Do you have a daycare back-up plan?

14years · July 2009

DS has had a stomach bug this week, so I picked him up early from daycare on Monday. He was out all day Tuesday. We thought he was fine yesterday, so we took him back. But, he wasn't, and so I had to go and pick him up again yesterday morning. I am home this morning waiting for DH to come home and take over so I can get into work.

I have been out part of every day this week now, and it sucks. My boss has been pretty accommodating but is (understandably) getting annoyed.

DH and I don't really have a back-up plan for when this happens. Before this week, we haven't had 2 days in a row where DS couldn't go to daycare. Our families live 3 hours a way, and our mothers are usually able to come and help out but neither could come this week. DH has an aunt who lives in town, but she is out of the country. This seems like it is going to be a recurring problem if we don't figure out a good back-up plan.

If you have a plan, please tell me what it is. I am really stressed out.

dpdw · July 2009

Our back-up plan is that I take off work. Not much of a plan really. We don't have family around and all of my friends work too. Back in March we had a week like you described & I thought I would lose my mind and my job. But, we got through it between just me & DH -- mostly me -- taking time off or "working from home". I've had other co-workers go through the same thing. It's just one of those things that most parents have to deal with.

E C · July 2009

Our backup plan is that one of us stays home. Depending on the day, we switch (M or T I generally stay home, W he stays home, R and F I usually don't work anyway). We also don't have family around and all of our friends work.

Printergirl · July 2009

One of us will have to stay home - most likely me as I get PTO and DH does not.

If it happens on a day our neighbor is home and doesn't have 30 million things going on (she always overschedules and then is crazy-stressed) she will take him. If it's on a Wednesday a friend could take him assuming he isn't contagious. W are her day off and she has 2 school-aged boys.

If it's a longer term thing I'll call my mom who lives 3 hours away and pay her gas money if she can come stay with us.

MargieMom · July 2009

Back-up plan = my parents, DH's parents, SIL, sister, aunt. When all else fails, take off work, or work from home (my boss usually lets me do that if I don't have to be in a mtg or on a call). So far, so good...

azuremama · July 2009

Our backup plan is that one of us stays home, depending on who has more going on that day. It's usually me that stays home because I like being around when ds is sick and my job is more flexible. I can work from home, which means I can also work at night or on the weekends to make up for lost time if I need.

We're lucky that we also have family around. My mom is usually willing to take off if we really need her (although that hasn't worked out so far because she's been busy those days) and my sister is a firefighter and has a lot of days off.

A coworker and I have often talked about how we could get rich by opening up a drop-in center for sick kids. You'd need an excellent immune system to work there, but between that and my plan to open a napping center for sleep-deprived parents, I might have something going.

14years · July 2009

azuremama:
A coworker and I have often talked about how we could get rich by opening up a drop-in center for sick kids. You'd need an excellent immune system to work there, but between that and my plan to open a napping center for sleep-deprived parents, I might have something going.

Excellent ideas. Let me know if you want to franchise that in Atlanta.

Thanks for the replies, everyone. It's nice to know we are not alone in this.

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