DCP Took Her 3 Sick Kids To Work

[Lilbutterflie]

Ok, so the week prior to Christmas; I sent 2 dck's (brother/sister pair) home for high fevers and told DCM that they could not come back until they were fever free for 24 hours. I told DCM that I was almost sure it was the flu, as they were exhibiting the symptoms & my kids had the flu the week the before.

The kids told me yesterday that when they were sick, their mom took them all to work with her. By this time, all 3 of her kids had the flu (she told me the 3rd one came down with it the next day, but never did mention she actually took them to work). I know that she was out of personal, sick and vacation time at work. Even still, I personally am just amazed that anyone would think of bringing 3 kids showing signs of flu to work with them! Here's the kicker... she works at a medical clinic! I cringe to think about how many people were exposed to the flu during this day the kids were at work with her. It makes me feel a little guilty for not taking them, but then I feel angry for letting myself feel this way b/c this was her poor decision; not mine!

[laundrymom]

That's just a really bad decision on her part. No concern of yours. Lack of prep on her part does not make an emergency on yours. You didn't force her to have the kids, your not responsible for anything but caring for them when they are healthy enough to attend, after you have been paid, during the time periods you agreed to before hand. It is not your problem she has no friends or family to help her out. She chose to have them, she has to figure out how to meet their needs.

[QualiTcare]

on behalf of parents......"you're damned if you do, damned if you don't."

[SandeeAR]

Sure wouldn't want to be a patient at that medical clinic, if the Doctors are so unconcerned that they LET her bring 3 kids with the flu to the clinic. With that sort of judgement, on behalf of the doctors, I wouldn't want them treating me!

[Lilbutterflie]

Sure wouldn't want to be a patient at that medical clinic, if the Doctors are so unconcerned that they LET her bring 3 kids with the flu to the clinic. With that sort of judgement, on behalf of the doctors, I wouldn't want them treating me!

That's kind of what gets me! Why would her boss or the doctors allow her to bring sick children??

[kidkair]

They may have a sick kid ward/room. I worked for doctors as a nanny and they were able to get their kids a sick bed while they worked.

[mickey2]

IMHO Babies and children need to be cared for at home when they are sick!! Period! When my little boy is sick I take the day off and that is it!

[Lilbutterflie]

Kidkair, I did not think about the clinic having a sick child room. That is a good point.

ChildrenFirst, I agree with you 100%. When children are sick they need to be kept away from a daycare environment for health reasons; but just as IMPORTANT is that they stay home with a parent or loved one to care for them and give them one on one care that they need! Would I want to spend the day in a medical clinic while my mom is working while I was running a fever over 102? NOOOOO. I would want to be at home, in bed, being cared for by a loved one.

[boysx5]

I have a mom who does this and she is a PT she has time just doesn't take it and its very sad

[e.j.]

In my opinion, you have nothing to feel guilty about; you set the rules for your day care and she agreed to them when she signed on with you. As a parent, it's up to her to figure out what to do when her kids are too sick to attend day care or school.

Without knowing all of the specifics about her situation, I kind of feel for this mother, though. Before I opened my day care business, I worked outside the home. I saved all of my sick time/vacation time for days when my son was sick or his day care was closed so I could stay home with him when necessary. Sometimes I ran out of paid leave, though, because he was sick often and was born with club feet and had a lot of medical appointments. I didn't have the luxury of having a good back-up babysitter because the friends and family I trusted enough to babysit my son also worked full time so I couldn't depend on them to act as a back-up for me. Because of my own experience, I get why some day care parents may not have back-up for child care.

I assume if she has 3 kids, her own sick time or vacation time probably gets eaten up quickly if she generally takes time off when they need her. If she felt she had a choice between putting her job in jeopardy or bringing the kids to work with her, I can understand why she may have made the decision she did - especially since that option seemed to be available to her. Yeah, the kids probably would have been more comfortable at home but if the clinic has a sick child room or a couple of empty beds where the kids were kept away from the other patients and vice versa, were able to rest comfortably and mom could keep an eye on them, I can see where it might have been the best decision for her situation.

[mduck]

I know I'm not the norm but I actually think it was ok. It is a medical clinic. Don't sick people already go there? If my child has the flu, I take them to a clinic for treatment. Of course maybe it wasn't that type of clinic. Even so, parents do have it hard trying to keep a job AND stay at home with sick kids. I actually went to take my baby for a wellness checkup and while there a nurse mom was taking her sons temp. She then told him to scoot upstairs (patients don't go upstairs - I didn't know there was an upstairs). Apparently that space is for situations like this. I thought it was actually great of the workplace to provide this to their working parents. It made it so that they could be close to their sick child and so that they could continue to work and provided a separate place from the other patients. It wasn't like she was letting him just run around and pick up babies, or play with instruments or anything. He came down for a temp, and went back upstairs I'm sure to lay down. I am a dc provider and do sympathize with parents that need to find alternate care when their child is sick.

I do think you did the right thing in sticking to your policies though. It is not a providers fault that a child gets sick. I realize this is an older post but thought to put in my .02.

[Sugaree]

That's kind of what gets me! Why would her boss or the doctors allow her to bring sick children??

I have brought my son into my office couple of times. It's never for the full day, only when he had to be picked up and even then only if there was something critical that needed to be done before close of business. The first time was at my boss' insistence and the other time was a time when he wasn't really sick when I got there to pick him up (this was an ongoing issue over the summer with his last classroom). I also have a private office where the door can be closed and he was still small enough to wear all day.

But I agree with the previous posters who say it's not your problem. I've never understood why medical personnel get as little sick leave as they do. You'd think that someone who by the very nature of their job is exposed to multiple contagions would have more leeway in taking off.

[Controlled Chaos]

I remember sleeping under my mom's desk as a kid when I was "home sick" from school. She was a professor at a college. She would put a sleeping bag under desk with a bag of books and coloring stuff under there with me eh...She did what she had to do.