Sickness allowances!

[Wednesdayafternoon]

Hi all, just after some advice. I'm a single parent and I live with my mum. My mum is my only source of childcare whilst I'm at work for my youngest, my eldest is in school. My mum is tested positive for Covid. Only she not well enough to look after my son, I think it was Owen fair for me to leave him with her as she is positive, not fair on either of them. Anyway I had to use an emergency childcare six day with work last week due to this. It's looking like she is most likely still gonna be positive on Monday. My problem is is that I have no childcare sick days left. Are there any universal Covid sickness guidances at the moment? I'm not sure if that even make sense. At my workplace if you exceed your childcare sickness days you have to go to a hearing, and the thought of that it's really upsetting and worrying me. I just feel like I'm stuck in between a rock and a hard place and I don't know what to do!

Please excuse my typos! I hit post before I proof read 😰😰😰😰😰😰😰😰

Do you have any holiday days to take or can you ask your manager if you can borrow some from next year if your holiday year runs from 1st April? Is your mum feeling any better yet and potentially able to look after him if you are at home too, could you work from home?

Also he's one and I work in a call Center environment. It's impossible for me to wfh whilst caring for him :(

@Findahouse21 thank you! I'm going to ask about the holiday or taking it completely unpaid but from memory there has to be holiday availability for them to approve this and I know next week is fully booked :(

Would you still have to go to a hearing if you phoned in sick for yourself? Hopefully theyl let you take unpaid parental leave.

@Unsureaboutit9 I was sort of hoping I might be positive so I could use a person sickness day but I'm still negative 😰
Isn't it bad when your wishing Covid on yourself so you can look after your child and mum 😳😳😳😳

Phone in sick yourself?

But if your employer won’t help and you need to do it so you can protect your job and look after your family, just lie OP! It’s not something I’d normally recommend, but if you don’t think theyl let you take unpaid parental leave then you don’t have much choice. I hope she’s feeling better soon anyway.

You can get 18 weeks unpaid parental leave each year if they're not letting you take dependants leave.

I assume they know your kid has covid? It's only natural for you to get it too, so phone in sick next week, when you inevitably catch covid, IYSWIM..

Thanks all. To be honest it did cross my mind to pull a sick day myself. The issue is is that my employer is incredibly corporate and a big company. So the same rule fits all if you see what I mean. We only get a couple days sick leave ourselves over the space of five months and I'm worried about taking a personal sick day now and then having to work when I do inevitably get it or my children do or if I'm on well with something else. It's just so stressful. I am more than happy to take it unpaid and I completely feel that is fair as well to do that, but my employers are just so difficult when it comes to sick leave and time off :(
I feel like there should be some le-way when it comes to Covid because even if I did have other childcare options who would want to watch him with Covid in our house 😳

@girlmom21

You can get 18 weeks unpaid parental leave each year if they're not letting you take dependants leave.

The 18 weeks is not per year it is 18 weeks in total from birth to age 18 years. You would normally have to give 21 days notice for it as well so proabbaly not going to help OP in her current situation.

@rainbowunicorn oh my bad on the 18 weeks thing but ultimately she has no childcare so whatever official name they want to give it she needs time off

@girlmom21 I agree and think it is ridiculous that she is even having to think about this. It should be a given that she is able to take the time off, unfortunately she works for a company that couldn't care less about the individual.
I honestly don't know what the answer is though, she is really stick between a rock and a hard place just trying to do her best.

Aww thanks all! I think my options are -

• try and see if they will grant annual leave/unpaid leave (unlikely)
• sign myself off sick with stress (in all fairness I am bloody stressed about this!!!)

My son is 22 months old! My eldest is in school so give or take an hour he's fine!

Feel sorry for my mim as she feels like this is her fault which is obviously isn't! What a nightmare!

How much sick leave do you have left?

Is she actually ill. Dp is positive but not unwell after 2 days

@girlmom21

You can get 18 weeks unpaid parental leave each year if they're not letting you take dependants leave.

It’s 4 weeks per year, it needs to be pre-requested and agreed by the business.

I have one day of sickness! We were all hit with norovirus twice in December which is why I'm so short!
My mym is still unwell and he line is still very red so still infectious.
She's ask 65 with a heart condition too so I need to make sure she's looking after herself!