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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Is this weird?

131 replies

coffeegonzo · 15/06/2015 13:30

I actually think I agree but my children's friends were horrified; their teacher (- sixth form but it could have been in other classes too) had a child who was off colour but the six formers needed teacher near exams etc, so she brought the crotchety off colour 18 month (?) old into class and breast fed during class. The students found it "ultra awkward"... I half think this is a good life experience for them, admire the teacher's dedication, but also think actually it's a bit weird. Maybe a teeny baby but this was a toddler.....maybe that makes a difference for me, I can't decide... It's a friendly independent school- teachers first name terms, relaxed but quite academic.

OP posts:
TedAndLola · 15/06/2015 14:30

The breast feeding is a red herring, you don't take a sick baby to work with you!

KoalaDownUnder · 15/06/2015 14:30

who are you to decide what constitutes a lesson important enough to not have distracted by a toddler and which ones are ok to let slide? confused

Sorry? I never said anything about the importance of the lesson. Confused back at you, frankly!

Corygal · 15/06/2015 14:36

I'd be livid if I was revving up to big exams and was dumped with someone else's sick, bad-tempered toddler in the room. Classroom to boot.

Breadwidow · 15/06/2015 14:37

It may not be usual but I don't think it's wrong - people with jobs have normal lives with kids and kids gets sick. I really think life in general would be happier & easier if we let bits of our home life into work. The teacher was trying to be available to both her child and her students - maybe doing both us difficult and not normal but it's not to say it's impossible.

Lavenderice · 15/06/2015 14:38

Yep. Leaving the breastfeeding issue aside it's entirely unprofessional to have a child on the workplace.

captainproton · 15/06/2015 14:39

Feel sorry for the child that neither of their parents felt able to take time off to be with them at home, cuddled up on the sofa watching Mr Tumble and snoozing. Instead they get dragged off to mummy's work to watch a room full of big kids stare them when they want comfort/drink. I totally get btw that some mums feel pressured into doing this by an unsympathetic employer.

kslatts · 15/06/2015 14:39

I don't think it is appropriate to take a child who is too sick for childcare into a class you are teaching, especially close to exam time when the child could pass something on to the students.

The breastfeeding is not weird, by that age I'm sure the students would have seen a child being fed before so hardly a big deal.

KoalaDownUnder · 15/06/2015 14:41

Maybe whatever was wrong with the child wasn't contagious.

NRomanoff · 15/06/2015 14:43

i don't have a problem with the breast feeding. I do have a problem with taking a child into the school, especially if poorly.

The students could become ill and it effect their exams. The toddler could be distracting, assuming it was bf the whole lesson and render the class pointless.

I think the teacher did what they felt was best, but was misguided. The reason her child could not go to childcare is to stop sickness spreading, so she bu to take the child to her school. She is unreasonable, not weird.

NRomanoff · 15/06/2015 14:43

assuming it wasn't bf for the whole lesson

Gileswithachainsaw · 15/06/2015 14:45

"AIBU to take my sick kid to the shops we really need bread?"

MN- order online of course you shouldn't take your sick child out. think of all the vulnerable and immune compromised people you could infect.

"AIBU to take.my sick child to work so.i can breastfeed them as I really can't take a day off.

MN- of course Yanbu. People need to see BF as normal and your child will need comfort feeding. .how dedicated you are to your job and child

just Confused

Lavenderice · 15/06/2015 14:50

Ok I'm going to stick my head above the parapet. As well as having an issue with the unprofessionalism of have in a child in the workplace, I do have an issue with the breastfeeding. I fully support the right of a woman to breastfeed anywhere, but it does make me uncomfortable to think that should any of the pupils wish to to avert their eyes, as I would chose to, then it might be difficult for them given that she is teaching the class.

slug · 15/06/2015 14:50

I think it's very hard for those not in teaching to understand the pressures teachers are put under to attend at all costs, especially during exam time.

Gottagetmoving · 15/06/2015 14:51

If the teacher was so concerned she should have stayed at home with her child. Very admirable that she is concerned about the students exams, but priority should be the child. The students don't need that distraction

miaowmix · 15/06/2015 14:59

If the child was unwell the teacher should have stayed at home, or her partner should have.

Breast-feeding is a total red herring here.

I think my employer would be far less sympathetic if I brought an ill child to work than if I took the day off. It's not actually the norm Confused. If I brought my healthy child to work I think it would raise a few eyebrows (understatement).

diddl · 15/06/2015 15:01

Well it would seem that either the toddler had some illness which meant that it wasn't allowed to go to usual childcare, in which case it probably shouldn't have been in school, or the parents decided that it was too ill for childcare, in which case it also shouldn't have been in school.

marcopront · 15/06/2015 15:03

I teach and my daughter attends the same school. She has suffered very badly with a skin condition meaning she needs regular applications of Vaseline. She comes to my classroom, I apply Vaseline often while still talking to students. The first time it happened I explained to the students why, and they occasionally ask me questions but no one has an issue with it. I wouldn't like to work in a school where it was a problem.

When she has been too sick to be in school, it is a real dilemma. What is better for my students, me not being there, or me being there with a sick child. Just before exams I would go for being there with a sick child.

I still remember the first cold she had after I stopped breastfeeding. Previously when she was ill, she would breastfeed as her main or only source of nutrition. That first one after stopping was her worst. She was ill for a week, I stayed off with her for two days, we attempted school on the third day and then I came in late the rest of the week because i had someone I could leave her with. I no longer have that option.

00100001 · 15/06/2015 15:05

YY giles

diddl · 15/06/2015 15:05

Put an unnecessary "probably" in there.

SorchaN · 15/06/2015 15:38

Maybe our workplaces should be more child-friendly. Maybe it should be ok for workplaces to experience some child-related distraction. I can't help thinking that this whole 'inappropriate to bring children to the workplace' attitude is rather victorian and male-oriented. Sure, some workplaces are too dangerous for children to be present, but many are not, or could be made safer. The idea of a workplace as a place without children made sense when there were highly gendered divisions of labour and men worked outside the home while women were homemakers, but the nature of work has changed immensely in recent decades and I really think workplace cultures need to change too.

As for the breastfeeding in class... I can't see that there's anything wrong with that at all.

StonedGalah · 15/06/2015 15:40

Breastfeeding a toddler is not like eating Niki Hmm

fiveacres · 15/06/2015 15:43

They are sixth formers, not 12 year olds.

Hate how people use 'unprofessional' as a catch all for 'things I don't approve of.'

Lavenderice · 15/06/2015 15:55

I don't think that unprofessional is an inappropriate word to use here. Work is a place to, y'know work. I don't need to be distracted by a child

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