Let children stay off school when baby born?

[hebri]

Did you let your kids have a day off school once baby was born?

I’m having a baby next Friday. I have an 8 & 5 year old. They will likely have half of Saturday and then Sunday at home with the baby.

I think eldest will want to go to school on the Monday, but 5 year old will definitely want to stay at home with the baby.

Would you let your kids have a day off school to bond and whatnot?

No one said that, don't exaggerate.

But I'm a teacher and yes I have had some pupils who take days off to have lunch for their grandma's birthday and so on. It all adds up to thinking school isn't important.

This baby will (I hope and trust) be here for many many years to come. There is no need to take a random Monday off school to play with it any more than you should take a random Monday off school to have lunch with a relative (who isn't dying).

"Family is more important than school" doesn't mean taking unnecessary days off to spend with family for silly reasons.

No one said taking time off for a newborn sibling was like taking a day off for lunch with nana. Don’t exaggerate.

I was 6 when my younger sister was born. She was born in the evening. Apparently the next morning I got dressed in my own clothes and informed my dad I was coming to the hospital to meet my sister.

Given they will have had Sat/Sun to meet their sibling, I would send them to school on Monday. They will probably have realised newborns don't do that much, so they can't help that much. My DCs found this with their new cousin. After having cuddles they went back to playing with their 2yo cousin instead.

I'm the one saying that. Day 3 in your sibling's life is no particular milestone worthy of a day off, like their wedding might be.

When I had my 3rd child my 2nd child went to nursery while I was still in the hospital but once I was out his nursery teacher give him the rest of the week off to help him get used to the baby and our new routine.
When I had my 4th my 2nd went to school.

No.

Let’s face it, parents (or a parent) who are engaged and invested in their child’s education, who teach them their letters and numbers before they set foot in the classroom, who read to them, who show interest in their development, etc…that is the majority of parents.

The offspring of these parents… it’s irrelevant whether they had a day off when their sibling/s were born, or when they needed a duvet day, or it was nana’s 80th, or they left a day early for holidays. Or all of the above. Their education will be unaffected because they had a solid foundation. There is no slippery slope. There is no reason to ponder “where does it all end?”. It ends where the parent says it ends. Because parents like us are engaged with the development of our kids. Is it worthy of a day off? You might say it isn’t. Does it matter if they have a day off? Nope.

I agree with you to some extent but not entirely.

This is a bit of a tangent and I'm not talking about op any more. I work in a selective independent school and attitude to learning is definitely the difference between the A*s at A level and the Bs. The parents who take their kids out of school for this and that tend to (not always, but tend to) be the same parents who don't back up the teacher when the teacher is giving negative feedback, or queries detentions, etc...basically who feel they prefer to bypass the rules as they don't matter. Those pupils tend to be late a lot too as they skip registration/form period because it is "waste of time". After all, nothing really happens in form period! And those are in nearly all cases, the same kids who underperform. We did some analysis on stats for lateness to form period and it starkly correlates with lower than expected grades.

Nb I'm not saying that op is "that kind of parent". But the hypothesis is that those parents are teaching their children that they can pick and choose which bits of school are important.

Whereas they arr ALL parents who care about education, take their kids to museums etc. The difference is whether or not they undermine the school

And yes, ask any teacher at secondary level - the ones who skip the end of term for holidays are barely ever the top grade students. It really does make a difference.