Sick Day Rules

Mom had a rule that I hated at the time, but I now see much wisdom in it and will probably enforce it with my kids, too. It was actually a 2-part rule.

1) If you’re too sick to go to school today, you’re too sick to do anything for the rest of the day.


2) If you have a fever, you’re not going anywhere tomorrow, either.

I like these rules now. For the first one, it helped limit us faking sick just to get out of school. Because if we did that, we wouldn’t be able to play with friends after school, either. The second prevented us from getting other people sick and making ourselves more sick. Oftentimes if a sickness is contagious, you’re still contagious after your fever breaks. But since you’re feeling better, you go out and play anyway. And then all your friends get sick, too. Mom’s experience was that if she made us stay in and rest for another day, we’d be good to go. But if she let us go out and exert ourselves the next day, we’d end up with a relapse and would be sick for several more days. I think it was more for her sanity that she enforced that rule. :)