Sick Days

I am blessed with good health. In the almost 10 years of running my daycare, I honestly can't say that there has been a day that I haven't felt good enough to open my doors to the kids. Except one ...

It was almost 5 weeks ago when I opened my doors in the morning, even though I was quite certain that my day was going to take me to the hospital emergency room. And I was right.

I required emergency hernia surgery. The doctors and nurses efficiently took care of me. I was wheeled into surgery at 10:45 that night and released from the hospital the next afternoon.

My perfect health record came crashing to a halt immediately. Not only did I require time off during that first week just to recover from the surgery, I was told not to lift anything over 10 pounds for 6 weeks!

I took back my 4 yr olds and older, but I just had to take the full 6 weeks off from my 2 yr old and under group. The downfall of feeling so good, so fast is that I knew if I was around my little ones, it would be a reflex action to lift them up, help them up and push myself beyond my doctor ordered limitations. So I am heeding my doctor's advise.

This has put several of my daycare families scrambling for daycare at a moments notice. And this is something that I avoid at all costs. I worked outside the home and I was the one in need of daycare for the first 20 years of my working life. Any disruptions to my daycare resulted in immediate panic in my world, those days. So this scenario is something I never wanted my parents to face. In fact, this surgery that turned into an emergency, was scheduled to take place next summer during my holidays, with LOTS of advance notice so that my parents would be able to plan around it.

I would love to have a back up babysitter to call, at times like this. But entrusting other people's children with another person, places almost impossible standards upon who I would even consider asking. I have 3 people in my circle of friends and family that don't work full time AND that I would trust with my daycare family. And all 3 of those people place such high standards on the job at hand, that I would only ask in the most dire emergency.

This was the one reason that I chose not to become licensed. It is a requirement that you have at least 2 back up babysitters, so that at a time like this, your families aren't without childcare.

Who, at a moments notice, could 'walk into my world' and take over for 6 weeks?? Its a daunting responsibility. And in my experience with licensed daycare, yes ... they did provide childcare in their absence. But a daycare provider that wasn't of my own choosing didn't work out, more often than not.

This is why I try (as much as humanly possible) to give my parents all the notice that I have, when it comes to taking time off. Unfortunately, I didn't have much notice this time.

But the fact that I do have a good track record with my health, giving ample notice and being available when my parent's lives take unexpected turns ... I must say that my parents have been nothing less than amazing during this doctor-ordered work slow down.

This time off to mend has been a gift in many ways. The biggest gift of all, is the amazing group of parents I work for!