Picking up sick kids at school
One of the hazards of being a working parent is the moment you get “the call” from daycare or school, “Your child has a fever (insert other contagious illness, here), come get them.”
All at once, you feel deflated because that parking lot dose of ibuprofen didn’t hold (kidding. mostly.) and you worry that something might be really wrong.
At that precise moment, the magic “hour” stopwatch starts ticking and you race to get there before…well…before, I’m not sure, but I’ve never wanted to find out.
Tekla, at Silicon Valley Moms Blog, had that experience recently and the school couldn’t reach her or her husband and the office got upset:
I called the school when I got the message and rushed right over. She was feeling a queasy and looked a little feverish, though when I took her temperature it was normal. She’d been lying down on a cot in the health office. She wasn’t bleeding or throwing up.
The school nurse glared at me. “Where have you been? We’ve been trying to reach you for an hour and a half! Why weren’t you answering your cell phone!”
While I’m sure there is the occasional parent out there who resists picking up a sick child, I think most parents respond promptly and appropriately as soon as they receive the message since it’s not good to leave a sick child to expose other people.
It’s vital to leave a good contact number with the school or the caregiver, but, schools need to remember parents who are at work may not always be immediately reachable, but they can respond in a reasonable amount of time.
What about you? Have you ever surpassed the magic hour of picking up a sick child from school? Did you live to tell about it? Do you find that parents are expected to be “on call” and immediately available?
Tags: picking up sick kids from school, Silicon-Valley-Moms-Blog, TeklaRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Kids' School, Sick Kids
4 opinions for Picking up sick kids at school
Eight
May 14, 2008 at 3:42 pm
As nice as it is to have mom or dad pick you up and take you home, it is nice to have an alternate emergency contact who is usually home during the day. I remember being picked up by the SAHM neighbour when the school couldn’t find my parents, and it was such a big relief to just be going ‘home’ - even if it wasn’t my own home.
dh
May 14, 2008 at 4:56 pm
I once had to pick up my daughter from daycare right away because they insisted she had impetigo. When I looked at her, I said that it looked like she found poison ivy and was having an allergic reaction. She swelled up like a balloon and broke out all over when she was having a reaction to poison ivy. They told me that she couldn’t come back until it was cleared up and had a doctor’s note telling them she was clear. I took her to the doctor, and paid the copay and they told me she was having an allergic reaction and to give her benedryl. I still had to bring the note in and miss a half day of work. They did apologize to me at the day care though.
Our regular school was pretty good about keeping calm though. My daughter who was also prone to car sickness threw up all over herself and another girl on picture day. UGH!. They weren’t able to get a hold of me, so they found some clothes left behind in their cabinets and put them on my daughter, saw that she was fine, and she had her picture taken. I felt worse for the other girl. My daugher stayed the rest of the day without any problems and they didn’t need me to come get her either. We’ve been lucky to have a small town school like that.
JayMonster
May 14, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Like dh, our worst scenarios came with the Pre-K programs… I would love to have had a whole hour then. I got a FRANTIC call from them once, because they were unable to reach my wife… for 15 minutes! You would have thought my daughter was going to die if I didn’t get there in the next 10-15 minutes. For the record… she had a tummy ache.
Ashley S.
May 15, 2008 at 7:11 am
This was my first year at work and my oldest started K4. We ran into this A LOT! I’ve been frantically called throughout the winter months because of simple runny noses.. Now, when I was a child, my nose began to run in about October and continued to do so non-stop until about May.. The actual cold (w/ the fever and the coughing) would take hold a couples of times throughout the winter. My boys are exactly the same way. Although I agree that schools and daycares should have policies concerning ‘contagious’ illnesses - I do not believe a runny nose (no matter what color it is) is an emergency. Had it been a absence-excusing emergency in my day - I would never have graduated elementary school.
My PTO time is all but gone. I have another question - why don’t employers let employees take their own sick days, if they choose, when children are sick instead of pto?
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