Do You Close If Your Own Kids Are Sick?

[My4SunshineGirlsNY]

Just wondering if you close, or are required to close, if your own children are sick?

My poor girl is sick today with a stomch bug but thankfully all I have is my 20 month old nephew during the day and he is really good. I told my sister in law before she brought him and told her I hope he won't get it, but she just said "it's ok, kids get sick"

I had one other time she was sick last summer and I should have closed because I had a houseful of school age kids...they were old enough to take care of themselves but the house was WAY too loud (even though I told them to be quiet, that's a sour story because the kids that were not listening are gone now) so I know not to do that again with a full house.

So what is your policy for your own kids being sick? Do you charge, or not charge if your own child is sick? I wouldn't charge but having a hard time financially right now so finding it hard to call off.

[originalkat]

If my kids are sick with a fever or stomach bug, I call the parents before hand (if I already knew) and give them the option the bring them. They have to pay because I am not closing. But, I do keep my child away from the others and have a gated daycare area so it is easier to exclude my sick child than if the daycare used the whole house.
I have never had a parent not bring their kid when mine was sick. However, I also have 5 personal /sick paid days off a year so I would use one of those if necessary.
It is kind of hard to care for a sick child and the daycare kids so it ends up being a "free day" mostly just playing and not our normal preschool schedule.

[momofboys]

Just wondering if you close, or are required to close, if your own children are sick?

My poor girl is sick today with a stomch bug but thankfully all I have is my 20 month old nephew during the day and he is really good. I told my sister in law before she brought him and told her I hope he won't get it, but she just said "it's ok, kids get sick"

I had one other time she was sick last summer and I should have closed because I had a houseful of school age kids...they were old enough to take care of themselves but the house was WAY too loud (even though I told them to be quiet, that's a sour story because the kids that were not listening are gone now) so I know not to do that again with a full house.

So what is your policy for your own kids being sick? Do you charge, or not charge if your own child is sick? I wouldn't charge but having a hard time financially right now so finding it hard to call off.

I give parents the option depending on what our family illness is. If they choose not to bring their child I will give them a credit for the next week of care for the day they do not come. It's not their fault if we are ill. That being said when my school age kids have been ill (they are 6 & 8) they can stay in their room & rest with little disturbance from the daycare kids. In most cases our daycare kids have still come excpet when we all (daycare kids & my family ) suffered some major colds/fevers. Then everyone stayed home. I did close two days a few weeks ago as my school age son had lice. I had tons of cleaning/laundry to do & nit picking so I did not want any of the daycare kids to get it.

[Persephone]

I would say if your closing then you shouldn't make them pay since your the one to close. If they choose not to come then they can pay.

If your child is really sick, high fever, vomiting stuff like that I think you should close if your going to have to deal with your child too much to deal with the children your watching. If they are older and can basically care for themselves with little help from you that's different.

If my son was sick at this age (3) I'd have to close since we have a small house and there would be no way to keep him away from the other children.

[gbcc]

I give my parents the option to come or keep their child home. Since I did not close, they are still required to pay me for the day. My son became ill once and was admitted to the hospital. I intended to close but a parents was worried about my loss of income and watched the children for the day for me. She of course called and gave them the option to use her. Most parents used her and the ones that didn't thankfully still paid me.

[Persephone]

I give my parents the option to come or keep their child home. Since I did not close, they are still required to pay me for the day. My son became ill once and was admitted to the hospital. I intended to close but a parents was worried about my loss of income and watched the children for the day for me. She of course called and gave them the option to use her. Most parents used her and the ones that didn't thankfully still paid me.

That was very nice of her. I hope you give her a few free days! LOL

[tymaboy]

Usually I let them know & stay open except for the time he got the flu this last fall then I closed for 3 days.

[originalkat]

Wow that was very kind of her to offer that. None of my parents would ever think of that. LOL!

[safechner]

I almost never close if my child is sick. Both of my daughters are very rarely get sick. A year ago, my 7 year old daughter (she was 6 years old at that time) hits high fever and I gave her a medicine to keep the fever down. She stayed in her room the whole time and she never complained about it. She can take of it herself but I do check on her every 30 mins to make sure if she needs anything. She slept the whole time but I have woken her up to eat soup or drink and she refused. She is not getting better so I decided to take her to a doctor. It is a good thing I have a back up provider who can take my place while I take her doctor. I found out she had strep (that makes sense since she refused to eat or drink anything). It was her first time to have that. Of course, my daycare parents know about that but they dont mind at all as long as my daughter stays in her room. No one gets sick at all. My daycare children never get sick in my home but they usually get sick on the weekends at their house. I dont know why. I also havent been sick for almost five years.

It is up to you if you want to close or not.

[laundryduchess@yahoo.com]

I dont close, I leave my kids in their room. lysol like crazy and go on with my day. Since the daycare doesnt use those rooms I dont see an issue.

[mamajennleigh]

I always give the option

The only time I tell parents not to bring their children is if my little one is throwing up or has something that is very contagious/dangerous. They all recently had a bad cold, so when my little one was running 102 temp, I called and gave the moms notice and told them it was up to their own judgement if they wanted to expose their kids to it (all of the d/c babies were getting better by the time my little one got it of course ).

One mom kept pressing me to take my little man to the doc, but I saw no reason whatsoever to take him. He did not have a dangerously high fever, he was still eating and drinking (although he was throwing up 1 or 2 times a day from coughing), and he showed me no signs of being in danger. He was just sick with whatever nonsense was going around at the time. She wanted me to take him to the doc so she would "know what he had" so she could decide if she wanted to bring her daughter or not. I explained that with a 102 temp and vomiting/diarreah, plus a green runny nose and terrible cough, it was almost certainly contagious no matter what the name of it was ! We did end up taking him to the doc when we thought he had an ear infection, but that was only after he had been sick for over a week. Nope, just a bad cold.

I always give my parents the option when my kid is sick, like I said, unless he has symptoms that require me to be with him constantly. In that case, I call them and let them know he is too sick to be around anyone.

Like the others above, my older boys (17,13,12) all just stay in their rooms upstairs and aren't around the d/c babies at all when they are sick.

[AnythingsPossible]

I too give parents the option of rather to come or not if my children are home sick. They all have rooms upstairs and daycare doesn't use that space, so they aren't around them anyway. I do not charge if they do not come.

[My4SunshineGirlsNY]

I ended up getting the puke bug too today. Hit me at noon. Thankfully I only had one daycare child (my little nephew) here and my sick 4 year old daughter.

My mother is my substitute and lives next door to me so it was so nice of her to come over and take care of me and the 2 kids. I don't know what I would do without her!!

No way would I have been able to run a full daycare today...I couldn't even move out of bed without throwing up. Yuck!!

I text my school age kid's parents and they all arranged to pick them up at bus time. Thankfully it all worked out today.

[Carole's Daycare]

I have only taken 2 days off besides my Holidays in 8 years. One of those days I was in the Hospital w/ pneumonia. I actually tried to close on a Monday a few weeks ago after my kids had a stomach bug, as I had been cleaning, washing pukey bedding etc and knew/could feel that I was next. Two of my moms showed up anyway- basically saying they couldnt afford to miss etc. I greeted them with my puke bowl in pJ pants- and they acted like nothing was amiss. It's as if they didn't really think I was sick. Of course Tuesday one threw up at the lunch table and mom had to pick up- the week continued w/ the kids , like dominoes getting the bug. The mom who insisted on bringing kids actally griped about having to clean where her daughter puked on her carpet etc- as if I was to blame. From now on, I'm CLOSED and locking the door, not answering if we are really sick. Colds etc I can keep my kids in their rooms, and warn the families- but I changed my contract to say I charge now when I'm closed for illness since so many families have abused the policy and brought sick children, to discourage families from doing that.

[Persephone]

I have only taken 2 days off besides my Holidays in 8 years. One of those days I was in the Hospital w/ pneumonia. I actually tried to close on a Monday a few weeks ago after my kids had a stomach bug, as I had been cleaning, washing pukey bedding etc and knew/could feel that I was next. Two of my moms showed up anyway- basically saying they couldnt afford to miss etc. I greeted them with my puke bowl in pJ pants- and they acted like nothing was amiss. It's as if they didn't really think I was sick. Of course Tuesday one threw up at the lunch table and mom had to pick up- the week continued w/ the kids , like dominoes getting the bug. The mom who insisted on bringing kids actally griped about having to clean where her daughter puked on her carpet etc- as if I was to blame. From now on, I'm CLOSED and locking the door, not answering if we are really sick. Colds etc I can keep my kids in their rooms, and warn the families- but I changed my contract to say I charge now when I'm closed for illness since so many families have abused the policy and brought sick children, to discourage families from doing that.

I can't believe that they showed up after you told them you were closing!