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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

do you send your child to school with a cold

66 replies

SoporificHobnob · 26/01/2016 07:22

DD, 12, is giving me a hard time because I am proposing sending her to school with a cold. She's insisting that you need to stay off, I can't afford a day without pay and I think a cold is not a reason to stay at home.
AIBU? I'm feeling like a bad parent here.

OP posts:
queenoftheworld93 · 26/01/2016 07:24

No YANBU

Ameliablue · 26/01/2016 07:24

Depends how bad it is.

MilkTwoSugarsThanks · 26/01/2016 07:24

DS goes in with a cold, as long as there's no other factors involved.

Whether that makes me a bad parent or not I don't know.

kimlo · 26/01/2016 07:24

Dd2 has woken up with a cold and in an awful mood.

Shes going to school. If she stayed off for every cold she would never be there.

TheSecondOfHerName · 26/01/2016 07:25

If I would go to work with it, then they go to school with it.

MLGs · 26/01/2016 07:29

Yes I send DD 7 in with a cold. As long as nothing else major wrong with a it, e.g. badly wheezy or similar. You know if they are properly ill.

They miss too much school if you keep them off for.every cold.

MigGril · 26/01/2016 07:29

She's 12 surly you've sent her to school with a cold before?

But yes both my primary age children get sent to school with cold unless a high temperature. Or in the case of DS he seems to need the first day of as he needs a lot of extra ventalin but he's 5 years old school are crap at giving it and he's still a little too young to insist that he needs it himself. But that's for his asthma, if he was older and could manage it himself I don't see why he couldn't be at school.

shouldwestayorshouldwego · 26/01/2016 07:30

Our school say if in doubt send them in and they will decide. Would you need to stay at home all day with a 12yr old anyway? Could you pop home in lunch break? I would send her in and if really ill they will call you.

Original poster
SoporificHobnob · 26/01/2016 07:31

She has asthma but isn't wheezing at all.

OP posts:
Original poster
SoporificHobnob · 26/01/2016 07:32

Miggril yes, she's gone before but this is the first time she's given me a hard time about it.

OP posts:
YouTheCat · 26/01/2016 07:33

She's just chancing her arm for a day off.

If it's just a cold, with no raised temperature or breathing problems, then she needs to go.

Pobspits · 26/01/2016 07:34

So long as it's not a really really bad one yes I send them. They're 9 and 5.5.

Artandco · 26/01/2016 07:35

Depends. There's a cold with a sniffle and a cold fully bunged up with eyes watering and head pounding.

If she doesn't seem that bad I would be tempted to give some paracetamol, some sympathy and some throat sweets, and see how she goes. At 12 you can explain about work.
However at 12 I would also leave her at home for he day alone if she really did feel too bad. Skip work lunch and try and get home early, or ask work if you can do 2 hrs less today and 2 hrs more later in the week if possible.

tinyterrors · 26/01/2016 07:38

All of mine have coughs and cold at the moment and they've all been to school and are going today, so far this cold has lasted a week and if they were off with every cold they'd miss most of the winter term. They've had some medicine before school and when they get home and been fine. I've got the same cold and feel rotten but wouldn't stay off work with it.

If they've got a really bad cough/sore throat/earache then I'll get them an softer school doctors appointment to check it out.

SmallGreenBouncyBall · 26/01/2016 07:40

sniffle, snot and cough but feeling otherwise ok (ish) = go to school

feever or feeling like shit dizzy/weak = stay home

fieldfare · 26/01/2016 07:42

Unless it's a really bad cold with running eyes, pounding headache, chesty cough and temperature then my daughter would have to go to school.

Eva50 · 26/01/2016 07:44

I agree with Artandco. There are colds and colds. I wouldn't send them with a stinky, rotten cold but a case of the sniffles goes to school.

tilder · 26/01/2016 07:47

Temperature, spots, diarrhoea or sick = stay at home.

Pretty much all else= school.

Yes a head cold can make you feel grotty. But imo no reason to stay off school. Or work.

But your daughter has asthma so that does complicate things.

Twinklefuck · 26/01/2016 07:56

Depends on severity imp. My ds and dd have an awful cold with horrible chesty cough & raspy throat and temp. They'll be staying home for tlc and rest until I'm not worried about it turning into a chest infection. From what you've described in your op I'd probably send her in.

Letustryagain · 26/01/2016 07:59

In younger children I find that Nurofen or Calpol works a treat so I dose up DD (6.5) before school and by the time we get there you wouldn't know she had a cold apart from the occasional sneeze. It really is a wonder!

Ditsy4 · 26/01/2016 08:07

Chesty cough you could keep her home ordinary cold send her to school. Make sure she has an in date inhaler with her. I work in a school. You could ring school and say if she gets wheezy could they let you know.
There is a nasty virus that starts with a cough going around and lots of people have developed chest infections so keep an eye on her. If she goes to bed when she comes home from school she is worse than you think if she doesn't she has a cold and is just angling for a day off!
Usually telling them you will ring and make a doctors appointment sorts the problem.

Jux · 26/01/2016 08:16

When I was a child, and throuout my working life, one just got on with things with a cold.
When dd was small, I discovered to my consternation, that if one went about spreading ones germs one was selfish.
Now it seems, we get on with things, again.

I have no idea, op! It's another "butter's good, no it's not, yes it is" things.

MigGril · 26/01/2016 08:18

She's old enough to mange her asthma and if she's not wheezing just make sure she has her Inhaler with her in case she needs it. I'm sure school will ring if she feels worse.

Fugghetaboutit · 26/01/2016 08:19

Ds is 3 and has gone in with a cold

SatsukiKusakabe · 26/01/2016 08:19

letustryagain our school asks you not to send them in having been giving Calpol - if they're ill enough to need it they're too ill for school.

I wouldn't give Calpol for just a cold though personally they'd have to be in some distress with it, and then they wouldn't be going to school anyway.