To think parents should keep their vomiting children off school

[Sweetlifeofyours]

Got a phone call off school to say my child has been vomited on by another child. I got a message from the parent apologising (my child and their child are friends) and saying their child was only sick once at 6am and because they felt fine afterwards they didn’t think it was anything serious.

Now is the countdown I guess to see if my DC gets it and (as usual) spreads it around the house. Fuming to be honest! People are selfish. Is it really that hard to keep your child off school for 1/2 days😡

I mean I clearly disagree but if it makes you feel better…

I often sent DS to school if he had vomitted once before school because he regularly vomitted because of stress and anxiety, quite often in the morning or before a big event. 90% of the time I was right and he was absolutley fine but occasionally - two times in his primary school career,- it was an indication that he was ill and he vomitted again at school and came home as he was ill.

Both times I got an earful from the school because DS told them he had vomitted at home in the morning (of course he bloody had, he did at least once a week every week during term time especially)

I just smiled, apologised and ignored the telling off it because if I had kept DS off every time he vomitted once he would have had much lower attendance than he already had . We were already being hassled about t his attendance

So yes on a couple of occasions I made the worng call to send him to school after vomitting but I can't be sorry about that because I had very little choice and since I had to make that call 1-2 a week for about 6 years, I had a pretty good success rate at being right that the vomitting was anxiety not illness

Of course the vomitting from anxiety was its own issue but far more complicated to deal with than just deciding if he should go to school or not . We cancelled of his 2 birthday parties because he vomitted the night before, when in fact he was fine but we had the choice and I didn't want to be wrong and have a lot of children's parents be annoyed with me.

I remember making another call when he went to a friend's house for a play date and was sick just before we left then being called as he had vomitted at the friend's house a second time - I lost that friend as no explaining the issue could convince her I wasn't being very selfish

We cancelled a holiday twice both times because as I didn't want to take him on a plane as I was not sure if hs vomitting was illness or anxiety. In fact it was illness one time so I made the right call that time but anxiety the other - so sometimes I got it right and sometimes (less often) I didn't - so sue me

My DS then aged 8 once vomited in the playground during morning break - I had to collect him then keep him home for a couple of days. He had been sick because he had consumed the most enormous bowl of porridge for breakfast then decided to play "the twizzling game" which made him so dizzy he puked. It was a nightmare having him home, perfectly well, but thankfully we had a great relationship with his school and teachers so managed to get him some schoolwork to do which kept him tethered to the table for an hour or two.

Makes me 'feel better'? I didn't feel bad, what a silly thing to say. That's what people say when they don't really have a point but want to say something to try and make out they're not bovvered isn't it?

Teacher here. The rule is if your child is sick keep them off school for 48 hours. However nm experience is many parents send them in anyway [childcare issues usually] but the children usually let the cat out of the bag.

Our school policy is not to accept children who have been sick. They have to be 48hrs clear of when they last threw up. Sickness bugs spread like wildfire and whether it is a cold, covid or flu thing, we don’t like that either as it takes everyone out. We have an awful lot of staff and kids off at the minute with a flu type thing and it was only a few months since the sickness bug did the rounds. Nobody gets a proper chance to recover either.

For goodness sake! They are YOUR children you don’t get fined simply for having multiple tummy bugs.
You just accept that school won’t be happy because OFSTED won’t be happy!!!
Believe me there’s not a teacher in this land who wants your potentially sick child in their class!
Besides anything else , poorly children don’t learn.

Ok then so I'll ask again. What is actually self righteous about my post? Because I think it's selfish when parents send their vomiting children to school? A one off vomit (if the parents are being honest about that) may not be a stomach bug but I myself and other posters on here have had one off vomit situations where it has turned out to be a bug so it's entirely possible. Surely it's a case of better to be safe than sorry.

I don't see how that makes me self righteous but maybe you're the kind of person who'd send an ill child to school because you have no thought for others (children and staff included) and couldn't be arsed having them at home with you! And the “bovvered” thing is really embarrasing by the way

My daughter has a vomiting bug, when she was complaining of a stomach ache in the middle of the night I asked her if anyone was unwell in her class, she said her best friend had been sick in class yesterday. When I was dropping her brother to Breakfast Club this morning said friend was being dropped off by their grandma! It’s too late for us but there’s potential for a lot more class/ breakfast and after school club kids to be affected too. Her mum is a primary school teacher.

93% of respondents think that sending a child, who had recently vomited, in to school is unacceptable. May be if you find yourself in that situation again, have a rethink.

YANBU. Sick once at 6am is such complete and utter bullshit because there is barely any time to actually see if the child is ok. And also I think it’s pretty unlikely there was any other cause - it’s not going to be travel sickness etc.
Some parents fucking love deluding themselves that if a child is sick once (without any obvious reason eg an allergy that causes vomiting, or motion sickness) they aren’t actually ill. And those parents are selfish cunts.

When my kids are sick I don’t send them in. Regardless if they are fine after, they have still been sick and could feel/be sick later. They need the rest, not be in school. l can’t work well if I was vomiting or full of flu, nor do I want to compromise anyones health either. Same applies for school.

They don’t seem ok though. Because they’ve been sick (obviously I’m excluding obvious causes like motion sickness or they’ve eaten a ton of ice cream and then gone on a trampoline or something).

You are selfish. But I doubt you care.

I know it’s not easy as a working mum but the point is that nursery workers and teachers are often working mums too. I work in a nursery as the chef, I don’t get any sick pay and if I come in when I’m poorly, imagine the chaos. Stop being so selfish.

Yep. I read a study where they infected people with norovirus. Something like 1/3 of people who showed symptoms only vomited once.

So some selfish parent’s “oh they were just sick once, it’s probably nothing” (how often are people randomly just vomiting for no reason anyway??) could easily cause significant health issues for some other children.

Well I’d challenge that with the statutory guidance that specifically states a parent’s word that their child is too ill for school is to be accepted and the absence marked as authorised, and that medical evidence should only be sought in exceptional circumstances.

So schools can say what they want, but it’s an authorised absence and if they tried to pull any crap about it being unauthorised, I would challenge it if it resulted in a fine.

93% of respondents think that sending a child, who had recently vomited, in to school is unacceptable.

You say that like it means something. It doesn't matter one tiny bit what 93% of respondents on MN think. Why on earth do you think it does?

May be if you find yourself in that situation again, have a rethink

What do you imagine she 'rethink', exactly? If her boss says she can't go, do you propose she quit her job on the spot? How do you imagine the mortgage gets paid or the poor, sick children get fed? Quitting dramatically works in movies, that's about it.

The policy has recently changed for schools near us. If a child vomits once, if they feel well and have no other symptoms, they can immediately return to school.

I’m pretty sure that an employer cannot legally prevent you from leaving work under those circumstances - nor discipline for it either.

Please tell me you meant the child’s parents - not the child? because that is not the child’s fault at all. Also, sometimes illness happens out of the blue. I’ve sent a seemingly well kiddo to school before and had to collect them because they became poorly. I wouldn’t have sent them in if I had known.

This. It is absolute bullshit.

they just do not care about anyone other than themselves.

Yes, there are exceptions, but it is clear the OP isn’t talking about those.

we have a parent the same at our school. Five years in everyone has had enough. She doesn’t work. it is just sheer incompetence on her part.

In our case she lives next to school and just does not answer phone.

Ultimately, it’s the kids that suffer.

That may be, but I am a teacher and have a duty of care to the pupils I teach. I can’t just walk out the door and leave my classes alone. If I am being told that there is no one to cover my lessons as cover had been exhausted I am literally stuck between a rock and a hard place.

YANBU
I don’t agree with people saying parents home or job circumstances might be difficult so they might want to send their kids in if only vomited once. My home circumstances are difficult, I’m a working single parent and have had my daughter wiped out with a sickness bug for the past 4 days, she got symptoms after a kid in her class vomited at school and another one got sent home with a high temp. I know we can’t eliminate viruses but if I knew that parents in her class had sent their kids in after they had been sick at home I would be upset.
Why is it ok to put other families at risk of financial difficulty, problems at work, exhaustion, to avoid it for you? My boss wasn’t happy and I’ve been told I need to fit in extra hours to try and make up for missed work, which is almost impossible for me, particularly this time of year. YANBU at all

That attitude does my head in! My kids are older now but when they were little, the number of times friends would say ‘they were sick in the night but only once so can’t be a bug’ - yes it bloody can!! They affect different kids in different ways. Luckily my kids weren’t prone to stomach bugs but the anxiety was there each time and I did actually think about kids who suffered badly, unlike the selfish ones!!

I think I am the exact opposite of selfish. I would love to take a day off any time my child had a sniffle or seemed under the weather. I work 3 days a week and already had to take about 4 days off this academic year as my children were physically to sick to go to school, or the school or nursery rang me to get them. My Husband has also took similar.
I teach up to 150 kids a day a core subject that they need to pass their exams and get into college. I teach a lot of GCSE groups. If I am constantly off, they fail.
So I have to be 100% sure my child won’t make it through a school day before calling in. If I think they can make it through and they aren’t too ill, I will send them. 99% of the time I make the right call and my kids are absolutely fine when I pick them up.
You can be sick in the night and be ok in the morning. If they aren’t well enough I obviously wouldn’t send them in.
As I have previously stated, I have before been called to collect my kids and been told I can’t go as there is no cover. I literally had to fight and cry to leave!