I don't think any parents have necessarily blamed me for their children getting sick but I know it frustrated some last year as we had about a month and a half to two months of constant illness. 3 out of my 4 families were sending their children sick. 2 of the 3 would keep them home from time to time but not long enough for them to get better. 1 was "patient A" who IMO, kept the other kids sick. He very rarely stayed home and the only times he did was because I had sent him home and he had to stay away for 24 hours.

His mom always blamed the fact that he and his older sibling were preemies and they got sick often but the doctor said it wasn't contagious. When I pushed for more details the story never stayed the same. I don't think she was taking him to the doctor at all. She also blamed allergies a lot!! It was just weird how his non-contagious symptoms always showed up in the other 2. One day I called her to come pick him up and she came and cried (literally, cried!!) that they couldn't afford to keep doing this as one of the parents had to stay home and that was money out of their pocket. HOWEVER, I know that she has paid sick days and her husband had been laid off that winter PLUS she used her dad as back up often, so I knew that was a lie!! It really ticked me off that she would try and get to me and hope that I would just say, "it's ok, keep your sick child here". I actually told her that the other parents are getting frustrated too as their kids are sick and they have to keep them home too. I also told her that if I got sick I would have to close and that meant all 4 had to find alternate dc and that I couldn't afford that as I don't get sick pay. That sorta shut her up but it was a bit awkward between us for a good month or so after that. The following summer she left and went to a dc centre. Things are good with us now though and her boys occasionally come here when the centre doesn't have room for them on inservice days.

I think it ticked me off a lot more because she had always been the one who seemed to appreciate me the most. She gave gifts, kind words, passed my name on to many, never questioned anything. Than as soon as it wasn't good for her anymore she changed. Which I guess is quite common for many people in so many different areas of work. Oh well, what can you do?