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Hire a nanny. Hope that nanny is willing to also do sick care. Many will not. Have a family member or friend watch your sick child. Care.com has sick babysitters. There are options out there. You chose to hire a daycare provider that requires sick children to be kept at home for the safety of the group. You chose group care verses a nanny. You chose the job that requires a doctors note. None of that is your daycare providers choice. She chose to run a business with rules that you agreed to and no longer like.
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I am not aware of anyone's policies who are that strict. I am the OP on this thread. I administer meds to kids; I have no problem with it. I am very sympathetic to parents and missing work.
I am not sympathetic to dose and drop.
But keeping into consideration your sick days and lack of backup care, you are probably a lot better fit for a daycare center.Comment
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My handbook/contract CLEARLY states that I do NOT accept notes from a Dr clearing a child to be re-admitted to care.
The Dr is not the one caring for the child, I am so it is MY call to make. Also, I am curious as to what type of cough a child can have that is not contagious?
IME, coughs are caused by viruses and as long as the child is coughing, he IS contagious.
Also, I have pretty strict medication policies and I don't normally allow children needing medication to make it through the day to be in care. Too much liability.
In your case, you said a prescription cough medicine...which means the child's cough was severe enough that medication was warranted to help eliminate the cough. If the cough was severe enough to be disruptive to the other kids, I would exclude for that as well.
I understand that you have limited PTO days, some which are even paid....which is a lot more than most providers get. If we get sick and close, we put out more than just one family so my point was YOUR needs/situation do NOT over ride the needs of the group as a whole.
If you could not arrange for a back up provider for the times in which your child is excluded, then you need to be finding a daycare provider that is willing to work with you instead of trying to convince me that YOUR situation is MY problem.
I don't mean to sound snarky or rude to you... I am just making a point that we all have responsibilities and sometimes they are hard to manage but you do what your have to do when you are a parent. This too will pass and your child wont be little forever.
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LOL. You actually think that a job that only allows for 6 sick days a year actually pays enough to hire a nanny? In what world are you living?
And for the record, I was actually commenting on the attitudes here, not my own care situation. As long as the kid is cleared to return then he can come back. I'll let her know that he's on X, Y, or Z meds, but unless he's going to spread his germs then he gets to stay.Comment
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Ouch. While there are a few things I dislike about my center, at least they are associated with my job and tend to understand our mission requirements. I get mad about being called for stupid stuff (although that has ceased since he moved into a new class), but also can't imagine having that little time off. That is rediculous.Comment
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I have a dcm that when considering to have a 3rd child or not, took into consideration how many sick days both her and her husband had per year. She figured adding another child would also add more sick days they would have to take. Parents who have 5 or 6 children would be sending their sick children to care all the time under your logic. They would have one sick day per kid so it must be the providers responsibility to take them and care for them when sick.Comment
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Bottom line, if a potential daycare provider's sick policy doesn't work for you, don't enroll there. Definitely don't enroll there, then try to sneak a sick/medicated child into daycare, when it's clearly against policy.Comment
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Yes, I agree the job that Parent has sounds unfriendly to families and has harsh PTO policies overall. And it's likely that Parent's daycare provider may be more strict than normal regarding the illness policy (if it's true the child is excluded for a mild, non contagious cough and is otherwise healthy).
I'd recommend finding a new job, a more flexible daycare arrangement (center, maybe) or both.
It is very hard because parents always say they can't take more time off. They always worry about illnesses. I've been open a year and have had in my daycare 6 puking incidents, about the same incidents with diarrhea, Hand Foot and Mouth, and five solid months of permanent runny noses--and that's with a strict illness policy that I follow with zero exceptions. I can't imagine how sick everyone would have gotten if I was lax on my illness policy. I'm also proud to say I have never closed for illness because I simply haven't gotten ill. If I had, the parents would be in for a worse situation than just keeping their kid home in the first place...Comment
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I'm not even sure why there is a debate here. Bottom line, the client did something against policy (two days in a row) and was fired. The end.
People can think it's unfair (and again this seems odd given the fact the person who seems to have the most issue with it doesn't seem to have issues with her child care arrangement) or whatever they like. But at the end of the day, being the boss of your own business means you get to make policies as you see fit. And parents can like it or lump it, really.
One of the reasons I started my child care was because my job was not family friendly.Comment
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Your employer may require a doc note for "clearance" but most providers don't ask for nor accept a Doc opinion on readmission into care. We only want the diagnosis, whether or not the doc feels the child is contagious, and the treatment given to the child.
We don't care if your doc believes the child can return. You should let your boss know that the Doc doesn't make the decision. The daycare does.
Now if your daycare allows your doc to make the decision then it's all good.
I agree if a child isn't contagious, is on medication that doesn't affect his ability to participate and doesn't require ANY additional care, then the provider should allow readmittance.
Side note, we don't care about how many paid days off you have or if your kids illness will affect your job. We can't. We do what is best for the group, ourselves, and our kids TODAY. If you have a kid and can't take time off when he is sick, you have a problem. YOU have a problem. If you need ill kid care, it has NOTHING to do with well child care. You may want to look for a daycare that DOES ill child care. It's going to be a tough thing to find. The liability is more than your kids tuition.Comment
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Why would they pay your bills if you lost your job for not having adequate back-up? That is your responsibility as a parent. And you’re not going to pay all my bills if I lose my other clients due to you dropping off your sick kid. Why should you? I have a policy in place and should enforce it. It’s my goal to keep my responsible clients and weed out the irresponsible ones quickly.Comment
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Here's the thing. In my own daycare experience I've never had a child prescribed cough medicine. If so it must be a dousy of a cough and not something I would want in my home... a cough SO BAD that the child needs a prescription cough syrup to control it.
Cold and cough medicines OTC are not supposed to be given to kids under 4. ALL my daycare kids are 3 or under, so no, I would not want a child here who is needing cough meds since it is highly discouraged by the CDC.
Don't forget, most of us LIVE in our daycare homes. My illness rules are to protect the rest of the group, but also to protect my family of 5 who live here and are then breathing in everything your child coughed out! Yes we choose to have daycare in our homes and it comes with drawbacks, but I will not risk my family's health because a daycare family did not follow policy and have a backup that can watch the child when sick.
You keep saying that you can not take that many days off...no one is saying a parent has to take the time off...we are saying you need a backup person who will take care of your sick child when you can not take the time off. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, neighbors...
If a family is not able to have a backup person, I will not enroll them. Even at a center you are required to have a backupComment
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I've actually had a few DCFs interview BECAUSE they were tired of their big centers being closed often with no notice for clean-ups following lice, pink eye, HFM disease, and flu outbreaks. Apparently, it happens a few times a year. Parents can't have both. Many like to come to home daycares because it's cheaper than centers BUT if you want to be guaranteed against emergency last-minute closures that's the price! I have only had to close 2 times with one-days notice, but it could happen at any time. If you know that's something you can't afford to risk, you need to look for other options.
I wish I could close the next day to clean without the worry of facing angry dcfs. Instead, I have to throw away my whole evening to wipe down toys and shampoo the carpet before bed, sometimes to do it all again the next day.
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