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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To take DD (6) on a day trip when she’s technically off school sick?

76 replies

RainbowRename · 24/03/2022 16:07

DD (6, Y1) has a cough and a bit of a sniffle. On calpol she is completely fine in herself just an annoying and very frequent cough.

PCR and LFT negative.

Just picked her up from school and her teacher made it clear they didn’t expect to see her tomorrow as she is having ‘coughing fits’.

WIBU to take her to the local zoo that she is owed a trip to? She is 100% fine in herself except the cough. She has been promised this visit since Christmas but haven’t been able to fit it in and the weather is due to be lovely!

OP posts:
FabFitFifties · 24/03/2022 17:28

I think it's better not to expose the animals to respiratory bugs, so YABU.

WhatsTheEffingPoint · 24/03/2022 17:29

LFT In the morning before you go, keep your distance from people, wear face masks and use hand sanitiser.
Obviously if she wakes up poorly then Frozen on repeat it is!

Cornettoninja · 24/03/2022 17:30

@CatRatSplat

Everyone is assuming covid, could she have allergies? Animals are beginning to shed winter fur and the pollen season has begun. You don't have to be sneezing if it's mild, she could be coughing from the mucus trickling down her throat.
This is a very valid point. I’d try her with some piriton and see if that eases her cough at all.
thaegumathteth · 24/03/2022 17:31

I'm relatively cautious and considerate re covid but if she's still negative in morning I'd take her. We can't all stop doing stuff because of coughs - my son had whooping cough that lasted about 6 months - should we have not went out in case it made someone uncomfortable?

balalake · 24/03/2022 17:41

I'd wait until Saturday and take her, as she is more likely to be feeling well. Even though it is outdoors, a frequent cough is likely to alarm other people.

50DaysAF · 24/03/2022 17:50

I thought (as well as a good opportunity for her owed trip) that some animal learning was better than a day watching frozen on repeat
Clutching at straws springs to mind.

I agree with @GreenFingersWouldBeHandy although I would have worded it slightly differently. She’s having repeated coughing fits and you believe she caught something off her sibling. Even if it’s not covid, do you really want to spread that about to everyone else there, who’ll also end up having to do LFTs, PCRs and the like? Staff as well as visitors.

MuggleMadness · 24/03/2022 17:51

It seems to be taking longer with this strain to show positive on a LFT.

I wouldn't take her to the zoo, but I'd take her to the park for a picnic or something like that. Somewhere she's not touching everything & coughing around animals/people. For ANY cough enough to have school asking her not to go in.

BlueOverYellow · 24/03/2022 17:54

I cough for weeks after I've had a cold. So do lots of people including children.

If she's testing negative, the school is not only being ridiculous, they're breaking the current government guidelines on whether or not she can go to school

DrinkingByTheLake · 24/03/2022 18:29

If she's testing negative, the school is not only being ridiculous, they're breaking the current government guidelines on whether or not she can go to school

It doesn’t sound for a minute like school have refused to have OPs daughter in school. OP is just choosing to believe that so she can go to the zoo. 🙄

uncomfortablydumb53 · 25/03/2022 15:36

I definitely would in your situation

ThisIsNotThePostYourLookingFor · 25/03/2022 15:37

Absolutely. We don’t get enough time with our kids as it is and as she’s only 6 she’s hardly going to be missing much from one day.

Take her and enjoy it!

Beees · 25/03/2022 15:47

I'm a teacher and I've had a cough now for about 8 weeks. It's not covid, it's just a lingering cough that has been exasperated by asthma and now hay-fever. I doubt very much those saying don't go and you should be isolating for a cough would be happy with their children having no teacher for that long.

If she tests negative again tomorrow then there is absolutely no reason for her to not be at school but if school won't take her then why shouldn't she go to the zoo. She's got a cough not the plague.

I think lots of people have forgotten that it's still very common for those with covid to be asymptomatic so fretting over a child who is negative going outside just because she has a cough seems nonsensical.

PinkSyCo · 25/03/2022 15:50

Make the most of this beautiful weather and take your DD to the zoo. 🐒

Original poster
RainbowRename · 25/03/2022 16:37

She tested negative again this morning and was fine in herself so we have had a lovely day out in the sunshine, never closer than 2 metres (actually more like 5m) to anyone else, had a picnic watching her favourite animals. it was really lovely.

She had a sporadic cough through the day and maybe 2 or 3 'coughing fits' although they were not really that long, maybe 8-10 coughs in a burst.

I'm afraid you'll have to trust my interpretation of what her teacher called me over to say. no she didn't outright say dont bring her in, she said the 'coughing fits' were 'disrupting her learning' and that 'it might be best if she rests tomorrow'.

we had a lovely day, nice quality time together.

OP posts:
EthelTheAardvark · 25/03/2022 17:01

@DrinkingByTheLake

If she’s having coughing fits enough to miss school, she’d be better resting, not being outside.

If you do take her I’d do another LFT before you leave if you have one.

Being outside in fresh air and sunshine is likely to be very good for her cough.
SirSamVimesCityWatch · 25/03/2022 17:20

Glad you took her out OP, and that you had a good day.

Xmasbaby11 · 25/03/2022 19:42

Sounds lovely op! That doesn't sound a bad cough at all and I'm sure being outside helped it.

Kanaloa · 25/03/2022 19:58

@BlueOverYellow

I cough for weeks after I've had a cold. So do lots of people including children.

If she's testing negative, the school is not only being ridiculous, they're breaking the current government guidelines on whether or not she can go to school

COVID isn’t the only illness in the world, which people seem to be forgetting at the moment. They’re quick to say ‘oh she had Covid negative test so she can go to school’ but it’s not always the case. Pre-Covid I have many times had to call a parent to collect their child from nursery/school because (as the child’s career/teacher) I can see they are unwell, and it doesn’t benefit a child, or their peers, to be coughing and clearly unwell in the classroom. Just because she doesn’t have Covid doesn’t mean she’s automatically well enough to be at school.
Kanaloa · 25/03/2022 20:00

Not that I think she shouldn’t go to the zoo - her mum watching her will be able to tell if she’s not right/needs to go home and rest. Just don’t like the current insistence that kids can’t be sent home unless they have Covid.

bellac11 · 25/03/2022 20:02

Id go to the zoo and take the advantage of extra curricular learning and I wouldnt be shy about it either if asked (if it comes up)

georgarina · 25/03/2022 20:07

Sounds fun. Always use critical thinking with things like this...rules aren't one size fits all...we need to be more confident in using our own logic and reasoning

MissMaple82 · 25/03/2022 20:08

Yeah take her, enjoy your day together

OfstedOffred · 25/03/2022 20:09

Just picked her up from school and her teacher made it clear they didn’t expect to see her tomorrow as she is having ‘coughing fits’.

School can get tae fuck then can't they. They can't just decide they don't want a PCR negative child with a sniffle in school. If she's well enough for you to take her to the zoo she's clearly fine and should be in school getting the education she deserves and the taxpayer funds.

Ebenezerpud · 25/03/2022 20:26

Take her and enjoy spending time together when it’s quiet and everyone else is at school/work, so nice 💜life’s too short.

Kanaloa · 25/03/2022 20:27

@OfstedOffred

Just picked her up from school and her teacher made it clear they didn’t expect to see her tomorrow as she is having ‘coughing fits’.

School can get tae fuck then can't they. They can't just decide they don't want a PCR negative child with a sniffle in school. If she's well enough for you to take her to the zoo she's clearly fine and should be in school getting the education she deserves and the taxpayer funds.

She doesn’t have a ’sniffle,’ she is having ‘coughing fits.’ Once again, this weirdly aggressive insistence that school have to accept unwell children just because they don’t have Covid is incorrect. If the child is having regular coughing fits that the teacher says is disrupting their learning then they don’t need to be in school.