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Hello ladies
My son and I have become very sick today and I decided to close tomorrow.....whats a reasonable amount of days per year to take off re sickness? I have taken 3 days this year and feel awful every time should I feel bad or is it reasonable?
First nice day and we were stuck inside sick as dogs :(
I'm not sure as I have never used a sick day. I was sick with a bad head cold in oct but I just worked thru it .... it started on a tuesday mid day and by friday i thought i was going to die and just couldn't wait for the day to end, by the Monday i felt a lot better but then I had a cough I couldn't get rid of for the next 8 weeks.
I have closed once due to illness. It was a stomach flu. I think it was about a week. I sometimes have a cold, but nothing mayor and keep open.
I am closing tomorrow cause my son has severe diarrhea and has to be changed every 15 minutes and needs his mommy and all the days I have taken off were because my kids were sick not cause I was theres been a lot of sleepless nights and long days over the past year but I managed to push through most of them. I guess I also feel more intitled cause I havent taken any vacay time in the past year either so I guess I am asking If 3 days off over an entire year is reasonable, and If I should write in sick days so the parent know what I think is reasonable for the entire year I was thinking 5 day (unpaid) per year? and before I burn out I am also writing in 2 weeks vacation time
I take time off if I'm too sick to care for children safetly. If that's one day a year or if that's 10 days a year, I take what I need. I don't charge clients when I'm closed. The safety and well being of the kids are my number one concern and if something is going on in my home that compromises that ... I close.
This is part of a home daycare. No backup. I only take on clients that have secure backup... a relative... etc.
I don't put sick days in my contract. All it says is that I take them when I need them. I give as much notice as humanly possible and I don't charge for them.
I put 5 personal days in my contract and I rarely take all 5 of them. But I give 30 days notice on those.
I work with colds all the time and I've only taken 1 sick day in 5 years but it would be different if you have small children who are sick and need your attention. If I had the flu and was vomiting I would have to close of course. However, every time I've had bad colds I have contracted them from the daycare children so they are usually recovering from the same virus and there is no danger to them to catch what I have.
The only reason to put in a contract how many days you can close for sickness is if you are expecting to be paid for them. Otherwise if you are sick you are sick just as daycare families can't tell you the beginning of the year how often their child will be away.
Mostly if I am ok but one of my own kids was sick I was still open but it was tv/freeplay for daycare while I dealt more with my own kids needs but parents mostly appreciated that it didn't inconvenience them. Rarely was it my own child that was sick first as it was the daycare kids bringing stuff in. If I am sick it was pretty much the same scenerio since I had to watch my own kids too they might as well have friends to play with taking the pressure off me for entertainment.
Maternal instinct tells us our kids need our undivided attention but the reality is they need to rest/sleep be it on the couch or in their bed and need us close by but we are still able to do other things like watch kids watch tv so they are quiet while our child sleeps.
I wouldn't be worried. 3 days certainly is not unreasonable, ESPECIALLY when you have your kids that you have to care for when they are sick. If it was just me, I prob would have only needed 1 sick day this year but took 3 because the kids were sick too. Plus if you said you only take 2 weeks vacation, then your clients should be grateful...that's not a lot. I take 5 weeks total each year ( this includes sick days) unpaid.
I am closed today I really had no choice.........Good thing cause I ended up having to pick up my daughter from school (throwing up). I dont feel bad now at first I did but I gotta do what I gotta do. I was only gonna put them into a contract so there would be an understanding so I could wean the parents out that arent to kean on taking days off sick so I wouldnt have to deal with parent being upset so I could say its in my contract. I am also very sick but am still up cleaning disinfecting and getting ready for what seems to be a rough week hopefully a good days rest for my kiddos will help and all will return to normal soon :) Thank you for all your words and advice always appreciated and thank you fun&care you made me feel less guilty