How do you cope with the 48 hour rule?

[MrsBojingles]

I've not long returned back to work after maternity leave, and DD has had 3 bouts of illness that have meant she can't go in to nursery.

I don't have family nearby, and DH has used most his holidays allowance already, so I'm having to use my holiday to stay at home and look after her.

How do you cope long term with this? I'm worried all my holiday is going to vanish on looking after a recovering toddler :(

You are allowed to take parental leave, which is unpaid, but the minimum is in blocks of 1 week, so not sure that would help. Check out acas or direct gov for details.

Alternatively your absence would be classed as sickness as you are absent from work. That would save your holidays but it'd go against your sick record.

If your child is ill then your employer has to be reasonable and tolerate it to a certain level.

You could book a temp day nanny, they will usually look after a child who is well in themselves, but just not allowed in contact at nursery/ school.

Have you considered a full time nanny or nanny share? A nanny share can be the same cost wise as a nursery, yet a nanny will look after a child when they are ill also ( I mean sickness/ tonsillitis etc, not major major illness).

I had to use up annual leave or ask for parental leave. It's just how it goes.
You'll find people ignore the rules. You'll find people sending in sick children ( I lost count of how many times a child said that they had been sick at home but their parents sent then into school/nursery).
One year I didn't have a holiday because all my a/l was used up and we couldn't afford unpaid leave. (Those days appear to be over for awhile now for us, but I appreciate it's still hard for a lot of people).

The first few months after they start at nursery were illness laden for us to. Short notice holiday for both of us, depending on whose day was easier to rearrange.
I was also allowed to do some with ng from home. So say I was off 3 days with I'll child, but could do 8 hrs work when child was sleeping, I was allowed to claim 2 days holiday. This is all obviously dependant on what type of work you do.
Please don't claim your sick to look after a sick child. That was disciplinary offence for us - classed as pulling a sicky when not ill.
Temp nannies are the other way I've heard it done.

The first few months can be very hard, but we found the illnesses dropped off quite quickly. So while you might end up using your holiday for illnesses in the first year, which does suck, it does get better as they get used to childcare.

I'll be honest, in the past I have had a sick day myself to look after DD but I felt terrible about it afterwards and have never done it since. Too much worry if you get caught out.

We had the option at work to chose whether our day off was holiday or just unpaid leave - is that an option for you?

Also if we knew DD would be off for a few days, we'd see if a grandparent could come and stay for the night to help out.

Willow, as the OP isn't ill, suggesting that she call in sick is really not a good idea. Lying to her employer isn't going to help her situation.

OP it does get easier as their immune systems start to come across bugs they've already had and they get less ill over time. We had the same issues with no family. Make sure you and your DH keep your hands clean - sounds odd but our biggest problem was me looking after DC for a few days when he had a bug, but then not being able to go back to work because by the time DH was due to take over he'd caught the bloody bug from the toddler so you'd have a toddler doing the 48-hour wait to go back to nursery, and the adult supposed to be caring for him chucking up.

I got the colds, DH got the stomach bugs, every time.

You just have to ride it out. My daughter was constantly poorly for the first 11 months of nursery I was off work a lot didn't have a choice. I did keep to the 48 hour rule. But after that time she's been really good.

The early years do mean some juggling but it gets lots better. For the 48 hr rule we did a day each unless either of us had something on we couldn't miss.

We'd both been with our employers for a long time pre children so had established a good relationship so mostly worked from home and used the odd days holiday if that wasn't possible.