How do you deal with child sickness in your relationship

4 replies

Karma1387 · 16/10/2026 18:47

Just looking for experiences on how parents juggle child sickness when both working full time. I currently work PT and my partner is FT but as is the case for many many people lifes costs are starting to cause a strain and I am looking for a full time job.

However this week my DS1 was sent home from nursery with suspected chicken pox. Luckily it doesn't seem to be but it got me looking at how long he would have to be off nursery if he did as well as how long it would likely be before DS2 caught it off him.

It made me realise we could have been looking at 2-3 weeks between the two of them where they would need a parent at home.

Obviously if I worked full time me and my partner would have to split the time off (although the loss of income from DP would probably mean we couldn't pay the bills that month) but are employers actually okay with us having to take a week off for kids not being allowed at nursery or school?

I just want to be prepared for whether I should expect pushback from my employer if a situation like this occured?

Any experiences on juggling these situations with employers would be greatly appreciated.

OP posts:

TarraDiddles · 16/10/2026 18:53

We can have limited carers' leave but also are expected to use annual leave.

modgepodge · 16/10/2026 18:58

You can solve the chicken pox issue by vaccinating your kids, costs about £140 each but sounds like you’d lose more than that if your husband had to take unpaid leave so probably worth it.

obviously doesn’t help with other illnesses but chicken pox seems to be the one which needs longest off (especially if both get it separately).

employers must be used to it. Can’t say my husbands employer or mine were delighted but they had to accept it and luckily neither docked our pay. Husband could work from home a bit to be fair

Zanatdy · 19/10/2026 21:20

My kids both contracted Ecoli when they were 1 and 4 and it was an absolute nightmare as they were banned from school and nursery on public health grounds until 2 negative tests, which took 5wks. It was in the days before we could work at home too. I guess we just managed it between us, me doing more as ex went to work overseas.

Glastone · 19/10/2026 23:38

I deal with most of the dcs sickness as my work is flexible and I often wfh anyway. Both our dcs had the chickenpox vax though (before it was offered on nhs) and they get the flu vax every year. DH can wfh when he needs to, but it's better if he is in the office, but he'll wfh or come home early if I need to collect one dc or take them to a club, and if the other dc is ill.

They don't get too ill for school very often (less than once an academic year) and we stick to school/nhs guidelines for when they go in (ie not if vomiting or fever, but we won't keep them at home if they're just under the weather, not just because we don't want to take time off, but because we don't want them to miss out on too much of the curriculum.

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