Coughing child at gymnastics

[academicallyblonde]

Just picked me DD up from gymnastics. Another child was escorted out by the coach as she said she needed to talk to her mother. The mother straightaway says, “Is is about her cough?”

My DD tells me that the child was coughing the whole time. They apparently tried to call the mother to pick her up but no answer. Sounds like they managed to keep the girl as far away as possible from the others. It sounds as though she spent the whole hour sat on the side watching, which can’t have been very nice for the poor thing.
AIBU to think this mother was totally out of order for knowingly sending a coughing child to a gym class at this time? Not to mention then being uncontactable? (Only saving grace is the child can’t have had a temperature as they checked them all on the way in).

She may have a cough, had a negative covid test so if carrying on. My 18 month old had the worst cough I took him for a test straight away, all of us stayed home until the negative result came back. Called nursery explained he’s coughing but negative, all good to go back. 3 weeks later still coughing... do you expect my and whole family to stay home for 3 weeks?

Pretty stupid to send in like that without saying why though.
As her own kid missed out the session anyway.
At school they will be put in a room to wait for collection with staff in a mask.
Personally i would take the kid to sit outside

if child has a continuous cough

No, it's if they have a new cough, as others have said there are people who have coughs for other known reasons. However, in those situations you would have expected the parent to have explained the situation to the gym class before it started, but I'd still say your BU because you completely didn't consider the situation.

If it was asthma related, it could of course have been brought on by the return to exercise and hadn't been present before the class.

The parent shouldn't have sent a child with a bad continuous cough...covid or not it's not nice for a child.

The parent should have told the instructors when the child was dropped off. Either what the cough was, had they been tested, etc.

The parent should have been contactable!! What if something had happened and child had got injured. It happened at DC's karate class.... Child dropped off and parent left, child hurt themselves, parent didn't answer phone...turned up at end of lesson, but of course lesson had stopped when child had been hurt so instructor could help the child.

The parent was been unreasonable!!!

OP YANBU

We are in the middle of a pandemic which has caused a recession to begin, taken many lives and required the public to make huge sacrifices. Regardless of what the child’s mother believes, it is incredibly insensitive to send a continuously coughing child to a group gymnastics class.

If the child is continuously coughing with asthma, then she should not be at gymnastics until her asthma is back under control.

(I say this as an asthmatic)

We are in the middle of a pandemic which has caused a recession to begin, taken many lives and required the public to make huge sacrifices. Regardless of what the child’s mother believes, it is incredibly insensitive to send a continuously coughing child to a group gymnastics class.

If they know it’s not covid then of course they can go to gymnastics.

Not with a negative test and after discussions with your nursery.

Thus child was dropped off with no explanation and the symptoms of the pandemic disease.

Not remotely comparable.

If there was an alternative explanation for the cough, it was up to the parent to supply them - so the provider knows she can exercise her duty of care to every other participant by not having one with unexplained symptoms matching those which require isolation until explained.

The other parents only need to know 'we've checked and are satisfied it is not Covid', not the full medical info on another child. But they clearly didn't know as they attempted to isolate the DC from the rest of the class. Utterly wrong that they could not be contacted- what if the DC had had an accident?

Parents really in the wrong here

You should have stuck around to listen to the end of what was being said.

Same people will keep on sending their kids to school
They would have to go to work. Sod other kids and their parents.

Well if a child has a continuous cough she would /should have informed the coach, as the child was being escorted out and wanting to speak to the mother and had tried contacting her, it's fairly obvious that the child was dropped without any mention about the cough. So, yes the mother was being unreasonable.

I'm a swim teacher we had our training today for covid. Any child with a conintuous cough will have to go home as a precaution.

YABU. The child may have already had a test. Unfortunately, for many people, a cough can linger for weeks and months. It is really annoying but it is life. We can't keep children off for coughs once it is proven not covid.

The mother should have spoken to the staff. My DD has a constant cough, it's just part of her health conditions. It's been discussed with her nursery and if she was one of my older kids it would be discussed with all of the activities she went too.

Parents and emergency contacts being uncontactable is my biggest pet hate. It's just ridiculously selfish in that situation where it was clearly because the mother didn't want the child sent home.

@academicallyblonde

Those who think IBU, I’d be interested to know why.

Because people - and children in particular - have coughs all the time. When I get coughs, they last for six weeks minimum. However, they normally follow a chest infection. When I'm ill with a chest infection, nothing on Earth would make me leave the house, simply because I feel too ill. YABU because coughs can linger for ages and ages, or might even have causes that are not pathological (hay fever, allergies, etc).

Covid is not the only illness in the world, and we need to stop putting our lives on hold.

Not all coughs are COVID

Obviously If your child has a non covid cough you should tell the activity leader though.

I suppose there will be fewer cases of whooping cough going around at the moment, but my (vaccinated) DS had it in primary school and was coughing for three months. He had five days off school while he was on antibiotics, then back to school and scouts, with the cough.

Indoor group activities like Gymnastics are only open on certain conditions.

YABU.

Never occurred to anyone the kid might have been having an asthma attack or allergies?

This terrifies me. Kids and adults with asthma are going to be stigmatised and people refuse to help when they are having an attack.

@LibrariesGiveUsPower

YABU.

Never occurred to anyone the kid might have been having an asthma attack or allergies?

This terrifies me. Kids and adults with asthma are going to be stigmatised and people refuse to help when they are having an attack.

Well they will be if they parents don’t communicate the need and ensure they are contactable!

I think if it was a genuine non covid cough, the mother would have mentioned it to the trainers and the kid wouldn't have been sat on the side the whole time.
The fact that she dumped the kid and was then uncontactable suggests she knew the child shouldn't be there.

Coughs occur for all sorts of reasons..for goodness sake. Let the poor child be.

Being uncontactable is not acceptable anyway.