold and not a temperature they are fine and just give him extra cuddles and quiet time reading!

I'm not a childminder but I totally see your point. If a child needs extra cuddles isn't himself then they are ILL and should be at home.

Sorry - go back to your (rightful) CM moan - and I agree nurseries are generally more strict, not less.

If they are too ill to go out / generally join in with routine, you would (IMH(nonCM)O) be more than justified in sending them home. And as a parent I would be at having sent them in the first place.

I think it's sometimes hard to tell if a child has just got a cold, or is actually ill - especially if there's a few DCs to get out in the morning. I would tend to send a child to the childminder(or school) if it was borderline in the hope that the company of other children would help DC perk up. I would expect the childminder/school to notify me if they thought DC was ill, and I would have a plan in place to either collect him myself or have someone else collect him. I would be upset if my child really was ill and no-one told me..

At nursery there is more than one minder so DS wouldn't be left out if a child needed lots of cuddles - it just seems as though childminders want perfect healthy children without the snot and the whining which is just not normal with little kids!

Actually most nurseries are not at all strict about colds they have common sense

Pol you can't blame the person who gave your child the cold that caused him to get croup (and go to hospital) nor can you keep all children in/at home when they have a cold!

It's about common sense isn't it? A cold doesn't not usually = being ill. If you child IS ill (with a temperature/too poorly to play/is throwing up/has a bad stomach/is in pain, ie a lot different from having just a cold) then you keep him home.

But it is not uncommon for a young child to have 9-10 colds per year.. you can't keep them home/off nursery with each and every of those.

It's a hard look out for those parents whose children are immuno-surpressed - I've been there because I DS had CF and I hated him to catch colds when he was a toddler.. but I couldn't expect everybody to keep their snotty children away from him all the time.

It's about being reasonable and engaging common sense. Children with colds are not, as a rule, ill and therefore should not be expected to kept in and away from other people.

If a child can do the normal routine i have no problen whatsoever taking tem.

I think what the op is saying is that very unwell dc should be kept off.

It is hard looking after 3 under 5's plus after schoolies poss when 1 dc is really very ill.

Norty - I can entirely sympathise if your DS struggles to cope but if I didn't take DD to nursery when she had at least one of "green snot on their top lips, hacking coughs, red watery eyes and red cheeks" she would never go and I wouldn't have a job - she almost always has a cold to some degree and has red cheeks whenever she is teething (more often than not). If she is feeling really sorry for herself clearly I will keep her at home and she was home for a whole week when she had sickness bug (for about 36 hours, the rest of the week was me keeping her out for the required 48 hours).

So if you had a cold would you send all the mindees home ?

Hey pol wish i could win the lottery and give up too!!

This job is the pits sometimes eh?

I wouldn't of taken a child who clearly had a cold (I don't mean just a snotty nose). A cold caused my DS to get croup and be rushed to A&E and stopped breathing. Not nice.

It is also not fair for one child to get all the cuddles and all the attention either. I have had to pretty much ignore all the children except the sick one. Are you happy that if sick dc come to your childs nursery they will give all the time and attention to 1 child and ignore the rest?

Children get colds and if they were kept at home every time they had a snotty nose then you probably wouldn't have much work TBH.

I am so glad i've stopped minding!

When I minded I had one major offender who used to send her boy to me when he was v.ill. In the end I felt like I was checking him on the doorstep!

I hate it when my kids are ill, i'm not to great as a nurse maid ... so why do I want to nurse anyone else's sick kiddo's??