By, Michelle Harmon
Just about every weekday, I take my 21 month old with me to the gym. He plays with other children in the gym's daycare while I work out. This hour that I get all to myself is like heaven. Busy moms know what I'm talking about. There is little that keeps me from keeping this date every day. Only two things generally keep me from this daily routine. 1) If my kid is sick, we stay home. 2) If I am sick or have bad cramps, we stay home. The former is what I'd like to discuss here. I repeat—if my kid is sick, we stay home.
One day last week, as I was making my way to the childcare room after my workout, I heard a child coughing like crazy. I was about ten feet away from the door, and all I could think was, dear God, don't let that be Tommy (my son). I knew that it probably wasn't, he wasn't sick when I dropped him off and the likelihood that he developed a seal-like cough in the span of an hour was slim. But, we Moms, we always worry.
I walked into the room and saw my little guy happily playing cars with a little girl and the source of the dreaded cough was standing very near my son, holding a toy car, tears streaming down his face, still coughing—no hand over the mouth, not coughing into his sleeve, just coughing with my little guy less than three feet away from him! The teacher was also there, kneeling by the cougher with a Kleenex, trying to wipe his nose. I swooped in and grabbed up my little man.
I wanted to ask the teacher just why in the heck this little germ-spreader was here. Didn't they have a policy that sick kids are not allowed? I took a deep breath and calmly asked the teacher if the child was sick, why was he allowed at the daycare. The teacher answered that he didn't look sick and wasn't coughing or anything when his mother dropped him off. She continued that, had they known he was sick, they would have told his mother that he couldn't stay. “And, now?” I asked her, not feeling any more relaxed. She informed me that another child caregiver had been sent upstairs to pull his mother out of her aerobics class to come and pick up her child. Well, that's good, at least, I thought.
But the real fault lies with the Mom. Why in the world would a Mom knowingly send her child to daycare if he was sick? Yes, we all need a little “me time,” but not at the expense of the health of someone else's child, let alone your own. So, I urge you, Mamas, if you child is sick—for Pete's sake—keep him home!
And, sure enough, two days later, my son had a cough, a runny nose and a fever. And, guess what? We stayed home.
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