Dear Parents, Keep your sick kids home!

I have had something weighing heavy on my mind in the last few months. Kids get sick, and its totally normal… especially kids in daycare. Living in Maine and winters are brutal which usually means many colds that may turn to ear infections. I am okay with that. You know what I am not okay with though? Parents that sent their kids to daycare knowing that their child is sick.

I know that there are germs everywhere and that kiddos can pick up anything, any place but when a parent loads their kid up with Tylenol and ships them off to daycare, this is a huge problem.

I am a working mom, don’t get me wrong… and I have totally have been there. I understand the struggle of not wanting to call out or using personal time to stay home taking care of sick kids… but guess what? They are your kid and it is not someone else’s job to take care of your sick, cranky child.

Keep your kid home. Don’t let them go off to daycare, school, sports practice because those germs spread like wildfire because this is what ultimately happens… you send your child to daycare sick and then they get my child sick who then will spread it to their sibling and then to my husband and I. So that one or two days that you would have had to stay home with your child, just turned into a week of my family being home.

That’s right, my husband and I get to miss a week of work and spend a few weeks six in recovery mode with no sleep and complete misery for an entire household all because you couldn’t wait a few days until your child was no longer contagious.

My son is only 9 months old, meaning he hasn’t been able to get vaccinated for certain things. So when you send your child with just a “little cough” or “a sore throat”, is a recipe for disaster for his little immune system, that could easily be pertussis or RSV. So you know that time I was talking about missing from work, well now lets on some more type and medical bills due to hospital visits.

That 24-hour rule that child care centers have, yeah that’s there for a reason. 24 hours fever free and symptom-free… your child is to stay home. I don’t care if your child is feeling 100% better and running up and down the house… respect other families and the rules. Your child is driving you crazy and you need to go back to work? Get a family member or friend to watch your child.

Here’s the thing, your child may be fever free for 24 hours but that does not mean that they are not contagious. Our childcare centers and schools have jobs to do and their job is not to take care of your sick child. Your little one needs to be home resting, and at school that is not a place for resting. And this is the reality… I as a parent shouldn’t have to send my child to daycare to a room full of sick children because a parent is too selfish to keep their kids home.

I cringe every time I have to call out because my kids are sick but we are parent’s, and all parents have been through it… as my 4 year old would say, “that’s what happens when you have kids”.

Your job, health and whatever you have going on that your child needs to be at daycare is not important than my day, and neither is child’s health.

So next time your child is sick and you are going to knowingly dose them up with Tylenol or ibuprofen, think about this and a child’s health that you may be compromising.

Xo,

Ashley