Those of you with dcs at a childminder

[chickenoriental]

Our cm us fantastic and babies are really settled there. Cm has a child herself.
My dcs are both on antibiotics presently and cannot go to the cm while contagious.
The question is, what happens if her dc is ill ( contagious)? Do I have to keep them away? Find an alternative?
What do others do?
While I don't want my dcs to catch anything, I can't always make suitable arrangements for 2 dcs.
Interested in experiences please. Tia

If our childminders daughter is ill, then yes, she phones to let us know and cancels.

However, our CM works closely with a few other CM's in our small town, so she often finds out if any of them have a space and offers our son to go there instead. We've been very lucky so far and it's only been a couple of consecutive days, never weeks!

Ours is the same, if hers are a little bit ill he still goes there, but if they had anything contagious we'd have to find alternative childcare or stay home. We've only had a couple of sick days and we've always just taken holiday for them, which I appreciate would be more difficult to do if we had a school age child as we'd need to save all our days for the school holidays.

At the tail end of a course of antibiotics, depending on what it was for, could they not go in and have the ABs administered? That's what our nursery does (DS also goes to a CM but the only time he's had ABs he was too sick to go on the day he goes to her).

We occasionally use another CM who has a DC and if she's sick she doesn't take him/get paid and I assume the same for when her DC is sick.

I usually find that by the time the child has got unwell the others have been exposed to it so as a CM I let it up to their parents to decide and wouldn't turn the mindee's away unless it's an illness that's dangerous and difficult to fight .. All depends on incubation period etc etc

Thank you. They have tonsilitus

Sorry. Dc posted for me too soon!

Thanks for the comments. Just seems like a double whammy if a cms child is ill... Is difficult with 2 small children at the same cm. both have been ill on and off since the turn of the year. My employers are becoming less sympathetic with last minute holidays etc especially given that there is nobody who can take on my workload...

I know what you mean chicken but depending on the ailment, generally I'd rather have a day or two's unpaid leave rather than have my child catch an illness, employers have to accept that people with young children will need flexibility, I wouldn't sent my child to a CM with a contagious child just to keep work happy...

I don't disagree with you Ethel. Just struggling being a return to work Mum with narrowing deadlines and pressures. Not sure how flexible work has to be... So far this year it's been one baby after another...

Eletheomel - predictive!

How many babies have you had chicken :-)
(I quite like ethel...)

The bottom line is if childcare falls through or your child is ill, someone needs to look after them, so if an employer hires someone of childrearing age, and they go and have kids, they have to expect those kind of phone calls (I'm not saying they have to like it, but they have to know that sudden days off is all part and parcel of having employees with young kids)

In terms of business continuity, your work should (ideally - not always possible in a teeny/specialised workplace) have other people who can cover at least some of your job if you're not there, otherwise if you end up off for 2 weeks as your kid's got chickenpox, what happens? It's not your responsibility to fix weakness, it's theirs.

Ethel (!)

Irony is that they are a fairly large employer, I have been fighting for support for years, but alas...

I agree wholeheartedly, my sense of perspective has gone since having babies ( but that's a whole other thread) .

Btw, just had the 2 and have 3 in total in the house. Just mean that illness has gone to and fro!

Share the sickness leave with your DP?

Ach, some places don't see the problem until it hits them in the face (e.g. you can't come into work for a fortnight and no, you can't work from home, a deadline is in two days - what do they do? Doh - maybe they need to build in some back ups for staff???) Fire fighting rather than proactive planning is often the norm.

I do find that since having children I'm far less worried about workplace nonsense (speaking as someone who's still on mattie leave with Number 2, and is currently looking for lottery wins to stop me going back...

All true.

I'd be less worried about workplace shenanigans if I could easily find another job paying the same easily.. Not working would cause us real scary issues.

Ken - we do share. Unfortunately we've had to have time off due to other matters too, so is tricky.