What you do when your child can't attend daycare....

Robyn wrote:

We generally used
a combination of working from home, flexible hours and vacation time to
cover our children's illnesses, but it sounds like that may not be an
option for you.

These days, my husband is networked and can often work from home (my daughter
is now of an age where she can generally entertain herself); that's what he did
on the day in question. In general, it's harder for me to be away from the
office than it is for him. Still, if he's needed at work, I can usually take
time off; or if it's difficult for both of us to be away that day, we might
split the day and each stay home part of it.

A local hospital offers daycare for sick children. There are of course criteria
on how sick a kid can and can't be to attend, and there are a limited number of
slots. We occasionally use it in cases where it would be difficult for both of
us to be away from work (such as my husband and I both have meetings or a
critical project going). Sometimes we'll wake up in the morning to a child with
a tummy ache (for example), and if The Kid is otherwise feeling tolerably well,
it's a good place to take her.

I'd never send her if she was seriously ill, even if it were allowable, or if
she would benefit from the creature comforts of having mommy or daddy at home.
If The Kid is only mildly ill, though, she usually prefers the sick-kid daycare
over staying at home.

beeswing

said:

I've never tried it, but my concern would be with a "not feeling well"
kid picking up an even worse illness at sick-kid daycare. (I often
feel that the waiting room at the doctor's office is a terrible place
for picking up something worse than what they came in with.) Do they
not allow contagious kids at all, or how do they manage that?

We used to have sick-kid daycare available to us. I went in to check
it out one day, carrying a child that was about 12 months. When the
staff realized that he wasn't sick, they shooed us out so he wouldn't
catch something. We decided to trade off either full or half days of
working from home, which has worked pretty well.

"Robyn Kozierok" wrote in message
...

I've never tried it, but my concern would be with a "not feeling well"
kid picking up an even worse illness at sick-kid daycare. (I often
feel that the waiting room at the doctor's office is a terrible place
for picking up something worse than what they came in with.) Do they
not allow contagious kids at all, or how do they manage that?

This doesn't address your question directly, but it gives an idea of how
the center works:

http://www.virginiamason.org/dbchildrens/sec2778.htm

I feel okay about leaving my kid there because the program is hospital
based and I believe the folks there know how to manage the daycare so
that my child is not at much risk. We only use the center on an
infrequent basis after other options have been exhausted. Now that my
husband can work from home, the whole thing has become less of an issue.

beeswing