Absence concerns

[MyEdgyZebra]

Currently off work with flu, 7 days a mixture of myself having flu and my two little boys. In October i had 3 weeks off because of a miscarriage. There have also been a couple of other days due to virus/looking after sick children (14 months and 2). I am finding this such a stressful situation and now worried about returning to work and feel like i need to rush back, despite still very much not well enough. Will i get pulled into some absence review meeting? I really am not coping with my current set up, full time teaching, 2 very small children and a partner who is a doctor. Any advice? Thank you 🙏

So sorry you are going through all of this 💐
It depends on the sickness policy at your school but if you are not feeling well enough then please speak to the dr and get signed off for next week. Weirdly at my school I've loads of time off for myself being ill and no one ever said anything but I got in trouble after having 4 days off for child care 🙄 maybe speak to your union rep too for advice?
Hope you all feel better soon.

Yes spoke to Dr and have a note for another 7 days but really reluctant to use this from fear of being pulled into some kind of meeting.
is my time off for the MC counted towards my absence? Thank you

I think everything is included as absence!

Even my 9 month absence from cancer.

Do you think you might need to go part time for your own sanity. Do you have a support network to help you?

I relied heavily on my parents for childcare when my children were ill.

things are incredibly tough, this set up just doesn’t work. No support other than our lovely Nanny. I thought pregnancy related sickness wasn’t counted towards absence?

I had about 6 weeks off for a miscarriage a few years ago (was signed off the whole time) and nothing was ever said. Days off for childcare seem to be the issue at my school!

If you feel like you can, could you email the member of staff in charge of wellbeing / your line manager and explain the situation? They might be able to reassure you a bit?