O Spring, Where Are You???

I have caller ID in my office, so I always know when daycare is calling.

And inevitably, they always do.

"Owen has a fever." "Jake has diarrhea." "Owen's throwing up." "Jake has pinkeye." "They both have (INSERT RANDOM ILLNESS HERE)."

I know the old saying: If you're going to send your kids to daycare, expect them to get sick. The fact is, kids get sick no matter what, but this winter it really seems like we've all had more than our share.

Jake's had about 5 ear infections and 3 bronchial issues that left him on a nebulizer indefinitely. Owen has had a string of random colds that ended in a debilitating fever that kept him home for almost a week. Dave has had 2 big ear infections and a string of colds; I had a cold so severe last week that I am just beginning to taste my food again.

With four of us in the house it's worse than ever. One of us gets something, gives it to someone else, and we pass it around and around. YOu might say we're generous with our germs.

But it usually starts with that phone call. It happened again this week. I got the call that Jake had pinkeye, and had been quarantined to a crib. I raced out of the office, leaving behind hours worth of follow up from a lengthy Board meeting. From the road I called the pediatrician to get a prescription called in, called my mother to see if she could watch him the next day since daycare rules stipulates that you can't come back until you've been on the eye goop for 24 hours, and called my husband to generally complain about the whole situation.

To make a ridiculously long story short, I brought him to the doctor (who for some reason, had pinkeye herself, which worried me a little) and he was declared perfectly healthy. Note in hand, I headed home, fuming.

So, in other words, I left my office mid-day to pick up my healthy child. Much as I love to hang with Jake, yesterday was not the day.

I'm torn about this whole thing. As a parent, I'm always annoyed when I bring in my kids and see their classrooms filled with sneezing, coughing children. As someone who works in education, I understand the need to have guidelines and policies dictating when the call has to be made (no call if the temp is 100.9, a guaranteed call and 24 hour stay at home when it hits 101). But as a working mother with a demanding job and a husband with limited sick time available, those calls drive me nuts.

Obviously, if one of my kids are truly sick, I want to know and I want them home. But yesterday Jake couldn't have been healthier, and being called to get him out of quarantine for no reason was incredibly frustrating.

Regardless, I'm certainly glad he's not sick. At least not today, that is.