My husband uses his sick days to stay home when our own children are really sick, as he gets paid sick days and I don't. I rarely close the daycare and will just cope with caring for my own sick kids along with the daycare kids. I have only really closed due to my own illness, as it was impossible to care for kids while I had the flu.

If it is something contagious I will close as long as I would require the daycare parents to keep their own children home, and then I would be open and it would be the daycare parents's choice to send their kids. If I am open, then fees are charged. I don't have family to send my own children to as they either work full time or live far away, so I don't have the option to send them somewhere else. My daughter had strep throat last summer and one family kept their child home, while others sent theirs anyway.

I have had to close for several days at a time due to the hospitalization of my younger daughter and I just notified parents that I had to be closed and they understood. In that situation there is no other option, and if they weren't understanding then they would be finding a different daycare.