Today my child is sick – go to work or stay home?I think it's the absolute working mom classic. Today I have an important business meeting and my child is sick!
Last night I sat with my bitterly crying daughter rocking in a full bathtub while my husband held a children's inhaler over her nose and mouth. When she has a cold, she is not only plagued by coughs and colds, she also has to throw up at night because of the retching in her throat.
Great, I thought to myself, apart from feeling infinite pity for my child, I thought back and forth about whether I could and would even want to go to work the next day.
Child or career – stay at home for the love of the child?
As a mother, don't I have a moral duty to nurse my child back to health and comfort them in the event of illness? Because especially when children are in pain, it's mommy they need now so badly. How should I set my priorities – child or career?
Legal ies for employees – 10 working days on top for taking care of a sick child
And how is this actually from the legal side? Can I just stay home and skip important meetings or leave colleagues alone with an urgent project??
I have summarized and linked some important information for you here.
Section 45 of the Social Security Code grants every employee up to 10 days off work to care for a sick child. For single parents it is even up to 20 working days. This article from baby-and-family explains it again very nicely. Paid time off is not guaranteed, but the important thing is that you have the right to be excused from work if your child is too sick to go to nursery school or kindergarten.
When is a sick child no longer allowed in the KITA??
Our daughter does not go to the KITA at the moment, but nevertheless I asked myself, from which degree of illness a child has to stay at home and one should not give it to a group care anymore.
For example, my mom was a single parent without the help of grandparents and she regularly faced the dilemma of whether she could hand off her sick child, i.e. me. Because in her situation she simply could not afford to lose her job due to constant absenteeism. As a single mom, she had no leeway for sensitivities and she just had to hand me over as hard as nails as long as the educators were still playing along.
But which childhood illnesses keep kids out of kindergarten?
In the case of mild colds or flu. Theoretically, children with flu-like infections, a cough and a snotty nose are still allowed to go to the nursery or kindergarten, even though no one is happy to see a contagious child. About cold tips for children with a cough. Sniffles I have also written here before. In case of fever (from 38.5° Celsius) the situation is different and the child should be put to bed. In urgent cases there are emergency services of associations like zu-hause-gesund-werden (get well at home).de, who look after children at home for a small fee. In the case of infectious diseases such as mumps. If a child has measles, it must not be taken to the KITA under any circumstances. The same applies to gastrointestinal diseases, hand-mouth-foot, conjunctivitis, lice, etc. You can find more detailed information about this here.
Conclusion
I will now see how my daughter is doing when she wakes up and will then decide if I can miss my important meeting to stay with her. Ultimately, of course, I hope that over the course of the next few years I won't be faced with the question too often: My child is sick – go to work or stay at home?