Working FT, lone parent, sick child

[wellthatsdoneit]

What do you do in this situation? I would have no one I could ask to help out (father lives abroad and rellies either too old or live elsewhere). How understanding is your employer? Is ther any law which enables time off for this situation, or which protects your job?

I'm self employed so choose my own hours and thankfully have relatives close by who could help.

However, there are rights you have regarding time off.

www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/work_e/work_rights_at_work_e/parental_rights_at_work.htm

Rights of working parents

Working parents have the following legal rights:

paid and unpaid maternity leave
paid paternity leave
paid and unpaid adoption leave
to request flexible working hours
unpaid parental leave for parents of children under five (18 if your child is disabled)
unpaid time off to deal with unexpected problems with the care of dependants.
These rights apply to parents in same-sex as well as in opposite-sex relationships.

www.gov.uk/time-off-for-dependants/your-rights

This links more thorough.

It really depends on the employer and your manager, how often your child is poorly and how much of a horrible mum you are!

My situation is a bit of all of the above. My employer offers some flexibility allowing you to take a few days off a year for a poorly child. My managers have been for most understanding as themselves were parents of young children. However, my kids had to have a fever to stay at home. Anything else, it was a case of you go and if you feel really terrible, go reception who will call me. They usually managed, but to be fair, they have been very healthy children. My boy's school allow storage of meds for individual children, so if my boy feels a bit poorly, he can go and get some calpol. I have found that this does the trick.

Before they got chickenpox, I warned my boss each time there was a warning at their nursery. In the end, they must have gone through at least 5 or 6 of these warnings and they didn't catch it until my daughter was in Y2. My boss was very flexible and allowed me to work from home on these days.

It is not easy and can be stressful, but still better than not working.

www.workingfamilies.org.uk/ has help line too

who does childcare/after school? build up network of people who might be able to step in.
also emergency nanny type agencies

and employer who lets you work from home..

I am the boss so taking time off is even more difficult even though ExH is around he would never take time off to help his job is toooo important!

My job is also impossible to do from home.
So my only option is an emergency nanny or my mum driving 200 miles to help both which I have used.

Thanks for the replies. It sucks that there's noteallegislation in place to assist parents, especially lone parents. Seems its just unpaid leave and relying on the goodwill of an employer to to penalise you for it.

I'm quite worried about this. My dd seem to get sick a lot especially in the winter.