When your kids are sick

Posted: Sun, Feb 08 2009, 8:28 am Post subject: When your kids are sick

What do you do? I have a home daycare. I watch kids during the week. I just called the moms and told them my dd is sick. I told them they are still welcome to send their dc tomorrow and I will do my best to keep the kids apart. The truth is, usually by the time I would have found my dd sick the day care kids would have been exposed. This time she got sick Motzie Shabbot, so I had a day's notice. But if she would have gotten sick Monday night the other kids would have already been exposed. I don't feel like I need to make up the days since this isn't my fault and parents are still welcome to send their kids. If you run a playgroup (or send to a playgroup) what do you do when your kid(s) aren't well?

If it makes a difference she just has fever and is very sleepy, no stomach problems so I think it's normal virus.

Posted: Sun, Feb 08 2009, 8:35 am Post subject:

The daycare here has a rule (I think set by the Ministry of Health) that a child with a fever over 38C cannot be in daycare. It was a rough week last week.
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Posted: Sun, Feb 08 2009, 8:43 am Post subject: re: When your kids are sick

So I spoke to someone about this matter.
Basically she said- parents who send their kids to home day cares do so with the understanding that if a kid who lives there is sick, they will probably be there, and there's that risk.
Parents can choose to send their kids or not, but thats a risk of a home based day care.
This friend who told me this though said that when her daughter was 5 and had the mumps, she sent her away to grandma for a week, because that is a very contageous not your typical thing that day care kids especially shouldn't be exposed to.
No, you don't need to make up a day. Parents can still send their kid, but can send them elsewhere if they don't feel comfortable.
And try your best to keep them as separate as possible.

Posted: Sun, Feb 08 2009, 8:49 am Post subject:

I think you should make up the day/ refund the money. Because it is the parent's right not to expose their child, and then they have to pay for an alternative arrangement.

I have been on the other side - as a working mother, when a metapelet told me her child was sick. And I had no reason to expose my child. So I had to find another arrangement, which was quite difficult enough. If I'd had to pay because 'I could have sent if I had wanted to' I would have found that to be added chutzpa.
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Posted: Sun, Feb 08 2009, 9:00 am Post subject: re: When your kids are sick

Its different if you pay by the day or by the month. Because policy here is you pay the same for the month no matter how many vacation days there are, etc...
If you'd have to make up a day, when do you "make up this day"?
At least here, people who pay by the month are paying so little as it is, that it won't break their bank to even pay another babysitter to watch their kid for a day.
Generally by the time you know your kid is sick, the other kids have already been exposed.
And often, parents send their kids to gan/daycare with the same exact thing your child has.

If its something more major, like chicken pox, as opposed to strep, I'd try to find other arrangements for my kids so as to not expose the kids unnecessarily to something "bigger".

Posted: Sun, Feb 08 2009, 9:26 am Post subject:

You send to gan knowing when/ how many vacation days there are (and if you are a teacher/ ganenet they are your vacation days too).

Paying little is not an excuse - that's your decision whether to work for little or not, and if a parent has paid they expect to get what they've paid for. I don't understand why you think it's okay not to provide the service you agreed upon (it's irrelevant that it's not your fault) and still expect parents to pay. I would seriously ask a rav if this comes up practically.

I don't know what parents send to day care with, but that is also your responsibility, as a ganenet, not to allow a child into gan with anything much more than a cold.

Posted: Sun, Feb 08 2009, 9:28 am Post subject: re: When your kids are sick

Parents know that if my son is sick, he is still here. Parents knew that at the beggining of the year, and that is part of why they know they can pay so little for gan. It hasnt come up as an issue, because whenever he was sick (nothing major ever), everyone came regardless.

Diamond Member Joined: Jan 19 2005 Posts: 2560

seraph me too. everyone showed up. and my kid is sick maybe 3 times a year. today is the "3rd " time since she is born. she is a wise cookie... she got sick the night I closed my day care for peasach. I can almost cry.... I need to do one million things and all I am doing is holding and rocking her..... and sit bye the doc. and tomoreow is gonna be tough I have to go back to the doc.and I have 6 kids home.