P&A wrote:
I can't think of a better place to ask this question:
At what point does it become un-fair to bring a sick child to the baby-sitters? I babysit for a cousin, I also have 3 children. When does it become not okay to drop your child off to me with green thickness coming from the nose, fever, wet cough and crankiness? I'm aware that this was a job I agreed to, but if your child is really not well should you stay home from work to care for them? Is it unfair to subject not only my kids to this but me as well? And trust me, we're not talking about a common cold. Any advice or opinions would be appreciated. P.S. Be nice
The daycare we bring our son to has some policies/guidelines. i.e. if he has diarrhea 3 times in a row, or some other things they ask us to keep him home for the next day. But basically if they have runny noses they're still fine. At any given time during the winter there always seems to be 1 child or more with a runny nose at most daycares we visited.
At what point does it become un-fair to bring a sick child to the baby-sitters? I babysit for a cousin, I also have 3 children. When does it become not okay to drop your child off to me with green thickness coming from the nose, fever, wet cough and crankiness? I'm aware that this was a job I agreed to, but if your child is really not well should you stay home from work to care for them? Is it unfair to subject not only my kids to this but me as well? And trust me, we're not talking about a common cold. Any advice or opinions would be appreciated. P.S. Be nice
I would think if the child has a fever or is genuinely unwell (i.e. crying from being sick) it wouldn't be fair to leave him at daycare/babysitter.
But I guess it's up to you, since you are the babysitter in this situation. What you feel comfortable with.
With our son, if he looks to have a common cold but is still happy/active, eating well, no fever, etc. We usually still bring him to daycare. But if he's cranky from being sick (i.e. crying, lethargic, angry, doesn't want to play) or has a fever or anything worse than a runny nose, one of stays home with him or sometimes one of our parents can help.
Initially (before we became parents, and before we started bringing him to daycare) we assumed as soon as a child got a cold, you immediately don't bring him to daycare. But after seeing how he reacts to colds, and seeing other kids with colds, that doesn't seem realistic, especially since colds are soooo frequent with toddlers, and it would be really hard to take as many days off work as days he has a runny nose.