Child vomiting and I’ve got a huge meeting tomorrow

[MammothyGoodness]

So my youngest has started vomiting. It’s like the exorcist, walls, carpet, bed etc. not the best news but normally I can manage. Except tomorrow I’ve got a huge meeting, massive. I’m Meeting some potential investors, taking them on a tour of our offices, showing them how our product works and then presenting in the afternoon. Others could probably do some of it, but I’m the point of contact, I’ve worked my ass off on this for months, and now I’m stuck. School won’t take her if she’s thrown up. I don’t want to send her in if she’s sick. I’m a single parent. Family are away, I’ve literally got no one who can help me. I can’t leave her, which means I can’t go in. So now my meeting is ruined and I could just cry

No it won’t - I disagree. You need to keep your job especially as a single parent and things like this can be really important career wise. If she doesn’t throw up in the morning then send her in. You won’t be the first parent and you won’t be the last

I think I’d go with taking her with me to work, putting her in an empty office/meeting room with an iPad, doing the meeting then taking her back home. Or emergency nanny agency.

Why would you expect to expose a friend or colleague to your kid's illness?

You know what the right thing to do is, especially with a vomiting bug, so please do it. For your child's sake and everyone else's.

She never said she is in danger if losing her job though if she doesn't go into work.
Sending her in would be selfish and irresponsible

Thanks everyone. A quick update for those asking-

1. no I’m not going to send her in, I wouldn’t appreciate others who do it and I won’t do it to them
2. i live rurally and haven’t ever used a childminder so I’ve got no chance of finding one available who will take a sick child with 10 hours notice
3. shes five. Too young to be left or to come with me
4. i can get others, and I’ll have to, but it’s so unprofessional to dump the work on them last minute and so frustrating when I’ve worked so hard for it to be so good, which it won’t be now

Me neither.

Send her in.

If she doesn't vomit again I'd send her to school in the morning ...not all vomiting is due to a bug so I'd assess the situation yourself.

I'm sorry but this is disgusting. The poor child probably feels awful and needs to be at home. And what about the teachers / teaching assistant who will have to clear up her vomit if she does it again? They'll call the OP and she'd have to collect her anyway. I can't believe how selfish some people are. The child's needs should be put first.

You can’t do that !!! If a child has d and v schools have a 48 hr rule.

Someone behaving selfishly could put others at risk. My dd nearly died when she got norovirus as she had type 1 diabetes

This is a sensible suggestion

Plus it’s neglect. Poor child would be exhausted and feeling horrendous

This is just unfortunate reality of being a parent. They need their parents when they're poorly anyway let alone vomiting. Vomiting really takes it out of them as well.
It's a hard one op and I get the work side of things but DC should always come first.

Poor you, OP, I really feel for you. Kids’ sickness is horrendous, esp if you have no support.

Is there anyone who could mind her in your office? You poor thing, I understand that sinking feeling when you are like oh god, I really need to turn up tomorrow. I know it's not ideal but if anyone could watch her for a bit in your office while you do the most essential bits, it might help you out of a sticky situation.

This situation is HORRIBLE but completely irrelevant here. Also just think it's a bit tacky to use someone else's tragedy for guilt tripping other parents.

We can never predict the future. That mum has nothing to feel guilty about but your parading of her story insinuates she has.

I have lost a very close child family member in horrendous circumstances and I'd be horrified if someone was out using it like this.

Just do the presentation via Teams and get someone else to do the tour.

@Bigwelshlamb married to a T1 diabetic and sickness bugs are a disaster 😣 Last one ended up in a 999 call and DH hooked up to a drip in our bedroom to stabilise him. Those who don’t stick to the 48hr rule are the definition of selfish 🤬 Sorry for thread derailment OP! Hope DD is over the worst quickly and you come up with a plan, might joining the meeting remotely be an option? Or a friend willing to sit with ill child?

No. It's not "If they're going to get sick they'll get sick", as if it's some sort of inevitable chain reaction that can't be stopped. If a child is sick, you can prevent others from getting sick by not sending your child into school.

OP, your workplace should have a plan in place for this type of scenario. People get sick and are unavailable. It's bad practice to have only one person who is fully clued in about a particular meeting - there should always be a backup plan. I agree with delegating the in-person part and doing what you can on Zoom.

Do not send her in to potentially vomit over classmates or teacher. That’s so selfish. Some people really are disgusting.

Do you know anyone who isn't working tomorrow? Can you contact any of them?
On two occasions, I have had people step in and look after a poorly child. One was when I put a shout out on the neighbour WhatsApp group admin if anyone knew of any last minute childcare and one of them had a student child home from Uni who was willing to come & sit with an under the weather but not actually vomiting 6yo. On another occasion, I messaged our babysitter who worked part time and she was happy to collect actually vomiting DC1 from nursery and deal with it for a couple of hours before I got home. I paid ££££ on both occasions!

JFC who are all these selfish entitled degenerates who would send a child with D&V into school the next day? What on earth are you all on?! Beyond disgusting.

For those suggesting a friend, it’s not an option. I only have a couple that live closely and they all work. Most of my local friends are met through school and they’re not going to want to risk the bugs either :( thanks though

It’s there for a reason.

My adult friend finished being sick on a Friday morning. I sat across the room from her on the Sunday afternoon at her daughter’s house. I have emetophobia so as soon as she said she’d been ill I left. We were in the same room for 10 mins. Two days later on my son’s birthday and the day before our summer holiday I was throwing up