Such a frustrating morning!

[monkeymama]

dcg wasnt feeling well this morning....inconsola ble crying, whining, and was falling asleep on my couch. text dcm to see if she had a rough night, nope she replies, but she was complaining of a stomach ache this morning...first red flag. so i take her temperature, its very high...i text dcm and she says ok ill come and get her....TWO HOURS go by, at this point dcg is sound asleep and all the other dck are growing restless and asking me every 5 mins if we can go outside ( i didnt have a morning activity planned as it was beautiful today and figured we'd spend the day outside) i text her when do you think youll be coming? oh she says i cant get off work, let me get back to you...????? finally another 1 hour 30 mins goes by and dcd finally comes and gets her! i am just so frustrated...i understand not all jobs allow you to leave at the drop of a hat but the poor girl...she was just desperate for her parents and i dont blame her...i did my best but was still trying to care for 5 other kids while comforting her....what do you all think is a reasonable time frame to come pick up after being informed a child is ill?

[Crayola kiddies]

My policy book states the child must be picked up within one hour of notification.

[mimi]

So the day was ruined for the remaining children and you. I would let them know this.

[bright sparks]

I know not everyone has the ability to leave their jobs at the drop of a hat but for goodness sake, how about communicating this better with you. She should have kept you informed of when she or someone else would be collecting the child. I stipulate within 60 minutes a child must be picked up. In addition I have at least an additional 2 emergency contacts. I would have called after 1 hour not waited and also I wouldn't have texted. I would have had a conversation over the phone to make sure she was totally clear on how important it was for her to arrange pick up for her child and I would have reinforced at that time the importance of collecting the child quickly to prevent it from disrupting the rest of the day for the others. Texting is convenient for short, minor bits of info being passed back and forth but IMO illness is not something that should be dealt with over a text message as things get lost in translation and apparantly thats what happened as this mother didn't act appropriatly. Hopefully you can have a face to face conversation with these parents and get them on the same page incase this situation should arise again. If this clause isn't in your contract I would suggest sending home an amendment to your contract and have them sign it. If it is, then you should hand a copy to the parents and explain that you expect them to stick to your policies and make it quite clear to them the ramifications of their actions and how it effected everyone including their child, the other children and yourself.

[monkeymama]

thanks all- i do have stimpulations in policy regarding illness and that pu needs to be as soon as they are contacted by me. however, i am going to rethink whether i need to put a specific time frame on it. this is my first instance of a parent taking so long to pick up. bright sparks, i agree the texting slowed things down and that was my error. dcm has told me thats the best way to contact her when shes at work but i probably should have called...very stressful morning indeed and yes mimi when dcg returns i plan to let mom know how upset the other children were at missing their morning activities.

[apples and bananas]

We have to be careful how we word things...

you're child has the following symptoms, she needs to be picked up right away. Are you able to come now?

If not... move on to your back ups. That's why we have them.

I used to work half hour away from daycare with no traffic and it was not a job that I could just leave on a moments notice, but if my daycare called, I dropped everything and I was out the door. And if not... I had a reliable back up.

I'm sorry your morning went so poorly. Make sure you speak with them about it when you see them again, or make a phone call. I would hate for htis to happen again.

[playfelt]

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.

[Inspired by Reggio]

I agree with the others on the 'reasonable time frame' ... it should not take more than 30 minutes for SOMEONE to get here in an emergency!

My handbook actually states if a child needs to be picked up due to requiring 'medical attention' and a parent or emergency contact can not be reached to arrange immediate pick up that I will call an ambulance and the child will be transported to the hospital and the parent or a guardian will be required to meet the child there ... as a result I have never had to wait more than 15-20 minutes for a client to get SOMEONE here when I have called because they have a rising fever or other concern that requires them to be excluded ASAP

My emergency form has both parents contact info at home, work and cell as well as at least TWO emergency contact people with space for FOUR ... I do not ever want to be in a position where a child needs to be GONE from here because they are sick! I once called the a neighboring business and asked the secretary there if she could please go to the next building to go FIND a client cause they were not answering their office line or their cell phone and it was an emergency

[sunnydays]

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.

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.

[Crayola kiddies]

I have a parent that is a teacher and she said anytime that her child needs to be picked up call the main office number and they will grab another teacher ( or vp or p) to cover her class and she can be out the door within minutes.