Front Credits
===
Good morning and welcome. Well, it may not be morning where you are, but whatever time of the day it is good day, a good day. I am talking to you today about illness and wellness policies and the things you can do to protect yourself in your family, daycare, not only you, but the children you care for and the families that use your services to. Because let's face it when you aren't open. Nobody can use your service.
You lose, they lose. So we really need to get very clear around wellness policies and how they. Show up within your family daycare service. So let's jump into it.
Okay. So I want to first talk to you about. Several things really. There's a whole lot. I'm going to talk to you about, let's be honest, you know, I can't keep my mouth shut for very long. Uh, so the very first thing that I want to talk to you about and set the tone for is that you hold the space. In regards to this. Illness coming into your service is largely up to you now, obviously there's those times where the child wakes up from their sleep and they have a projectile vomit.
Uh, no one can see that coming. They were fine this morning. And it's just, that's how it rolls. Now. We all accept that. Uh, what. I don't accept. And you shouldn't either. Is children coming into your service? Glassy-eyed green snot running down their face. And feeling slightly warm to the touch. That's instantly.
Sorry. They can't come today. They don't look well. If a child is not themselves, sometimes they can just be needing a mental health day. And do you know what sometimes it's okay to say to parents, to your child's just not coping today. I think they need to be home. They're not themselves. Maybe one day now resting can save you two weeks of illness. You know, I have those days, myself, where I just need a mental health day and some of these children are in care five days a week, 10 hours a day. They're having massive days. And they never get downtime.
They never get to just be, you know, they've got to process all the sounds and sights and dealing with. Sometimes three different children a day. You may have different cohorts of children in each day. That child has to adapt to. Managing themselves, their emotions. And communication styles and all the rest of it.
And they have to manage other people's emotions as well. That is a lot for a little child to have to actually deal with. Like it's a lot. And I get overwhelmed by that stuff. So I can't imagine how little children feel, and it must be way, way, way, way worse in a long daycare setting to where you've got up to 24 children in a room. And sometimes those children are there five days a week, big hour days.
Like, could you imagine. Children childhood early childhood was not meant for that. At all, especially when they're cooped up in these spaces and there's not freedom to run, you know, like gone are the days where the children would be out running in the street and playing with all the neighborhood children. Up and down the street running. Making cubbies and forts and riding bikes and doing all sorts of things. It just doesn't happen anymore.
And they get contained in these small spaces with so many other people to deal with. And. I don't know, maybe as I'm getting older, I'm getting less. Um, able to deal with people. Like, I don't know. It's like, it's not that I can't deal with people, but I realized that it's a lot, it's a lot managing other people's emotions.
And maybe because we're a lot more aware of emotions. I don't know what it is, but the older I get, the more I just go. Yeah. I'm a dog person.
It's my working in my home office is so good.
Don't get me wrong. I love working with the children when I'm with the children and family daycare is by far the most superior choice when it comes to that sort of stuff. But I digress anyway. It's early in the morning and I haven't finished my coffee. So. I really, I really want you to be aware that you hold the space, you set the tone. You get to say if these children come into your space or not.
So when I read posts that educators are saying, oh, this child really shouldn't be here and they've made us all sick and blah, blah, blah. Why, why did you let the mean. Why did you keep them there? So that's the very first thing, and that's probably gonna rub a few people up the wrong way. And I'm not sorry, because. You need to be reminded of this and. You are allowed to say no. You are allowed to say no. And you are allowed to protect your income. And you are allowed to protect the other children in your care.
In fact, you have a duty of care to do so on both accounts. Your income and the other children in care. So first and foremost, Get a backbone. Like.
The amount of people that will be like, oh, I feel guilty because the parent needs to go to work. Do you know what they are? Not your responsibility? Your responsibility is to run your service. Your responsibility is to keep yourself healthy so that you can open your doors every single day. That you work. Your responsibility is to look out for the wellbeing of the other children in care. That's your responsibility.
It is not your responsibility to worry if that parent. Has to go to can go to work or not.
So. I just really want you to really differentiate between that. Think about it. I use calls all the time. Right? Think about it. If I was to say, be a.
Farmer. And I've just come out of the F the field. And. It's been flooding. And so I'm wearing a pair of gum boots. Over some overalls and I've been up to my waist in. Mud. And it's oozy, drippy mud, and I get out of my truck and I walked straight into the doors at Kohl's. Do you think they would let me in the doors, do you think they would let me walk through the entire supermarket. Dripping mud, everywhere, touching all the produce and the, the pantry items and putting my filth everywhere.
Do you think they would let me do that? Or do you think they would ask me to leave the store? Or potentially not even let me in the front door.
It would, it is exactly the same for us. Now, granted, there are times where it's difficult to tell and that's where you have an honest conversation with the parent. And you say, oh, I'm just not sure today. Like I just really need you to be on call. For me, uh, because if I feel like your child, um, Gets any worse straightaway.
I need you to come and pick them up. Like have that conversation set the tone, let them know. Make them aware. And my favorite. Conversation is when they ring me and they go, oh, I'm just not sure if so-and-so should, should come in straight up if you're asking me and you're not sure the answer's no.
They've already made the decision.
They're wanting you to give them the confirmation. Tell them no. Just don't even let them arrive. Tell if, and that's the thing. If you're questioning. If you're questioning, if they're well enough to come or not, they're already not well enough. So let's just stay home. Today. And. It's just, sometimes they need you to make that decision because then they'll ring their work and who cares what they say to their work? About you because it doesn't matter.
They don't know you. They're never going to know you. Uh, and you'll probably get some employers like myself who would say good on them for keeping everybody safe. Yeah, it's inconvenient for me, but could you perhaps work from home today or get some work done today in some capacity?
But the fact of the matter is, is that what happens beyond that phone call? He's not your business. Your business is keeping your business running and the other children in your care. Keeping them healthy.
So. You have to get a backbone. Yeah. I have to be okay with saying no. And. They parents don't get to tell you what's going to happen within your family daycare service. You have a responsibility. And that's all I'm going to say on that now. Because I think you'll have it by now. So the first thing you have to do is be prepared to say no and have a backbone and have a really clearly defined boundary around that.
And yes, if you're a people pleaser and you find it difficult to say, no, This could potentially be a triggering thing for you, but guess what? Suck it up. Because. Your only going to lose out. That parent is going to go on their Merry way and go and earn all their dollars. And there's, there's going to be no difference to them. But you're going to end up sick.
The other children are going to end up sick and other parents are going to lose income because you can't say no to one person. Like, I just don't get it. Like, we've really got to. Hold the space and hold the line within your service. So. It's it's important for you to be able to do that. And I think the best way to do that and hang onto your hats because I have something free for you. That you can download, um, is a wellness policy.
And on that wellness policy is a document that the parent signs and what that document talks about is them being aware. That illness. Can spread like wildfire. There they have to say, yes, I've read the policy. Yes. I understand that my educator may sometimes from time to time, have to close. Without much notice. Uh, because she may be ill. In that case, I acknowledge that I have an alternative care arrangement. That I can call up and utilize. In the same token.
If my child is unwell and I can't take time off from work. I also have alternative care arrangement lined up so that I can continue to go to work. It also talks about them. Uh, explicitly giving you information or in their child's health in terms of my child has had Panadol this morning. Because you need to be aware of that sort of thing so that you can say, well, if they've had Panadol, they can't come to care. Because that's a masking agent and it could mask underlying issues.
And if you are not aware of that, Then that's not. Okay. So I've created a wellness policy for you. You can. Um, edit it to suit your needs and requirements. Uh, it is in a Canva link, so you can have the free Canva. You can edit it in Canva or you can download it as a word document and edit it as a word document.
That's totally up to you how you would like to do that. Um, that will be available. Um, later today. And it's there for you to download for free. Uh, because I just see that this is one of the biggest issues in family. Daycare is the educators don't feel supported around that and don't know what to actually say. So by having these clear boundaries and you give this to your families when you're interviewing them.
So that it's right up front from the very beginning, you've already set the tone. You've already alerted them to the fact that they may have to have alternative arrangements of care. Straight up. Like they're agreeing that they have that in place. And if they don't, then you open the lines of communication of what it actually looks like and things they can do to help their child stay well. Okay.
So one of those things and it harks back to one of the posts that I did a couple of weeks ago around sleep. And the importance of sleep. And we can tell parents that that's one of the easiest. Most effective and efficient ways we can help a child's immune system. Is by giving them enough rest. Let's then look at the food that you're eating.
I noticed this quite a bit of package stuff. Why don't we look at getting towards some more whole fruits and vegetables? Dips, you know, hummus and to DKI and things like that, that aren't full of additives and preservatives and all that sort of stuff, and a healthy and nutritious. And these are things that are going to help your child's immune system. Packets of tiny teddies and those sucky pouches and. The sh. He knew what I was going to say. But I'm aware some of you listen to this in the car with the children. Hi friends. Um, the bad food is bad.
Food is not even food. Isn't really food. Do we really think it's food? Some of that stuff that these kids eat. Either glasses, food, I'm sorry, but I'm very opinionated about this stuff. This is the base of their life, the building blocks of their lives. And we need to encourage families because I feel like families are. Some families. So far away from.
Having really good foundations for their children.
That it's just not funny. It's actually scary. So w. If we don't advocate for the children and we don't advocate for good quality nutrition and sleep and lifestyle factors. Then who's going to do it. Who's going to do it. So anyway, I digress. Sorry, friends. So. This wellness policy that you can download is that it gives you the boundaries.
It puts it in black and white. It references the regulations, it references staying healthy in childcare, all the things that we have to go by. It's all there. It's there for you. Tweak it to suit you. Uh, it'll work for every service. I will caveat this to please ensure that you have had this approved by your current service so that it is not, um, in. What's the word, um, uh, conflict of their policy. We can't, you can exceed a policy, but you can't go underneath the policy.
So if your service has things in place in their wellness policy already, Um, you can't undermine that. So just make sure that it's okay for you to give to your families. And I know there's going to be educators that are out there going, but it's my business. Guess what's this stuff. It's not, let's just be real about that too.
While we're at a bit of a rant this morning. It is your business, but you are bound to operate under the policies of your service provider. So in that effect, it's kind of like a franchise kind of. Franchises con you know, if you go and buy a McDonald's, you can't change your brand colors. Because you don't like yellow and red, I mean, who likes yellow and red, but you can't go and change your brand colors because you don't like yellow and red when you purchase and you decide to go into partnership with McDonald's. I think teal and pink would be much nicer, but you know, it is what it is.
And so I can't ever go into a partnership and an agreement with McDonald's and then change everything. Right. It's the same with family daycare. There are certain things that you have ownership over how you set your space up. The program that you run. Um, the fee structure that you operate under your service has to have barriers.
They have to have a minimum and a maximum, and you can charge whatever you want within that. Okay. Um, you, you do. You are responsible. For a lot more in this set up than you are in other scenarios. So, yes, you do have autonomy, but it's not your business per se. You have to follow the policies and the procedures of the service that you are operating under. So let's just be really clear about that.
So you, if you bring in other policies, you should be some services, probably won't care. If you're in a service that doesn't care what you do in terms of that. Can I suggest you find somewhere as else because that's a recipe for disaster. Um, Out of courtesy. You should be running these things by your service, just to make sure that it's not in conflict because. What your PO that the department will come in. And won't care what your policies are. They only care about what the service policies are. Okay.
So if anything was to ever happen in, you want to reference back to one of your policies, the department probably won't even look at it. They'll look at the service policies because that's what everyone needs to abide by.
All my coffee's cold now. It's not as nice. Um, so. And talking about that, let's just be real. So if you download this policy, make sure you run it past your service and make sure they're okay with it. And then you can have that in place. And go forth from there. But having that in place is going to give you the conversation starter with your current families.
And you can say, you know, now we've come out of the pandemic. You know, things were really great after the pandemic, but now I see things as slipping again. So I really want to protect you and the children and myself. So I'm putting in place this wellness policy. I need you to read it and I need you to acknowledge it. And this is just starting that conversation and giving you the permission that when they rock up to your door and their child is streaming snuck down their face and that's not. You know, they're not teething.
There's no way they could possibly be teething. Cause they've got every tooth in their head. And you can say, oh dear. Um, just reminding you that if I have to wipe Tommy's nose five times in the hour that I'll be sending him home. Uh, because that PR. That creates all this additional work. There's something going on for his body. And we don't want to share that to everybody else.
So I'm just, just reminding you of that. So you may need to be prepared to come and pick him up earlier. Thing is crossed. He'll be okay. You know? Um, but we, we just can't have that in the service today. Um, And, and oh yeah. Remember we've got the wellness policy. I just draw your attention back to the document that you signed.
Uh, and, and here it is, you know, so this gives you the conversation starter. To be able to put this in place for yourself. So. Let's also not forget that. Illness spreads like wildfire, even amongst our four children. And if you're an educator that does share care with a child that goes to a center and comes to you, they are bringing everything from that center into your care. So some educators will actually refuse to do shared care. And they will say no. I only have children that come to my service or one other family daycare service, anyone that's going to long daycare. No, no, no, no.
Thank you. Because they're exposed to so much more than what the children that attend family daycare are. So you could choose to add that into your policy as well. And part of your enrollment process as well. Now, sometimes what's happened in the past is educators have a child that starts with them, and then they start in long daycare setting.
You have the right to say, I'm just reminding you. I don't do shared care. When would you like to give notice?
Uh, and let them go. They're making a choice. They're making a choice that goes against your. Um, requirements. And they knew that when they started, because you tell everybody that you don't do shared care. And if they do go to a center, you have every right to say, well, when would you like to give notice?
Because I don't do Sharecare. Uh, that's okay. It's totally okay. You're allowed to say those things and you're allowed to hold that because that's, what's important to you and the things that you know are going to keep your business safe. Okay. So the high risk of illness, it spreads really quickly and we are exposed to a lot.
It's part of early childhood. It is a normal part of early childhood that children should be exposed to a range of. Um, illnesses and bugs and bacteria and things like that because they need it to build their immune systems. So we don't want to over sanitize everything either because that does sometimes more harm than good.
We are seeing a lot of children whose immune systems are completely. Not functioning the way they used to after the pandemic, because everybody's sanitized the. But GBS out of everything. Uh, and children's immune systems are not functioning the way they did. So we have to be aware of that. And allow children to experience playing in the dirt, playing outside.
All those kinds of things are important for children's immune systems as well. So, um, the impact on child development, when children, uh, have frequent illnesses, it can disrupt their learning and their development. So sick children are less likely to engage and they miss out on those critical social educational experiences as well.
So this is one of the factors when you see a child is not behaving like they normally do instantly eyes on eyes, on what's going on. Uh, okay. You you're feeling a little bit warm, right? You're okay to stay here right now. But if things go further south, I'm calling, I'm going to call a parent. They're going to come and get you, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You might not even say that to the child, but you're just going to watch them.
And then you're going to say out to the parent on pickup, if they don't improve. If they stay like this or get worse, please don't come to care tomorrow. Because something's going on for them. Maybe they just need a day at home. Maybe a grandparent can watch them tomorrow. Or an auntie or whatever, like your alternative care arrangement.
Maybe you can enact that so that your little one can stay home and just have the space that they need. Um, so it, it also really is important for your health that we are on top of families coming in when their children are unwell. We all know what that means. It has economic implications for you. Um, and for all the other families too, if something comes through and everybody gets it. It's never very fun and sometimes it can be a week or two. So we're doing a favor for everybody by holding this policy in place.
Um, we also have regular regulatory compliance that we need to. Adhere to as well. So there's the health and safety regulations. Um, now it's regulation, 77, 88 90 and 1 62. Ah, yes, I wrote that down. There's no way I could remember all of that. Um, so. It's it's. These are mandatory regulations that we have to adhere to.
It's the health and safety of children. And, um, there can be legal implications if we let a child come in with a communicable disease and we don't report that to the health department, we could be in serious trouble because that could significant could have a. Significant impact on everywhere else. You know, if there is a child that presents with measles, then they need to know that so that they can then monitor if there's an outbreak anywhere and put things in place. So whenever these sorts of things come up in your service and it's a reportable incident, you have to let your service know. Um, so it's about building trust with your families too.
Once you have this policy and you are. Down the line with it and you're consistent with it. Don't waver. Be consistent. Your families are going to learn very, very quickly and appreciate it. When someone else's child is sick. And you send them home immediately. You're trying to prevent their child from getting unwell so that they don't have interruption to their work. It works both ways.
And if you've got a parent that's consistently ignoring that, doesn't give a rip. You have to hold that line. You have to keep saying no, your child can't come or you need to come and collect your child. They're going to get annoyed and they going to move on somewhere else. Because they can't manipulate you. They can't keep breaching the policy. Like they're going to get annoyed. They'll move on, which will be better for you because you don't want someone who's constantly pushing against that boundary.
It's annoying. And frustrating. And you don't have to put up with that. So when you hold these boundaries, your families will either really appreciate or they'll self-select out because it doesn't suit them. And it's always better if they make the decision than you making the decision. Because you can't really complain when they're making that decision themselves. But I'm sure that building that trust with your families when you Inforce this consistently. Your families will stop pushing it and they'll start to police themselves.
They'll get to know this and go, ah, yeah, they can't come today and they'll just ring you and they'll say, Joey's not coming today. And you'll be like, oh, I'm so sorry to hear that. I hope they pick up really quickly. And move on. You won't have to have that conversation. So a new pet it's up to you to hold that space.
And it circles right back to the very first point that I made. It's up to you to hold that space. If you can't hold that space. Then you're doomed to be dealing with illness within your service on a regular and consistent basis. And you have nobody to blame, but yourself. So. Yeah. That's what I wanted to talk about with you today. I'm sorry.
I went on a few tangents and. Talks a lot. I hope you got some information out of it, and I hope that you go and download that wellness policy. That will be on our post when that's ready to go. Um, My daughter had surgery yesterday. So I was at the hospital with her for quite a few hours yesterday afternoon. Um, So she's okay.
She's well, it was a elective. She liked it. She had a boob reduction. Poor kid had four kilos of tissue removed four kilos, like holy moly. Um, she overachieved in that department.
Phenomenally. So she was, um, yeah, we went and hung out with her for a couple of hours yesterday after her operation, everything went well. So I'll be going there today. Uh, and putting the last touches on the download for you so that you can, um, go to the website. And download that. If you're listening after the 3rd of July, 2024, it will be in LinkedIn, the show notes so that you can go and get the download there. Um, and yeah, I, uh, I hope that you enjoy it.
I do love to hear feedback. So if you have questions. Or comments, or if there is a topic that you want me to talk about, And do some research on and perhaps make some downloads for you around just let me know, because I love when someone makes suggestions, this actually came up this question about how to deal with illness.
It's been on the radar for a little while, but how to deal with the illness came up in the, um, ask me anything questions that I put out on Friday. So. I'll be doing that again. And that was quite good to have the questions asked. There's a few other topics that I'll be talking about over the next couple of weeks from that post as well.
So. Thanks for listening. I hope that you get at least one little, oh my gosh. Oh, my gosh. That makes so much sense. I can do that. I hope that you get something out of today's podcast anyway. All right. My friendly friends. Thank you so much for joining me today. And I look forward to seeing you around
seen. Bye.
