i was very sick last week with a wicked stomach virus. i had to take a sick day (i should have taken three).

i think this was the first time since tony was born that i have actually used any paid time off because I was ill. i tend to go to work sick so i can save my time for when tony is sick.

i assume most people do the same but i thought i'd ask cuz i'm nosy :D

I am lucky I guess....Where I work I can gather up one day a month to save for when the kids get sick. It's a parental leave/responsibility thing. So duing the summer when the kids are usually healthy I can just add up six or seven days to use during the winter...when they are ALWAYS down with something!

That being said...I did actually use one of my own sick days last Friday when I had a wicked head cold...

I took 2 this year for me being sick... once I was throwing up and the other I had come to work, but my ear hurt so bad I had to leave... double EI and a sinus infection, lovely. That's it. The others were all because of Matthew.

I some flexibility to work from home, so when I'm sick, I just "work from home" rather than take a PTO day.

Dennis

I am very lucky in that Abby and I both rarely get sick...I think I have had to take 2 half days in 2 years because she was sick. I would let grandma come and stay with her for a couple of hours in the morning, come in clean off my desk and then rush home to be with her. The few other times she has been sick she has picked either a Saturday or Sunday... :lol:

Tess spends her day with my parents. So if she's sick, she can still go. Though the first time she was really sick, I took off to be with her. I'm more cautious with my sick time as I'm trying to accumulate days after using it all for maternity leave.

The couple days I have taken this year were more sleep deprive related - if we had a really bad night and were up for several hours and we both needed to sleep in.

I did this when I was a single mom raising my son. I would have to take a day off for myself or else I couldn't work well. I was thankful for having a lot of time to accumulate each month back then so I had enough for him when he stayed out sick as well as myself. I also had a great friend back then who watched him for me when he was sick and couldn't go to daycare.

I actually took a sick day when I was deathly ill last month, I rarely ever take sick days for myself. But, I've only been back at work for 3 months, when I was a SAHM I never got any sick days! :lol:

I'm lucky in that I get 25 days a year to use for vacation and sick time. I'll take time for myself if I have to, but try to work at home if I can. I always try to save at least 5 days for sick time for the kids.

Mary

Yes, I took a sick day today because of my illness. I have a wicked cold.

Um...no. Never. Parents are not allowed to get sick. LOL. Actually I HAVE taken a mental health day. That sorta counts. And I kept Abby home with me and we went walking and shopping. Much better than being sick :) I get 10 sick days and I've already used FOUR this year...ugh. So there will probably not be anymore mental health days for me in 2004.

I've missed work because DD was sick but so far I have been healthy!!! Thank god...who would take care of the baby and my husband who was also sick! :lol: :rolleyes: It is hard to have any "sick time" for yourself once you are a mommy!

I took a few days when I was in my first trimester because I had wicked morning sickness. Luckily I haven't been sick yet since she was born. I don't tend to get sick too much, thank goodness.

I took two days off last week because Amelia and I were BOTH sick! It was awful. However, even if she had not been sick and needed to stay home from her caregiver's, I probably still would have taken those two days at home. I was sicker than I've been in a long time!

follow up question to my original:

do you still send the kid to daycare?


sometimes i do.

on the particular day i mentioned in my first post, yes i had dh drop him off at daycare. i picked him up around his normal time. i was that sick and tony was not, it was better for him to be there than here with me.

if i take a day because of sleep deprivation or just a personal day i always keep him home with me.

Last week when I stayed home, had Amelia not also been sick (and therefore been able to go to her caregivers), I DEFINITELY would have sent her. I was so sick that I literally burst into tears at the thought of having to carry her up the stairs to change her diaper. :blush: I think that, for the future, on days that I'm really sick, I'll definitely plan to send her. After all, I need to rest and focus on getting well.

However, like you, if I take a day off for other reasons, I definitely keep her home with me. :nod:

I just took the last two days off. I have such a bad sinus infection. Dh was home with both me and Tyler yesterday as we were both sick. I sent Tyler to daycare today and went to the dr and just relaxed. Since tomorrow is my bday I wanted to make sure i feel better since we are suppose to go out to dinner. I am also lucky that I get paid without having to use personal or sick time

I used a sick day on myself this week. I felt just horrible and hadn't accomplished much the day before so decided it was better to hang out at home and get well. I definitely took Owen to daycare - running around after a on year old wouldn't have let me have a long nap and curl up on the couch drinking tea. :)

Patti

I always took sick time for myself, and when the kids were little, my employer allowed me to use my sick time for any immediate family member's illness. Even when my mother was too sick to drive herself to the doc once, I used sick time.

Now, unless my daughter is so sick she can't get up out of bed (she's 16), I don't stay home with her. I do take sick time myself even though we don't officially have any. I'm exempt so I don't fret over it, and neither does my boss. If I were hourly, I'd be panicking and showing up for work anyway. Hopefully sick time will be one of our first benefits restored once the company's position improves.

Sick day for myself?! What's that? Our company is so stingy with sick leave - we get four sick "events" in any given 12-month period, up to seven days - that it's hardly worth it to use a sick day for anything. If I stay home sick for one day, that counts against me as one sick "event", meaning I've only got three sick "events" left for the rest of the 12-month period (it's rolling, it's not even four sick "events" per calendar year!). The last time I stayed home for myself was last summer, when I had a horrible stomach virus. I'd been up sick all night and was so weak after that I could barely stand, much less drive to work. If I just have a sinus infection or a cold or something I can fight through, I suck it up and come in. (If someone gets sick because I'm walking around spreading germs because I feel compelled to come in to work, I reckon it's the company's fault for being so stingy with the sick time!)

If Julian is sick, Kevin usually stays home with him - he doesn't get paid if he takes off work, but he isn't limited as to the number of days he can take like I am. But he can't always afford to take the pay hit, so there are days I'll stay home with Julian and he'll go to work. If I stay home with Julian, I use a vacation day. I also use vacation days for his allergist's appointments - it's not time-efficient to drive into Dallas for the appointment (usually at 10 or 11 in the morning), back to Midlothian to take him to daycare, and back to Dallas for what would end up being about three hours' worth of work. Last year was bad as far as illness - constant ear and sinus infections, and if Julian is running fever, he can't go to daycare, so we were home a lot last year. The ears have cleared up with tubes, so hopefully this year will be a bit better in the sickness department.

All that being said, the few times since Julian was born that I've dared to take a day for myself (a mental health day, if you will), I've been the bad mother and taken him to daycare. I know if I keep him home the whole day, I'll spend the day running after him and telling him "don't touch that/put that down/don't jump off the sofa/get out of that/we don't stick food in the VCR" and it won't be a mental health day at all. If I take time for myself, I take it for *myself*. Doesn't mean I love Julian any less, it just means I get precious little help from Kevin on a day-to-day basis and need a break once in a while. If I'm burned out, I'm no good to anyone. And if I'm sick, he definitely goes to daycare. If I'm sick enough to justify staying home, I know that means I don't have the strength to take care of Julian.