Kid is sick.. what do you do?

[schmalts]

Just wondering what you guys do. me and the wife are both full time and take turns missing work when he is sick. He goes to a real good structured daycare days (pricey but worth it $575 a month)and learns a lot and gets the good interaction with other kids needed as an only child. Gets us in a little bit of a bind with the employee record but we dont have G-parents close by to help out when he gets sick.
actually had to get the Family leave act papers for his past ear infections to keep out of trouble with work but since the tubes are in it seemed to help out a lot. I have just been off for a week for the holiday shut down at the plant and now the first day i was supposed to go back he has strepp throat and i sit around again.

 

[MarvB]

Any nieces or other relatives, besides g-parents, around? When mine get sick I often call on one of my nieces to "baby-sit" while I at least get a half day in at work. My work starts by 5am so even with a half-day I'm home by 9:30 and the niece goes to work at 10:00 so its a good fit (for now).

Know what you mean though schmalts....between Turkey Day and Xmas our household went through two bouts of the flu, a case of strep, a case of pink-eye, and the Mrs. hysterectomy...."Merry" Christmas??

 

[stilllearning]

I work in an office setting and it is not imparative that I am in every day so......
when one of our kids get sick I can work my hours around to get my work done as well as be home till their mother comes home from work. once she is home I am off to work what I call the night shift as no one else is in the office then but them don't seem to mind. Also it is very rare for our kids to get sick. Go figure but we will take it.

Sorry I can help you more than that.

 

[schmalts]

We dont have any relitives close by that dont work or are not still in school, so we are screwed. No baby sitter i know of will come for a "puke machine" dont blame them.

 

[DRAFTSTUD]

If you know of an Elderly Lady from Church or a Bar (Just covering the Bases!), you might set it up that whenever your child is sick she could come in to relieve ya'll. I know what you mean, we went though all of that, it does'nt matter how much you spend on Daycare those kids will still bring home the Germ of the week! John

 

[Calif. Hunter]

Checking with people from church is a great idea. The ex and I would take turns, although she did, honestly, take more time off than I did. We were lucky that her grandparents volunteered to take the girls to their weekly appointments at Shrine Hospital. (They were twins with club feet, and Shrine took care of them for free - Shriners may be nerds, but they are great people!!!) Since it took 16 years of casts, therapy and surgeries - we were very grateful for their help!

Now we are fortunate enough that my wife is a stay-at-home Mom.

 

[danr55]

You might check something called the Family Leave Act that provides for caretaking of children and parents or siblings who live with you. I believe it states that, while you don't have to get paid, you have to be allowed to care for children, parents, siblings or other members of your household who need care. Not sure what kind of work you do, but most companies are covered by this federal law.

 

[Mojave]

There actually is day care in some places that specializes in sick kids. They keep them isolated if need be and often have someone with medical experience on staff. I haven't seen one of those advertised in a while though. They have to be expensive to maintain. You might check around.

 

[Delw]

wow tough call easy for some tough for others.
if your employer doesnt understand than time to find a new employer, Ive been forunate all my employers has understood, now that april and I work for ourselves its no biggy.

you can always talk to the employer and see if its possible to trade shifts with people, maybe do some work at home anything. I am betting most will work with you.

Bottom line your kid come first then your job, you can always find another job but its hard to find another kid. pushing them off on a complete stranger(sick day care) IS NOT and option, dont even think about it.
this is why kids are so fun they bring out the best ina person.

Good luck.

 

[schmalts]

Its not really a problem, just a bit of hectic time. The truth is, we both have an attendence policy that makes it that we get penalized for being late as much as being gone for a day. I can take 3 consecutive days and it counts as one occurence. The wife can take 2 days. By the time we would wake up, find a babysitter or anyplace else we would be late for work and it is just better to stay home.
I was Just asking because i wondered what everyone else does, not that we were in any kind of huge dillema. It sucks not having a grandma close by at times, other times its nice inlaws suck at times

 

[JB]

thats a good question!..........i'll have to check with the wife to see how she handles situations like that and get back to you on it.

 

[Moosie]

Hire someone and Pay them 2-3 times the Normal amount. Figure on hat you loose atthe office and figure on Paying the person 1/2 that, trust me, You'll find someone at your wages !!!

Sometimes you just need to be at the office, I understand... I have a Stay at home wife so I don't have those problems, sorry ... kind of

 

[wyomingtim]

Find a grandma who has grandkids living in another state. They love little kids to remind them that they are grandparents. That is what we did.

 

[wilecoyote76]

My wife works part time in the mornings and I, unfortunately, work graveyard shifts so whenever my kids gets sick, I get the lovely opportunity to watch them on no sleep whatsoever! Sometimes it's rough but I usually get to sleep when they sleep or at least until the wife gets home. We also don't have any family close by so we are stuck with trying to find friends or neighbors to watch the chitlins when sick.

 

[stilllearning]

There are alot of great ideas in here but is sounds like you have things well in control.
The way I look at work is if they get real upset with me then on to the next job I go because "I work to live not live to work".
Family is first and that has got me in a bit of warm water from time to time when I have said no to overtime to go home and take kids to whatever they have lined up.

 

[iminrut]

I here ya Moosie....my wife is a stay at home mom also. By the time she found a job around town, half of her wage would go to daycare and the Gov. would take the other half....so she would just about end up working for free......didn't take much figuring to know it would be more benificial for us and the kids to keep her at home........plus I'm fortunate to have a pretty decent job.

Schmaltz, do you have sick leave/vacation or is it combined like ours into something they call PTO (paid time off).....our PTO we can use at anytime for whatever reason, as long as it is not abused........I just got done with a stint of FMLA and STD (not the disease, you smart arses) and man did that suck, it feels good to be back at work......hope you youngin' starts doing better.....

 

[schmalts]

I dont get sick pay at all. I can a certain amount of days in a 60 day floating window without getting written up. ( 3 occurences, each occurence can be 3 consecutin=ve days) Any days i use are unpaid. Only paid days is holiday, vacation, funeral, jury duty.