to think that, despite being a full time working mother myself..

[Catnao]

..and knowing that it is hard to get time off work, I do not want to teach children who come in to school white as a sheet and who start puking by 9.30. Having caught rotavirus and been off for a week last week,most of which was spent moaning and wishing ANYTHING could stop the pain and indignity, I DO NOT want to go through that again.

I agree

It is irresponsible regardless of whether the patents ate working out of the home or not

I kow it can be excruciating to have to take time off, but vomiting bugs etc are so contagious

One mother actually said to me - "I knew he was poorly, but my boss is more understanding if I get called away rather than phoning in beforehand. Are you feeling better, by the way?" Could have STRANGLED her! Although her boss is probably the real culprit, I suppose.

YANBU, although maybe it wasn't obvious to the parent how sick the child was

YANBU. It's an absolute bloody nightmare working in a school at this time of year. A few years ago,I caught mumps from one of my 6th formers. And then her mother had the bloody cheek to complain about me taking time off and I ended up spending time during the school holidays tutoring her daughter to make up for the time I'd missed after catching mumps from her!

We have D&V bugs and chicken pox doing the rounds at the mo. Joy!

Yanbu but...well, you are a teacher, you did kind of sign up to this eventuality.

Well - I know that being a teacher you expect certain hazards like nits and ilnesses, and your immune system tends to be quite good - but to KNOWINGLY send children in who have been sick and had diarroeha over the weekend is VERY irresponsible in my view. I have a son who is thankfully seldom ill - but when he has been ill my partner and I have taken time off, without pay if necessary.

YANBU I'm not a teacher, but another mother (who doesn't work) told me that her son was " pooing wee" his DV was so bad, and there he was back in school the next day! My two kids were off school for about 3 weeks they were so ill...

And Eviltwins - Some parents apparently were upset that I had a WHOLE WEEK off last week - well - would they rather I puked on their children??

Yes, Catnao it's irresponsible of the parents, but it's also unreasonable of a teacher not to realise it's sadly part of the job.

Um... I don't think avoidable contagion is part of my job...

When I was at school the rule was that any D&V meant no school - and there had to be 24hours of neither before you could go bac.

Am shocked that people don't follow this tbh. A cold is one thing (however annoying), D&V is quite another

At our school the rule is 24 hours since a vomit. This is NOT kept to... I agree - you can work through a cold/general unwell feeling - not really through constant vomiting and the other unmentionable....Although I know some employers can be very difficult about time off with children - I'm not unsympathetic, but some illnesses need to be treated with commoon sense...

DD's old nursery had a rule that your child had to be off a further 24 hrs after a bout of D&V - seems reasonable to me. But I do realise not all employers are terribly supportive of parents taking time off to nurse sick kids.

It was 48 hours at our nursery

d & v is so contagious - coughs and sniffles etc are one thing ...

Thing is, how can the school guarantee that parents have adhered to the 24 hours after vomitting rule? Sometimes parents just decide that the child is "fine" and send them in anyway. Unless there is something obvious (rash or whatever) schools will have no idea, which is probably one of the reasons these things go round like wildfire.

I understand about employers not being understanding - but I DO NOT think catching rotavirus from kids whose parents KNOW they have it is reasonable - and I DO think that if working full time with kids - you have to accept that sometimes you will need a safety net for care. I think it even more unreasonable that parents have criticised me for being off for a week....

yanbu. I have been sending DD2 into nursery every day with their blessing as she has been 'not right' but no d or v, temp or anything, and I felt bad, checking in with them every morning, they were reassuring me that she wasn't right but had no other symptoms so what could I do?

HAving said that, I did once send DD1 in fine as dandy and she conked out about an hour later with a shocking temp...but then my kids are under 5 and unabel to tell me how shitty they feel.

48 hour rule her for school and nursery. When DD1 was throwing up monday night I took tuesday morning off, went in tuesday afternoon for 2 lessons whicvl my lovely friend took her as thenm she had been ok for 24 hours. Would never have sent her to school!

As teachers we sign up for being ill? Bollocks. If your kids are ill keep them home. I caught so many illnesses while I was pregnant the doctor signed me off, DH is also a teacher and has brought home bug after bug after bug...DD is only 4 months old and has been ill for at least 6 wks of that time.

At the DCs schools they are not allowed back until 48 hours after the last episode - YADNBU

This is depressing. Having read a few threads this evening on various themes, I think it's crap that the workplace is so fucking un-family, un-women friendly in the C21. It's so depressing that this was the version of the future we ended up with: parents working stupid hours, unable to take time off, childless and en-childed pitted against each other, in a spin if a child is ill .... and so much more.

I remember reading "The Siege", that novel set in the siege of Stalingrad, by Helen Dunmore, and it opens with a nursery worker realising a mother is sending her child into nursery with scarlet fever. And she reflects that she understands it, because if mother takes time off work, she'll run the risk of being denounced as a "wrecker", or "malingerer", and sent off to a gulag/shot.

And here we are ... no gulag, but ... .

(Have ill child situation on my hands myself, a completely unmoveable work appointment, and dh will not take time off. What to do? What to do?)

In my class atm I have someone with visible impetigo (sp?), at least 3 with hacking coughs and thick green snot streaming out of them constantly (1 of them just cried most of the day todat, I can guarantee he'll be back in tomorrow ), and 1 who was up all night with D&V but hadn't thrown up since breakfast so that was ok.

Drives me mad and I am amazed I am still standing...am pg myself and really not keen to catch the D&V!

24 hours after last at mine, and we stick to it.

Safety net for care though? There is nothing you could put in place for a child with d&v, is there? one of you has to stay at home. It is grim.

can i just say bless you OP. rotavirus is not nice at all. ds had it when he was 2 and ended up in hospital.

i nursed him with d and v pouring out of him night and day and managed not to contract it by observing basic hygene (it's only passed by faecal contact). schools are filthy places eh?

i mean you literally have to get poo in your mouth or blood stream to catch it. it's not air born.

Sadly, esp in an infant setting, that is not out of the question Santa [boak]