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Ugh! I have a sick kiddo today. His fever is about 102.5 and stomach ache. Makes me wonder if he was not feeling well before drop off as by breakfast time he was not feeling well. I called and texted about 45 minutes ago, have heard nothing back. Betting I don't hear anything until much much later. So what do you do? I don't want to deal with someone elses kids puke if I don't have to.
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Honestly, if I couldn't reach the parents right away I'd start calling emergency contacts. My guess is that the parents were totally aware that their child wasn't feeling well and could be avoiding your call.
Maybe they'll get how serious you are about your illness policy if you send the kid home with grandma/aunty/friend. Ugh. Parents. Good luck!!
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Yep....start calling!Comment
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I give parents 30 minutes to respond to a text or message left for them. If I don't hear back within that 30 minutes, I start calling their emergency contacts.Comment
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Agree with previous posters.Comment
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How frustrating for you! I'd definitely call again & again until I get a response. Then call emergency contacts for sure.Comment
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Got someone! He is picked up! I hope he feels better, poor guy! Thanks for all the replies!Comment
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I would start calling the emergency contacts - every single one, if I had to. If I still do not get a response, I would call the parents again, then cycle through the emergency contacts and keep repeating until someone responded. Sound like harassment? Sure. But they would not have a leg to stand on due to the fact that you are caring for their child and the child is SICK. It is an emergency. If I couldn't reach anyone within 1 hour, I would simply tell the parents (when I see them) that this WILL NOT be tolerated again and that they have their notice that you will terminate if it ever happens again and they will owe for 2 weeks of fees.Comment
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Please don't jump all over me as I anticipate you to, but I must know why providers automatically assume the parents knew the child was running a fever before drop off? Adults and children can spike fevers suddenly. That's generally how fevers appear--rapid and sudden. There is no crystal ball letting us know that at 8:45am, a child will have a fever.
Sure, there are parents who abuse the sick policy and drop their child off anyway. But for the folks who chimed in with the agreement or conclusion that the parent did know the child had a fever beforehand....why?? There was no mention from the OP that this is typical of the parent to do. So why jump on the wagon and blast the parent when you do not know. You're assuming and speculating....the very thing each of you hate for us parents to do when we assume our child got an illness while in your care, or assume our child got a scrape or bump while in your care. You do not want a parent doing it to you so why not abide by the same standard?Comment
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I am curious to know why it took them so lonmg to respond to your text & voicemail. What was their excuse?
To Aya477, we all sometimes assume the worst b/c we have all been in that position. Just a few weeks ago a parent dropped off a child & said he had been "teething" & he had had a temp of 99.4 (Still okay with me) but seconds after she left I swiped his forehead & lo & behold it was 100.3!! And she told me she gave Tylenol for his pain. So this was his temp on meds! I guess we have all dealt with some of the worst at times so we tend to think that way. But you are right, not all parents would deliberately bring a sick child to care.Comment
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well last week I had a parent drop off by nap time we she had a fever of 102.9 called and both parents work a hour away so it took them time to get here. The next day she asked if they could come a few hours because she said no fever she was feeling better I should not have let her come but since they were the only family coming that day I did. Well she picked up by three and I said she seemed fine today but 102.9 is kinda high and usually means and infection of some sort. Well she then tells me I think its her wisdom teeth she's two I said thats funny I don't have my wisdom teeth yet. So yes we get all kinds of stories so we always assume the worst because nine out of ten times it isComment
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Aya477; I agree that we should not always assume the worst from the parents. You are right, a child can be perfectly fine one moment, and fever the next. Though about 70% of the time I can tell when my kids or a dck is about to get sick, b/c the day before they will just have an out-of-character BAD day!
But in defense, only one of the providers agreed about the parent knowing the child was sick beforehand. The rest were mainly expressing frustration on not being able to get a hold of the parents; and why they were not answering calls/texts. That's the main complaint, I think anyone can sympathize with that!!Comment
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I am not jumping on your case. I know that can sometimes be inferred in written text, but it not my intention. To answer your question, you are right that we all do assume things from time to time. However, many times, our assumptions are based on our past experiences. Most, if not all, of us have at some point had a parent give a sick kid Tylenol or Motrin, then dump the kid off with us. It does happen a lot. Plus, based on my experience (over 25 years of caring for children), 95% of the time, temperatures spike when the child is sleeping. So I would find it difficult to believe that a child woke up perfectly fine with no sign of illness, then an hour or two later spiked a temperature. It seems HIGHLY suspicious to me, based on all my experience. Now this particular child could be in the 5% that spiked while (s)he was awake, so I could be wrong in my assumption.
I hope that answered your question without offending you or making you feel jumped on.Comment
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Perhaps there weren't several comments specifying the opinion that the parent knew in this particular thread, but in other threads the same logic has been expressed multiple times and I couldn't resist an inquiry.
I do understand that there are those parents that you regularly deal with that cause grief but more often than not, the posts on this site always point negatively to the parents (and sometimes the children). As a parent, it does concern me that a vast majority of providers (as interpreted from the variety of comments made on this site) group all parents into the same wastebasket....a basket for the worthless, irritating, thankless, and dishonest parents that have come across your paths whether occasionally or regularly. It frustrates me that providers hold parents at a higher standard than themselves and that the worse is automatically assumed of the parent.Comment
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