As a working my parent myself I understand the frustration of getting a phone call to pick up your ‘sick’ child from nursery or school and then having to stick to exclusion periods.
But with that being said exclusion periods are so important not only for your own child but others that attend the setting.
For those of you that don’t know I have worked in childcare since I left school at 16 so have come across many families and children over the years.
There are parents who will keep their children off over the slightest thing then there are parent that religiously drop their children off every day no matter what. Neither of these type of parents are better than the other.
But what these parent that just drop their children off no matter what is the health of others. Just because there child doesn’t seem to be too bothered by their illness doesn’t mean that what they have couldn’t potentially make another child really ill.
Not only that but what if the illness then gets passed on to the staff? This is going to look after the children then. Nurseries have ratios that they have stick to and by having staff of sick this may become unattainable meaning they have to actually shut. Wouldn’t it be better to just keep your child off until they are 100% better rather then potentially shutting down the whole nursery.
Now this may seem very dramatic but we at the nursery I manage we have had periods where illness just seems to be non stop and wipes out both children and staff. No matter how much cleaning, and I have spent three whole days in one week repeatedly sterilising every toy in the setting, if children keep being brought in when they are unwell we are never going to stop things spreading.
So urge you next time your child is unwell and you are debating whether to take them into school or nursery think of the wider picture stay at home with them. After all they really want when they aren’t 100% is their parents.