Lone parent dilemma:how do I get sib to school when other's home ill?

[LittleQuark]

Hope someone's up.

Have a lone parent dilemma here.

My eldest is off school sick (bedridden) and I can't figure out how to get my youngest to school.

School is literally one street away, a 3 minute walk.

I don't have anyone to help out. I don't want to flag down a passing parent (they walk past our house to school) as its a bit unfamiliar for him.

Do you think if I rang the school office they'd send a teacher or TA up to get him for me?

I've never left them alone in the house to pop down the road or whatever before, and it feels very wrong to do so for all sorts of reasons.

What do you recommend?

does the school have a learning mentor or an attndance officer?

How old is the eldest? Is there someone who can sit with the eldest while you go to school? family/friends? If they are not local/don't drive could you afford to pay for their taxi to your house?

No, I don't have anyone local I know to help, nor anyone in a position to, they'd be at work.

You've just made me think about the parent liaison officer who stands at the school gates each morning though, that might be who the school office send over.

I can see myself just arriving her in though, as it's not far, depends how poorly she is tomorrow.

Thankyou everyone

They'll probably tell me to keep him home as its diarrhoea anyway, in case he's infected too, so it could be another day home for both of them anyway.

I'll have to figure this one out for the future when I'm properly ill myself and catmint notes le to get out of bed myself to take them in.

This isn't only a lone parent issue ! My husband leaves homect 630am and I have 3 children. It's really difficult so I feel for you. I just drag sick child out I'm afraid- not what you wanted to heard . Could any parents at school help you? Not this time but in the future it's useful to be friendly with a few mums who can help in future. Best of luck.

It's not just a lone parent dilemma, it's a problem for most parents, unless both are sahp or work from home.

If I were you I'd make a point of befriending a few parents who live nearby, exchanging mobile numbers and have a reciprocal arrangement where you walk each others children to school when siblings/parents are ill. It works well for us, it's not nice to drag sick children out (or yourself if you've just had a bout of diarrhoea and are waiting for the imodium to kick in!)

Of course it's more of a problem for lone parents! There is no one to take turns/share the load/come up with a solution together and there are fewer family members to rely on.

It depends on the age of your children but if the school is literally three minutes away then no harm done in my view.

Leave the eldest in bed if school is in the next street. I've had to do this when picking up my youngest when oldest(9) is sick at home.

Well I've never known a school with spare staff around to collect children - I mean, really ???

Without knowing the ages of the 2 dcs, either cross the younger one over and get them to walk, or leave the older one in bed for the 5 mins it will take you to walk the younger one up there.

But, as everyone else says, the best practice for the future is to chat to other parents in the playground and swap numbers to support each other when these things happen.

It's not necessarily easier for two parent families. My DH leaves the house at 6am and I'm on my own with 4dcs till 7pm and the only family close enough to help is my dad who is also at work early.

The best thing is to make friends with a couple of other mums at school and have an agreement to help each other when one of you are ill or have one dc too ill to come with you on the school run.

For now though it depends on how old your oldest is. If they're 9yo I'd leave them in bed and leave with the youngest at the last possible minute so you just have to get the youngest to school and leave so there's no hanging around till they go in.

If the eldest is 6 or 7 I'd just keep them both off for the day. Not ideal but sometimes there's no choice.

Hi, just Last week my youngest son 7 was unwell. And I didn't want my 9 yr old son to miss School.. The School is 15 mins drive and my youngest son was happy to stay at home by himself while watching t.v. it all depends on the child and for how long you can leave them without worrying. When I got back he was still happily watching his programme.