Having a sick child is never easy for a parent. But what’s even harder is making the decision to miss school or stay home. Of course as parents we want to stay home and care for our sick child but in the back of our mind we think about the mounds of work we will be missing from our classes.  I know as a single parent I contemplate this all the time.

Yes it is very true that we can get the information from a classmate but it’s never the same coming from a third person. Questions start to drift in our mind: What if this person doesn’t take great notes? Or what if they missed class as well and got the notes from someone else? I know I have a system on the way I take notes and studying another classmate notes may have me even more lost.

We  also have to remember that some professors aren’t as understanding as others. Professors should realize frequent absences are never in our plan but the health of our children is a lot more important than being in class sometimes. Most of the time though, professors excuse our absences as long as we bring in a doctor’s note. And that makes us feel a whole lot better.

The decision is even harder when you have more than one child. When one of my twins gets sick, then I’m usually expecting the other twin to get sick the following week. So that means I would have to miss two days of school.

So the question is, do I go to class or stay home? I choose to stay home if my twins show any of these signs: fever, lethargic, vomiting and coughing.