I am just wondering what the norm is for how many times you need to call off in, say a 3 month, 6 month, or year time frame? I've had parents complain about it. But here's what has happened this year:
1 - Parent brought 6 month old (seemed fine at drop off) and within an hour he puked (not spit up) twice and had diarrhea. So the following week my husband, daughter, and I had the flu and we had to close for a day.
2 - Another parent did the same thing and I closed for a day so I could thoroughly disinfect the entire house and to minimize further exposure.
3 - Another parent brought a sick 2 yr old (severe sore throat, not eating), claimed the doctor said he was fine - but I got the same symptoms the following week and was told by my doctor that it was viral and bacterial.
4 - I called off 1 day because my brother-in-law (35 yrs old) had a stroke (history of heart prob) and almost died. Only took 1 day off though.
5 - Then hubby came home from work at 1:30 one day and spent the next hour puking. Called DC mom to explain that there may be another flu exposure. She chose to take him elsewhere.

So, yes, there have been 5 from 1/1 - 5/17, but most of it was during flu season and because parents were the ones causing flu outbreaks.
Plus, I've been told that working with kids, you will find you get sick more often. I have NEVER had the flu until I started my daycare (at age 33). Now I get it at least once every winter.

Do you think this was excessive? I have been trying to enforce my sick policy as strictly as I can. Is there anything that I could have done to minimize my call-offs? And I wash my hands so much they bleed sometimes and I am ALWAYS cleaning and disinfecting.

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