OK, hypothetical situation:
The daycare calls you at 10AM while you are at work, and tells you that your one-year-old has conjunctivitis and MUST be picked up "within the hour."
What do you do?
Clearly this is a situation that comes up with some frequency (five times for me so far) and I'm very curious how other mothers in medicine (and other professionals) deal with it....
When it came up today, my husband picked our daughter up.
ReplyDeleteI should add: The daycare called him directly.
DeleteSince nobody seems to be replying to my MiM posts anymore, I'll add now that I personally call my FIL and have him meet me at my apartment, although I first have to pick her up and take her to the doctor. It's usually about two hours out of my day, at least.
DeleteWe don't have kids yet but I tell this type of scenario to my husband like every other day so that he is mentally prepared (he had a parent who didn't work). I'm not sure it's "working" but he is certainly getting irritated with me (win!)
DeleteIt depends. If possible, I get the kid. If impossible, I say "sorry, can't do that," and tell them to call a backup person. At least once, my kid hung out in the nurse's office for four hours because there was literally no one physically available to get him. Shot happens.
ReplyDeleteUm, shit. Not shot. Although shots do also happen :)
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ReplyDeleteIf my husband is in town, he picks up our sick child. He works from home and has a bit more flexibility. If he's not in town, I have to reschedule all my patients and cancel clinic for the rest of the day and the next (because of the whole fever/puke/diarrhea-free/on antibiotics for 24 hours before going back to school rule). It totally sucks, and is a major inconvenience, but there's nothing else that can be done about it when these situations occur. Most patients are pretty understanding, and the staff is too since they all have young kids or young grandkids.
ReplyDeleteRapid negotiation between me and hubs as to whose day is more optional. Generally, that's him.
ReplyDeleteMy husband the pseudo-single father would have to go pick up our little guy. My Intern schedule just doesn't allow that type of flexibility.
ReplyDeleteLie? "oopsie, did i not mention it this morning? He's on eyedrop antibiotics already. Why yes, for the last 24 hrs (or more)..." Viral freaking conjunctivitis that my daycare "requires" antibiotics AND doctors note. AND he probably got it from the daycare.
ReplyDeletei like susan's point about it probably being viral! but i've never been that creative. negotiate with dad about who can do it, and sometimes call everybabysitter i know.
ReplyDeleteThis is why I was so grateful to be at a point in my life when it was feasible to hire a full time nanny when our daughter was pre-school age. Also solved the potential issue that my child preferred to sleep until 8, so I didn't have to wake her up in the morning. Our version of this challenge was the nanny calling in sick. A couple of times I took her to work with me, which worked out well in my particular circumstances. Definitely worth figuring out a back-up plan in advance, although not always possible.
ReplyDeleteI get seriously annoyed if I know it's viral, which it always had been.
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