Ds's teacher has returned to work after mat leave and her baby has just started nursery full-time ...

[bibbitybobbityhat]

I wonder how many days she will need to have off to look after her poorly baby.

Ill-health or family concerns can strike any working adult at any time.
But then you're a SAHM, bibbity, so what do you care.

How do you know I sahm and what has that got to do with it clam?

Ok - if you were really asking a STRAIGHT QUESTION, my guess is 5. That ok? What was the point of this?

oh come on, you are a MN regular. You either posted without thinking or you were trying to start an argument bibbity

Of course you weren't asking a straight question. You were shit-stirring.

Oh ffs. It's an absurd question - nobody can answer it and even if we could that still wouldn't make it ok to ask!

Can you genuinely not see that it is offensive to imply that maternity renders a woman unable to carry out her job?

"How do you know I sahm and what has that got to do with it clam?"

Because no WOTH mother would start a thread like this. Was I correct, then?

Dear Funnys: I am indeed a Mumsnet regular and have been for 5+ years and have never in my life posted to try to start an argument. If you are so inclined you can look through many 100s of posts by me and see that I am not in the business of starting arguments. I have had this name for at least 2 years.

Anyway, that's all from me.

Your profile states you are a sahm op.

OK, so the question asked by the OP was rather odd in my view .... but for goodness sake everyone calm down. All this abuse is not in the spirit of MN.

By the way, my DS was in nursery FT, 3 days illness in his first year, shared between my DH and I.

Shel - point me to the bit in the 'spirit of MN' where it says it's fine to attack the working mothers of young children would you?

"Everyone calm down" includes the OP

think this is an ill thought out op tbh.

How about the teacher being off sick because parents have sent in their DC to school sick because of child cares issues (as another poster said)

Inc only men and childless women should be teachers in the strange world of bbh.

Is her baby poorly? My DS was in full time nursery, they get a lot of colds there but he never had any proper illness, maybe a day off once a year because of their rules about fevers. So, I guess a lot depends on the health and immunity of the baby in question. Unfortunately once he started school we had to use a useless childminder whose children were regularly sick so she would drop me in it, oh how I missed nursery then.

Hope your DS doesn't end off sick when teacher is in!

Totally forgot to ask my DS's teacher about his family and home life, can I assume that as he is a male he won't need time off to care for anyone? Ahh, that's why male teachers are so highly prized!

"I was asking a STRAIGHT QUESTION" oh well in that case

doesn't it depend on how often her baby is sick and what kind of support she has at home - you are obviously assuming she has no DH and no otehr family.

Oh no, hang on I already said that.

I was a full time working single mother and took about 25 days off sick in 5 years.

3days because he was sick and about 22 because I was (admittedly it has been an unlucky few years for my health!).

I don't see the point in speculating, its bizarre.

DS's teacher had the decency to have her baby oin August. It should be written into their contracts.

I used to regularly commiserate with a teaching colleague who sent her baby to nursery whilst mine was with a CM.

CM took the cheerfully pragmatic view that once my ds was exhibiting symptoms of whatever lurgy, hey ho, she & her dc were already incubating it so sod it; whereas colleague's nursery were forever ringing her to collect her ds because he'd sneezed.

Then our CM was on ML & we had a useless temp who was forever cancelling because she'd sneezed.

You really can't generalise. As long as teaching is dominated by women of child-bearing age, yup, there'll be some absence for child illnesses.

Although - my dh picks up most of the kiddy lurgy detail. Because he is not a teacher, he actually has some flexibility in his working hours...

Ok, so I have been thinking about this. I think, that the reason why people are offended is because these kind of 'straight' questions are the ones that get used as a defence for not hiring women of child bearing age. The consideration of days sick do stop employing women. Your question, whether intentionally or not, reflects that attitude. So your straight question, think aloud is nothing of the sort for many women. Never mind those of us who struggle into our teaching jobs daily, feeling lousy and I'll at times, but not wanting to let the kids we teach down.

The question is sexist, offensive and misogynistic. It would probably be illegal to ask it in a job interview due to sex discrimination.

But going by my experience of ds teacher last year, who had a 2yr old in nursery, it would be about 1 or 2. She was hardy ever off. HTH.

It does piss me off.

I text HOD at midnight to inform her that all 3dc are giving it some beans in the Competitive Projectile Puking Family Challenge, & I'm on my 2nd full bedlinen change of the night. Also, I am starting to feel...unusual...myself.

I get a text back at 8am to let me know that the work I set at 2am is on the wrong pro forma....please don't let that happen again.

Honestly, we aren't off for the fun of it.

Exactly raven - staying off with an ill child is not something any working parent takes lightly. I would imagine many of the people who have posted on this thread have had to wrestle with the responsibility to their job and deciding just exactly how ill their child is.

The thought that there are parents out there speculating about it really hit a nerve with me.

But the OP did put a on some of her posts.
So that's OK then. We're over-reacting.