Day off school on birthday?

[Givemeabreak88]

What are your thoughts on giving a child the day off school on their birthday? If they are asking for the day off..

And actually given he has had such disruption to years 1 and 2 it’s not surprising he finds things difficult. Which makes getting back into the normal everyone in routine more important.

Instead of keeping him off I would be (if you haven’t already) making an appointment with the senco to discuss the areas that are causing him to dislike school so much and what can be done all around to help him settle

I have also always taken the day off when I worked. And shock and horror , my dh takes it off as well so we do something special. I know on MN birthdays are nothing special, but in our family birthdays are your special day in the whole year. I would give my ds the day off if he asked. There may be others where he would actually want to go to school.

@tillyandmilly

Yes it’s only one day and a special day at that!

A birthday doesn't become less special just because the child goes to school for part of the day.

@FFSAllTheGoodOnesArereadyTaken

No. If every child did this it means hundreds of extra unauthorised absences which means they get pushed down the ranks in the tables etc. Surely they can celebrate at the weekend

Who would get pushed down in league tables? The schools? If every child did this, they'd all lose points, so it'd be a level playing field still.

Anyway, OP, no. He can't learn that he can take days off school because there's something better to do.

Plus, having a birthday in school can actually be quite fun!

I only had a couple as my birthday was early September so we often hadn't gone back. But the times I had gone back I really enjoyed.

Of course you should let him stay home if that is what he wants. After everything kids have had to put up with this last year. Keep him home and enjoy the special day! Happy birthday to him when it comes!

I'd let him stay off. I really hated school and used to stay off on my birthday any year when it didn't fall into a school holiday.

I've never had a problem with going to work on my birthday as an adult. There have been zero long-term negative consequences to taking birthdays off school. I've had jobs I wasn't keen on, but nothing that made me even a fraction as miserable as school did, and I'm glad that I have happy memories of my childhood birthdays. Birthdays are much more important to most children than most adults anyway.

@Dutchesss

For those saying no, would you go to work on your birthday or book the day off? I'm lucky both my children's birthdays fall in the summer holidays so I haven't had to think about it.

I usually work on my birthday but have booked the day off occasionally. But I don't work in a school!

If every child had their birthday off it would be chaotic. And would you extend the same freedom to the staff? If you got an email saying "Class 2 can't come into school.next Wednesday as its Ms Brown's birthday and she's taking the day off" you'd be very unimpressed.

I don’t care if people believe it; I’ve never known her to spend her birthday in this country as she always spends it abroad (apart from this year) And yes she is a teacher.

Anyway my son hasn’t like school since reception, it’s nothing new. He use to scream his head off whenever I dropped him to school but they insisted he went, I tried to speak to them several times but didn’t get anywhere and it didn’t change anything.

I wouldn’t care if the teacher didn’t go in on their birthday, why would I? My kids teachers are off occasionally they never say why, it’s not like they are never off.

Yea let him stay home OP he's not going to miss anything he can't catch up on. Have a fun day X

[quote JohnMiddleNameRedactedSwanson]**@KitHenry* @MargaretThursday* That’s understandable. It’s not compulsory 🤷🏼‍♀️[/quote]
But even then it would bring stress:

Do I wear non-uniform and have that attention?
Do I wear uniform and have people asking why I'm not in non-uniform?

As I said, one of mine would have loved it. DD1 would probably not have minded at infant level, but quietly stressed about it after that-and ds would have hated it throughout.

If you've had a child who loved it, it can be difficult to understand how another child can hate it so much. Even wearing red for red nose day (and he had a number of items he would normally wear that were red) got ds in such a state. And saying he could wear uniform if he wanted didn't help.
It's nothing to do with the clothes. He goes on stage in all sorts without a murmur, just don't ask him to put something different on at school please!

We had a day off from homeschooling last month for my DDs birthday. Don't feel remotely worried about it. We had a lovely family day and my DD needed it.

I’m still like this 😳 at the January birthday teacher managing to kid her employer that every year one of her family members gets married at the same time. In an especially unweddingy too!

There should be the word month in that last sentence 🤦🏻‍♀️

You're the parent. You say no. Otherwise you are setting him up for a life of absenteeism.

For one day off school at 7 😂

Why ask when you had obviously already decided?

All it is is a sticking plaster to the much bigger issue though

@unchienandalusia

I find adults who place so much importance on their birthdays frankly ridiculous.

MN BINGO!!

Adults allowing anything about them to be celebrated? The HORROR!!!

To be fair I would, but DDs birthday falls in the school holidays so I don’t have to

No it's setting a precedent that school
Is optional. You shouldn't even let him think it's worth considering

No and its not going to help him like school anymore .
Plenty if kids go to school on their birthday , shame kids can't take sweets in now like they used to.
My ds school always allowed and the sweets were given at home time so parents could decide

To add: although I don't believe in people learning to use their birthdays as a get-out-of-work-free card, it's important to find out exactly what is the problem with school. Especially as he has a disability, it may not be just that he finds school boring or restrictive or not as much fun as something else would be; he may be being bullied or excluded by other children because of the disability, or constantly failing to meet certain academic expectations and coming to feel that he's a failure. If so, these problems do need to be addressed.

And yes I do go to work on my birthday to the poster who asks most years as do most of my colleagues as its often a waste of holiday if it falls on say a tuesday

@AaronPurr A birthday doesn't become less special just because the child goes to school for part of the day of course it's less special if you spend HALF+ of it in a place you dislike and with people you don't particularly like. If you enjoy your birthday as much as doing something you hate for half of it, you're doing it wrong

But I do find some of the responses extreme. One illicit day off won't set a child up for a lifetime of absenteeism!