Stressing out about sick kids and absence from work

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I am really worried - I was really unwell with flu and missed work completely from Weds till Friday last week. I had today booked off to attend a teachers' meeting for my two kids and now my youngest has come home from school with fever which means I will have to stay home with her tomorrow! I am in despair as I have never been away from my team and office for so long - I am feeling so guilty and underperforming. What do you do in such situations? I am ashamed of even telling my colleagues - and am a senior manager with a team reporting to me...

I really feel for you it’s relentless this time of year. I hope your boss will be understanding

even if she wakes up absolutely fine and with no fever

you’ll still keep her off?!

you have never taken more than 3 days off consecutively for annual leave?

what are you worried about?

Me and dp took it in turns being absent from work when dcs were little and unwell. Is that an option?

It’s just bad luck . I’m sure your boss will cope.

But that’s only a few days op? Forget about work and just concentrate on being there for your child if your lo is sick. You can jump back in when they’re better

Thanks for your replies - yes, it's true, it's just a few days and I need to keep things in perspective. My husband is traveling for work, so little help! In situations like these, I just blindly panic that I am going to lose my job

If you're a senior manager leading a team you'll know that having a couple of days off for illness isn't going to lose your job, would you for someone in your team for that? I know it's not ideal and you feel guilty but it's really not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, these things happen there's a life outside work

As a senior manager you should have some ideas about HR process. Nobody is going to fire you on the account of you taking parental leave once in a blue moon. You have to be absent pretty consistently for your organisation to even begin some kind of an absence process.
If you think your team cannot cope without you for a few days it would be more problematic to be honest and something you might want to start addressing when you get back.

I mean…..if everyone who’s kid had a fever kept them off for a few days, then less kids would be off with a fever and less people would be off work 🤷🏼‍♀️