Kids " sick" days

[RubySquid]

I read on so many threads about sharing of parenting and who has to look after kids on " sick" days as though it's a regular thing.

But in reality how much time do kids actually have off sick to make it a big deal to worry about. For example DS had 2 days off nursery with conjunctivitis, a couple of weeks off school with chickenpox in ks1 and 2 days with a sickness bug at about 8. He's visited the GP 3 times in his life and hands now graduated from uni

Similar stories with DDs, id say apart from the pox less than a week off for other sickness during school time

Yet the way people go on about covering sick days it seems that it's scents happening every couple of weeks. So we're my kids unusual in not getting constantly ill

I think if you’re floored by a cold it’s likely to be viral to be honest.

Yep. It’s possibly the teacher in me though. Lots of kids stay off when they really would be fine in school. With my kids it’s like you say, after a couple of hours they’ve drastically improved. If I let them stay off with stomach pains then my oldest would be off every month with cramps - she gets them badly and I feel terrible for her because I also got them badly when young so I know what it’s like but she needs to learn that life can’t just stop for 3 days every month.

Personally, I’d rather inconvenience my team for a day then send them when they’re clearly too unwell to go.

My son is off loads. He has an underlying condition. School have never been "off" with us. And it hasn't affected his grades as he's currently predicted all 9s next year

What do you think a cold is? 🙄

SHE didnt have a cold for the first year actually. Id have noticed constantly wiping snotty noses

Where it does become difficult is whilst clearly everyone has different immune systems, it’s also true that some people say they’re ill when it’s really not that bad. Some visibly so. I remember I had to look after a neighbours kid once, she was about 7 and off with a ‘terrible cough’ for about 2 hours. In that 2 hours she just watched TV and didn’t cough once. That isn’t a ‘terrible cough’ imo. If you can watch TV, you can go to school.

Of course. And that's what I said. But there's always some grey area. If my child has a cold and might prefer a day at home but could go in, they go in

Maybe because he has the underlying condition. Again in here I read about schools being red hot on attendance. Can't be both that they are ok with kids off sick and hot on attendance

All colds are viral

Are you one of those people where everything outside your own experience doesn’t exist?
Some kids are more sickly than others, they pick up more bugs, it hits them differently, they react differently. That’s without adding in actual long term/chronic health conditions . It’s not exactly rocket science, even if “it didn’t happen to you”.

I have a pretty healthy, robust kid. Thank fuck for that.

This is one of those times when it's easy to be willfully ignorant if you've not experienced it! My dd almost 4 is never ill, excellent nursery attendance - though we've had 1 annual d&v bug for since eldest started nursery, and she's caught HFM twice.

Ds almost 7 attendance for last winter at school was 65%. He had tonsillitis 20 times a year for 3 years (the antibiotics give him diarrhea so school kept sending him home for that even when he was otherwise fine), plus a handful of strep a and 1 scarlet fever. He had his tonsils out this spring and now his attendance is near 100%. His class is currently missing 13 kids who are home or in hospital with what sounds a very nasty case of flu. Now the class is working all day with ever window and external door open...

So sure, you can be happy (smug?) about your healthy children, but staying home with sick kids is a very real reality for lots of people. You're more than welcome to try out my shoes ;)

The TV rule is just daft.

All colds are viruses.

Maybe because he has the underlying condition. Again in here I read about schools being red hot on attendance. Can't be both that they are ok with kids off sick and hot on attendance

Of course they can be both.

Good schools that are hot on attendance are ones that are hot on children attending as many days as they physically can.

Also being hot on attendance can absolutely mean that a school is absolutely ok, in fact be strict about, with one child being off with d&v because they know otherwise they'll end up with three/five/twenty off with it otherwise.

I guess we are lucky in that regard, as DC loves school and rarely wants to stay at home…

My now robust adult DC were always off with various things - ear infections, tonsillitis, neurovirus, always the occasional flu type fever which involved 2 days in bed and constant capol.

That was quite normal in their classes. I think the kid that never gets sick is the outlier tbh.

I mean you are talking about chicken pox like managing a week off work is easy, my son missed a week and a half as he hadn't scabbed over till then, for some working parents thats an absolute nightmare situation.

Nursery so won’t matter.

think this is just another goady post from a perfect parent.

The TV rule is ridiculous. I had flu as a kid, I lived off lucozade for days, could move my neck, couldn’t sit up much less stand, couldn’t even hold a book to read it. All I did for two weeks was watch TV, because lying there with my eyes open was all I could do… I was in no fit state to go to school.

Tbh, I didn’t even make it to the GP as my mum wasn’t one to worry the doctor - I’m lucky it was the flu and not meningitis.

Oh my days, I forgot about the absolute hell that is tonsillitis.

Anyone who thinks it’s fair to send a kid in with that has clearly never experienced it themselves 🥴

This! And again chicken pox hits differently. My two had it at the same time. Ds1 few spots and felt a bit off on day one, after that he was fine. Ds2 was floored, loads of spots,high fever for three days, he wasn’t right for a two weeks. You just can’t know how kids will react to things.

Mine will generally be off for a day or two, once or twice a year. But there's two of them, so that 1/2, becomes 3/4, then if I'm also sick it's 5/6 times I'm off work, which is picked up on as ever other month or three times as often as non-parents or parents who aren't pulling their weight.

It doesn't happen all the time, but enough to be noticeable if one parent is covering it for multiple kids. Hence the threads about needing to share it.

But surely you also understand that ear infections are different in different people?

DD was off school for a week with an ear infection - multiple courses of antibiotics, burst ear drum and a hell of a lot of screaming. She was in no fit state for school.

I am also surprised by this
Daughter is in year 1. Has had 2 days off school since starting- they fed her raw dairy and she had a reaction with diarrhoea- had to have 48hrs clear before going back. So completely their fault... Apart from this no other days off (and she hasn't been ill either). No cold, no flu, no d&v..... However had a few bugs in nursery in the first year