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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Why can nobody adhere to the 48hr sick bug rule?!

94 replies

Toughtips · 12/12/2017 13:01

I understand people have jobs to go to but why bring your poor child back into school when he was only sick and sent home yesterday? Just seen one who got sent home back doing his school nativity looking pasty as anything. Someone commented underneath the photo "is he better now" to the reply of yeah he really wanted to go in. AIBU to be annoyed that school allow this?

OP posts:

Enwi · 12/12/2017 13:03

YANBU. I’d expect school to be turning away a child who they know was sick only the day before. I remember going home with an awful sickness bug one day in primary school. My teacher rang my mum that evening to confirm I could still come to the school nativity at 7pm as I had one of the main roles.

Original poster

Toughtips · 12/12/2017 13:04

It's just ridiculous. Oh he's stopped being sick back you go.

OP posts:

Hedgehog80 · 12/12/2017 13:05

It’s pure selfishness and stupidity.
My dd has type 1 diabetes and other conditions and every time she gets a stomach bug she has to be admitted to hospital. It’s dreadful. People don’t think.
Luckily our school are v good of a child has been sent home and then comes back in they send them home again.

Hedgehog80 · 12/12/2017 13:06

I’ve lost count the number of times I’ve my dc off when they're well because the d+v bug has been spreading round school just to try and avoid a hospital admission 😔

Tink2007 · 12/12/2017 13:07

At my daughters secondary school they contacted me after I had told them it had been nearly 24 hours since she had last vomited (they have a 48 hour rule) and they said that’s fine, just send her in.

I asked what happened to their 48 hour rule and they said they don’t have to stick to it as attendance is very important! Safe to say she didn’t go in until she was 48 hours clear.

glenthebattleostrich · 12/12/2017 13:09

I'm a childminder and you wouldn't believe the lies some parents will tell to get you to have their children.

One tried to drop their school age child off (who'd been sick in school the day before) for the day. Apparently they were only sick because it was too cold for them?!

I've also given notice to a family who sent their child to me ill twice. They admitted when they were called to pick up that she'd been sick and had diarheah both times but still brought her. I was ill for 2 days and lost quite a lot of money on that one.

RestingGrinchFace · 12/12/2017 13:11

My children have both been sick in the past 24 hours (with a virus that took me four days to get over). They are already running around like it never happened. When you child is clearly well it can be very tempting t break the rule if you have other commitments/are sick yourself.

Hedgehog80 · 12/12/2017 13:14

They may appear ‘clearly well’ but will still be contagious/shedding the virus

Original poster

Toughtips · 12/12/2017 13:20

I just think it's bad form to do that. You're homebound with d&v and it spreads through families like no tomorrow. But I suppose it's a case of well if one families doing it I may as well

OP posts:

Enwi · 12/12/2017 13:23

Glen- i’m a childminder too and your post doesn’t surprise me at all. Yesterday I had three mindees, two with conjuctivitis and one with tonsillitis. One of the parents with a child with conjuctivitis made a comment that it was infuriating her child had caught it from another child at a playgroup last week and the child shouldn’t have attended the playgroup... i looked pointedly at her child... that she was dropping off into my setting... with conjuctivitis.

BlackAmericanoNoSugar · 12/12/2017 13:26

My DD's school is very strict about the 48 hr rule and will turn the child away. I think they had been quite laissez faire about it but one winter they had a bug that just wouldn't leave the school, it got to the stage that they had people at the door requiring everyone to use a hand sanitiser before entering, so now they are super strict at the first signs of a bug.

welshweasel · 12/12/2017 13:29

To be fair, schools and nurseries shouldn’t exclude with conjunctivitis enwi

Allgoodfun · 12/12/2017 13:29

Someone has just posted on our secondary school fb page asking if the 48hour rule applies there. I typed out a " even if it doesn't please don't send your child back earlier, especially this week" but chickened and am hoping someone else will!

Original poster

Toughtips · 12/12/2017 13:30

Do you think there would be any point in complaining to the school about it?

OP posts:

Rudgie47 · 12/12/2017 13:32

Its because I think a lot of employers dont like people taking time off whatever the reason. Many people are in insecure employment so it can cause a problem for them.
I've know people in the past who have had their own companies and have openly said theres no way they would employ someone who had little kids etc.

fermerswife · 12/12/2017 13:32

Op YANBU. Drives me mad too when children are at school unnecessarily and pass things around.

That said as a working parent I completely understand the pressure parents are under to send under the weather children to school/nursery, first week in a new job I had to take time off as my daughter had vomiting. It was awfully embarrassing but I had no choice. Tonsillitis and conjunctivitis which are not excludable illnesses I would send her in if she was still ok in herself. If I didn't I'd never, quite frankly, be at work.

Hedgehog80 · 12/12/2017 13:36

I actually sent a message on my dds class group explaining the issues we have and that if anyone had the bug coiodnlet let me know as if it seemed to be in dds class I’d keep her off to avoid it. They were all lively about it. I do think sometimes people are unaware that what is ‘just’ a v unpleasant bug for them can be life threatening for others if they have pre existing conditions

Hedgehog80 · 12/12/2017 13:36

*lovely

Mummyoflittledragon · 12/12/2017 13:46

You could talk to the School. Idk if it will make a difference. Dds School had half the kids in her class off with it a couple of years ago. Parents can be so selfish.

A couple of weeks ago a woman brought her ds1 to gymnastics and brought her ds2 who’d been vomiting with her. To a school for circa 1000 kids. Needless to say her ds gave it to me. I’m chronically ill with a compromised immune system. God knows how many kids it contaminated the next day as d&v germs live for days. All for a class costing a few quid.

InDubiousBattle · 12/12/2017 13:46

Enwi, I've heard new parents say that they want a cm over a nursery because you 'can still send dc when they're ill', becasue obviously becoming a cm makes you completely immune to disease. One of the cm I see at toddler groups is giving up after Christmas because she just can't cope with being ill all of the time.

YANBU op, a friend of mine parks a short walk from her dd's primary school and the other day she saw a dad holding his ds over a grate to throw up, wiped his mouth then carried on walking to school!

Original poster

Toughtips · 12/12/2017 13:52

Omg you're joking! That's horrendous. Poor child

OP posts:

Arrowfanatic · 12/12/2017 13:59

Our primary school is a large school, close to 750 students. Back in October they had one day where over half of the kids were off with sickness. I took my other 2 children in and it was like a ghost town compared to the day before being full on the playground. The next day I took my 2 kids back and the playground was much busier again meaning a whole bunch of kids who had been off that previous day (and likely not the day before) were back. I still count my lucky stars that the bug only struck down my youngest and not the rest of the family.

Bigkingdom · 12/12/2017 14:05

I always pull people up on this! I don't care who they are and whether its online, on facebook or in the school playground!! Its utter selfish! I'm sick phobic so don't want all my kids puking BUT some people end up in hospital because of these bugs!!

Phillipa12 · 12/12/2017 14:07

My eldest had 1 single bout of diarrhoea, no other symptoms, i sent him back to school 42 hrs later. (Really thought that it would be ok) I got sent to the office and told to take him home because it wasnt 48hrs. I didnt mind but what annoyed me was the fact that there were 2 other children in his class who also had diarrhoea and they were back in class 24hrs later, their parents were quite happily gobbing off in the playground about what a stupid rule it was and that they just say they are ill when they phone them in sick.

Trappedintheglobe · 12/12/2017 14:11

The bigger issue is the lack of flexibility with employers. I'm fortunate that I work very part time so can jiggle things around a bit if the dc are ill, (which they are very often lately and I'm sure it's because other children are attending whilst ill).

My dh finds it very difficult to get any time off for emergencies and he also doesn't get paid for time off, if I had a similar job I can see how it would be tempting to send them before the 48 hours are up or if they're not quite 100%.

I wouldn't do it and that's the main reason I work part time, it makes things difficult financially but with no grandparents/family to help out we have no choice.

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