to think a school should be able to look after a child for over an hour?

[pingu2209]

More of a "is my friend being unreasonable" or the school?

A mum friend of mine has a career job but can't afford a nanny. A nanny would cost all of her salary. She uses the before and after school club. She works 1 hour away and her husband works 1 1/2 hours away from school. She was phoned up and asked to come and collect her son as he had a temperature and a rash.

She said, "okay I will be there in about 1 1/4 hours." The school office said, "well we need you here asap, can you get someone to come in the next 10 mins?"

My friend said, "no, I don't have any family living near by and I am uncomfortable asking a friend to pick up my son who is ill and may be contagious."

The school said to her, "you need to have an emergency contact who can get here in under 10 mins."

She replied, "well that would be great in an ideal world, but we are not from here and have no family. A friend would pick up if I was running late, but as all my friends here have children, I can't ask them to pick up my son who is ill. I am just over an hour away but the longer I am on the phone to you the longer I will be. I need to make a couple of calls to cancel meetings etc. I can't just run out, I need about 15 mins just to close up my desk etc."

I understand that a school is there to educate our children, it is not childcare or a 'sick room'. However, surely they need to understand that if both parents are working and they don't have a nanny, one of them will be along as soon as possible.

Who is being unreasonable?

There are some things you can't expect a friend to pick up for. Rash and temperature would be one of those and it would have put you in a very very difficult situation.

I remember a 'friend' of mine (turned out not to be a very good friend anyhow) asked me to pick up her vomiting child when I was pregnant, had two small children of my own and DH had just started working away and we were all getting used to that while I was pregnant/anaemic/knackered. My children catching it would have been the last thing I needed.

If it was a temperature without D&V or rash, I would have said fine to call you. As it was, surely they should have been getting medical treatment if child was hot AND had a rash?

I couldnt get to my daughters school in 10 minutes even if i started off from home the moment they called, it woukd take longer than 10 mins to get a taxi there even by the time they had been called etc.
An hour And a quarter is a long time for a sick child so not ideal i cant thunk of an alternative other than getting a friend to pick up.

I got called by my daughters school to say she was ill last year, the school called my mobile but i was in hospital at the time so i had to call my dh who was in work to leave work to pick her up. The school gave me 15 minutes then called me at the hospital again to ask where he was ( he was a 40 minute train ride away). In the end i managed to get hold of my stepmother who got a taxi from her house to the school.

I've had this is the past too. I too have no family who could have collected for me. I think schools are wrong to expect you not to work more than 10 mins away if you don't have family nearby. It's just not real life. On another note, I could have been a SAHM and been out shopping for the day at a shopping centre over an hour away (we live in a rural area) so the position would be the same.

YANBU

Old thread alert.

I don't think she was being unreasonable. I remember at school being in the medical room with earache and then my mum coming later. It is difficult. People have to go out to work and they do commute.

I think it was perfectly acceptable. Isn't that why they have a welfare room.