Do DCKs Still Come When You Are Sick?

[Crazy Baby]

I have been super sick for a few days now. If I feel that I can still function, I will give the option for the parents to still bring the kids as long as they know that I am ill (or same if my own child is ill). Most of the time they bring the kids in anyway.

What is your policy? Do parents bring the kids in even if you or your child is ill?

[Pestle]

No, I don't take kids when I'm sick with something communicable/something that I'd exclude a child for. It'd be harder to enforce my illness policy without bad feelings from the parents, and I'd also be exposing all of the kids and starting a chain of illnesses I might be dealing with for weeks.

That said, I'm rarely sick, and when I am it's a doozy, so I need the time to lie in bed anyway. (I get bacterial sinus infections regularly, but there's no help for that, so I just work through it.)

If my spouse or kid is sick, they stay holed up in their bedrooms and I give the families a heads up. If they ever came down with something serious, though, like pneumonia or pertussis, I'd definitely close until I was confident they weren't contagious.

[daycare]

In my case, I actually have never had to close for being sick, but I also do have back up if I did.

I have had to miss work for having 3 different surgeries over the last 16 years.

Other than that, I hardly ever get sick and again if I did, I would have a sub.

[Blackcat31]

I have been super sick for a few days now. If I feel that I can still function, I will give the option for the parents to still bring the kids as long as they know that I am ill (or same if my own child is ill). Most of the time they bring the kids in anyway.

What is your policy? Do parents bring the kids in even if you or your child is ill?

Do you require those parents that opt to stay home to still pay?

What about when you are open as normal but the child is out sick? Do they still pay?

[AmyKidsCo]

My youngest kiddos are 12 & 10 so they stay upstairs in their rooms if they're sick and I stay open.

I only close if I'm puking. Except recently when I felt nauseated but figured it would get better, except I puked right before nap and figured it wasn't worth it to send the DCK home then, then again after nap when it definitely wasn't worth it to send them home early. Next time I feel that nauseated in the morning I'll just close.

[Crazy Baby]

Do you require those parents that opt to stay home to still pay?

What about when you are open as normal but the child is out sick? Do they still pay?

If I am sick and they stay away, they don't pay. If they are sick and stay home, they do still pay.

[Blackcat31]

If I am sick and they stay away, they don't pay. If they are sick and stay home, they do still pay.

I was just curious because I can see a family bringing their child when you are sick but then when their child gets the same illness and they have to then stay home, them having a fit that they have to pay...kwim?

I don't know... I guess I follow my own illness policy and would close or get a sub if I were sick just because it seems no matter what you do, the parent will be upset.

[hwichlaz]

I close if I vomit more than once. I had gastric bypass years ago and sometimes I'll vomit when I'm not ill. If I have a fever or breathing is hard, I'll also close. Otherwise, I just take some medicine and **** it up. Not one single time have I been ill with something I didn't catch from the kids so at that point...everyone's been exposed.

[Ariana]

I close for my own fever, migraine or vomitting. I work through everything else. I give myself 5 sick days paid a year. If I need more than 5 they are unpaid. My new DCK's are constantly sick. I have already used 2 days and its only July!

When my own kids are sick I used to give parents a heads up and let them decide to send or not. Of course not one parent in 9 years has kept their kid home so I stopped telling them when my kid is sick. Didn't matter if it was pink eye they still sent their kids!

[Pestle]

Has anybody here had a spouse take a sick day to watch their kid while the day care was open? I want to keep that option in my back pocket.

[Ariana]

Has anybody here had a spouse take a sick day to watch their kid while the day care was open? I want to keep that option in my back pocket.

Yes I have done this many times. My DH can work from home so most often he does that while watching the sick kid. His job is very flexible so it is great!

[bklsmum]

I closed once for strep because I was diagnosed on a Sunday night and wasn't on the antibiotics long enough. If I just have a cold I stay open because I have exposed them all before I even knew I was sick.

[TheMisplacedMidwestMom]

I was just curious because I can see a family bringing their child when you are sick but then when their child gets the same illness and they have to then stay home, them having a fit that they have to pay...kwim?

I don't know... I guess I follow my own illness policy and would close or get a sub if I were sick just because it seems no matter what you do, the parent will be upset.

I follow this basic concept (give a choice to attend if myself or kids may have something, they don't pay if they choose to stay away during that time, but do pay if they are home sick later). And I don't feel bad, as they made the choice to gamble catching the illness when they could've stayed away and not paid.

[e.j.]

I don't close often; I have to be really sick to even consider it. Once I've made the decision to close, I don't give families a choice. I just let them know I'm closed. I don't charge parents when I make the decision to close.

When my kids were younger, I would give parents the choice to bring their own kids if mine were sick. I rarely, if ever, had a parent choose to keep their child at home. Based on that, I probably would never offer them the choice if I felt sick enough to want them to keep their kids home.

Pestle, I've never asked my husband to take a day off from his job to help me with the day care kids. He's taken a day off to bring me to the doctor when I couldn't drive myself but I don't think he'd last an hour with the kids. I'm a little jealous of providers who either work with their husbands or who can ask their husbands to cover for them when they're sick.