Sick Days
February 8, 2008 by Kate Olson
I’m writing this on my 3rd day at home with a sick baby this week……….not the best place to be for a teacher. This is EXACTLY why I was extremely hesitant to re-enter the workforce after having my children and staying home with them for 2 years. I knew too well how fragile every single healthy day was and questioned whether I would be able to perform well as a teacher with 2 children under the age of 2. I was home with them for 2 YEARS - that’s a long time! During those 2 years, my husband never once had to take a day off to take care of a sick child and I, of course, never had anyone to report to. Current day situation, however, has me missing over half of a week of school and leaving 1 class of 6th graders and 3 classes of 4th graders without a keyboarding teacher. I have to move to a new school next week and I’m feeling rather anxious that I never had the chance to finish up with my current group. I don’t regret taking my first teaching job this year, but I’m starting to realize how tenuous my career is. I have sick days of course, but it makes me realize how quickly things could fall apart if we had a more serious illness in the family or god forbid, I got sick too. These are things I never had to worry about when I was an accountant before we had kids or when I stayed at home full-time. I’m now a teacher with responsibilities for kids who are not my own and somehow have to balance those responsibilities with my duties as a mother - unfortunately for my job, mother ALWAYS comes first. I’m learning as I go, but it’s a tough road.
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I don’t think I’ve taken a sick day in the last three years that was actually due to ME being sick!
I have been working here in Mexico since May of 2005, 6 days a week. Here the work week is 45 hours minimum… and if there is such a thing as “sick days” well I don’t know about it. If you do get sick, you can’t stay at home anyway. You have to make a visit to the nearest IMSS (federal medical plan) facility and get signed medical status documents … or you lose pay for that day.
Also classes here start at 7AM and many institutions and even 6:30 for many medical students. At my university, we start class at 7AM.
I have never missed a day sick here in Mexico. But, I don’t have children or aging parents at home either. Honestly, I don’t know how in the world couple or single people with families at home survive. I couldn’t do it.
I totally understand what you are talking about, I have been home for 4 days this week and 2 the week before with my daughter who has been sick. It has been hard and I constantly worried about my 3rd grade class and how they were behaving. I had one of my kids e-mail me last night and tell me I had only been at school for 3 days in 3 weeks (I also traveled to a tech conference and presented and we had snow days). My husband is also a teacher and it is a constant battle to figure out who will stay home when or if she is sick. I can’t imagine when we have two children how life will be.
Hang in there we will get though.
Hi Kate
Hope your children are feeling better?
Unfortunately this is the ‘joy’ of being a working mum. If you work with ‘real’ people, they will totally understand that.
Is it possible to share some of the ‘nursing’ with your husband? Doesn’t he get sick days too?
Remember, the sun will still raise in the east and go down in the west - and everything will eventually get back on track.
Good luck.
Allison