I actually had this exact thing happen to me last week. My 4 year old's school called and said he was sick and had a fever. It was right in the middle of naptime and I have 6 kids 3 and under here uncluding my daughter. I called my husband and he went right away to pick our son up and drop him back home (that is our plan in these cases). He works for gov't and they are pretty understanding of families. If I had not been able to reach my husband, I would have lived with the mayhem that waking up six toddlers and rushing them out the door and walking to the shcool would have caused...because there is nothing so important that I would leave my child sitting at school feeling unwell all afternoon! I do know that some people cannot drop everything and run out the door (teachers for example cannot just leave their classes full of kids alone), but then they should have some sort of back-up plan to deal with these situations because kids get sick. I think for me, the problem is not so much dealing with a sick child and having the other kids miss out (although that is certainly not ideal), but I worry about the worst case scenario in which the child develops some type of complications which create an emergency situation. Parents would be able to pick up on changes in the child faster than me and could drop everything and rush to the hospital...I have 5 other children to care for and do not want to be put in this position if it can be prevented.

Quote Originally Posted by playfelt View Post
Regardless of what your forms say in terms of how long a parent has to pick up they get there when they get there. There are very few jobs a person can just walk out the door on and leave. Not everyone is the top executive and making all the rules. Just as if the school called to say your child needed picked up and it was the middle of naptime and you had no vehicle and child normally rode school bus. You would not be able to get all the kids up and walk to the school in the hour very likely either. I get that it is frustrating but that is also what a day in the life of a typical large family looks like. It was also a perfect opportunity to teach the other children some empathy in the sense of I know you want to go outside right now but child XXX is feeling too sick. Let's leave her to rest and I need you all to play over here quietly or whatever.

Also the parent should have given you a heads up on their situation and advised you to move on to the contacts - although in most cases they are also working family members and certainly would not be able to leave their job to come.