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

No it was a cold. Would you be taking time off work for a cold all the time?

This, and also please don’t forget that people who start threads about sharing sick days will be the parents of kids who do have higher than average sick days and need advice or to vent about defaulting to caring for said child. Ruby whose kid visited the GP 3 times in his life isn’t going to need to write such a thread because it’s a non-issue for her. But Ruby will read a number of those about ones that do and somehow reach the conclusion that everybody’s kids are off “sick” all the time.

Seeing as they are now in their 20s and 30s then if they do get such a bug then it's for them to deal with. Not that they seem to get them as adults either. Must be over 20 years since I last had one

This sounds crazy to me as my DC is very rarely "properly" sick but nursery send home/dont allow in for raised temp/sickness/diarrhoea and im sure we are averaging 3 a year for last 3 yrs of that maybe more.... I thought that was normal though!?

My son doesn't go to school when he first starts with a cold because he also gets a temp with it and doesn't feel well.

Not all children are the same.

Who said anything about “all the time”?

If I have a cold and I’m well enough to work, I go to work. If I have a cold and I’m too ill to work, I stay at home. Why should it be any different for the kids?

What's that got to do with whether or not you go to work with a cold or not

And my kids weren't ill with a cold to stay off.....

Id still have to work with a cold as can't afford to keep losing money

Chicken pox. A week off for one child, then a week off when the other child comes out in spots. Complete, bloody nightmare.

I’d had one D&V bug in 30 years before having kids. Since DC started school, I think I’ve had 3-4.

No idea if they’re more prevalent now than they were 30 years ago, but there’s no mistaking the fact we’ve been taken out by quite a few in the last 5 years!!

You’d keep working if you were too ill to? How does that work? If you’ve never had a day off with a cold, you’ve obviously never experienced one so bad you physically couldn’t stay awake.

When do you think I'd have ever had the chance to sleep if I was ill. Kids to look after and self employed.

Even without work what do you expect would happen to my kids when small if I took to my bed?? If only ...

Strange as I said been 20 plus years since I had one. Just asked my DD about it and she said she had one in summer holidays before secondary school. She's now 32 with 2 young kids. So I'm not sure they are more prevalent

Do you think people who’ve had them are lying then? Odd thing to sit and lie about on the internet 🤣

Because the title is about kids and you seem to be talking about kids more?

I don't get temps with colds like my son does so it would be different for several reasons.

Fortunately, I have a husband who is very capable of looking after them if I’m unwell.

Where on earth did I say that Read what I ACTUALLY write not what you THINK I've written. Where on earth did I say someone was lying? I said I'm not sure they are more prevalent

Aren't you lucky one then.

I asked the question about an Adult. Another one who can't read

My dc were all different, eldest barely had a day off - I just don’t remember her being ill other than having chicken pox but none of them went to nursery as I was a SAHM and it was before she was old enough for preschool so no absences.
second one had gastroenteritis when she was about 1 and it left her with a weakness in her tummy, every time she was ill she was sick. She probably lost about 5 school days per year to it.
youngest didn’t have a single sick day of school until year 8 when he was absolutely floored by a horrible virus which left him so weak he could barely get out of bed. He had a full 2 weeks off! School were concerned and kept calling asking when he would be back and I just kept telling them ‘when he was well enough!’ Having worked in schools I understood there was an element of safeguarding going on there.
So quite mixed, eldest and youngest are quite robust whereas the middle one is less so.

I can read. Surely it doesn't matter what an adult does because again, people are different and respond to things like colds differently? Colds are also dangerous to people with some health conditions.

The evidence suggests norovirus is increasing, and becoming more infectious due to evolving strains:

https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/news/2025/expert-comment-why-you-could-catch-norovirus-more-once-season

DC’s school had a particularly nasty outbreak last year and had to close for three days because of it.

And I said I wasn't sure. I didn't accuse anyone of lying

But that was the question.

I have 3 DCs and some years are better than others. Last year was absolutely awful for them with fevers and chest infections one after the other, and my DS had some mental health issues. Thankfully I work very part time so could stay with them. If I worked full time I would have lost my job it was that bad.
Kids can't go in with 40c temperatures, or being unable to walk down a corridor without coughing their lungs up.
We've been lucky so far this year, and that's all it is really. It doesn't make anyone a superior parent because their DCs are never poorly.