The downside to home daycare.

[Pumpkin_Pie]

Thursdays are my day that I have the most children for the longest hours, and therefore make the most money. Of course with a bounced check and a super tight budget, my son woke up this morning throwing up and limp as a rag doll. I hate that I don't get sick days!

What do you childcare mama's do on sick days?

(I didn't put this in the CCP tribe thread because questions seem to get lost in there...)

[medaroge]

You should get sick days. I watch my nephew, so it is different for me than a strictly daycare type relationship, but when any of the kids (or moms) are sick on either side we let each other know and then decide what to do. If I sent my kids to daycare I would not want them around another sick kid.

[janasmama]

I think the problem though is that this mama feels like she can't afford a sick day b/c it's not a paid sick day.

Sorry your LO was sick, I hope he is better soon. My friend had a regular daycare at her house for awhile and sadly she even kept the children when her own were sick. She just kept the sick child laying in bed with some movies to watch. She doesn't quite have the AP style that some mamas here have so her younger DC seemed to not expect to be held though so I don't know if that would work for you....I know when my 4 y.o. is sick she needs/wants to be held.

[Pumpkin_Pie]

I would just feel so badly exposing the daycare kiddos to what my son had. He is still a little low energy, but doing much better this morning. I too, today off too, as I wanted to give DS a chance to really recuperate before taking the kids back in. It is so hard. In the past two days, I have lost $120. I was finally going to be back on track financially, but this is going to set us back once again.

I was able to get one of the mamas to come by and drop off a check yesterday to avoid the check that I was positive was going to bounce, but dang, I so wish I just had a sick bank like I did when I was out in the regular working world.

[UptownZoo]

Do you have a contract with your clients?

[Pumpkin_Pie]

No, I don't have a contract. I am still in the process of becoming liscensed. I am definitely going to have written policies once I have all of my paperwork in though.

[riley&me]

Any chance you could find a college age student, or another mom as sort of a sub... someone who could come in for you when your little one is sick, and you could still be availalbe to answer questions and troubleshoot - even though most of your time would be spent with your own little one? Granted you'd have to pay them the bulk of your daily rate, but it might be worth it for not inconveniencing the families that you work with, and it would be more consistent for all the kids. Or perhaps some sort of trade for hours with one of the moms that you're working with who could help you out when your little one is ill for some additional hours on a different day? Just trying to give you some more ideas. Its so hard when everyone is feeling rotten, and cold/flu season hasn't even arrived yet.
Celeste

[Pumpkin_Pie]

I have thought of trying to find a sub for sick days, but am not really sure where to even look. It definitely would be nice for the parents, although, I don't know how comfortable my kids would be with a stranger (to them, anyway). As I said, I am in the process of becoming liscensed, and once I am, I will have many more resources available to me. I will definitely ask around to see what I can do about hiring subs when I need one.

It is so hard to have illness derail things. I thought I was going to have to take today off when I woke up this morning. I was positive that I had what my son had last weekend. Thankfully I am feeling much better now.