When the parent-work balancing act gets queasy
ELEANOR BEATON
Globe and Mail
November 29, 2008

'It was hell!"

Michelle Costello may laugh when she describes the challenges of juggling a career and caring for sick preschoolers, but she's not joking.

For parents of young children who are still building up their immune systems, the mid-November advent of flu season means weeks of caring for kids with virtually non-stop runny noses, ear aches, sore throats and fevers.

…. the manager with the federal government in Ottawa either had to scramble to find alternate care when her kids got sick, or stay home from work.

"At some points, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to come to work the next day or not," says Ms. Costello, who estimates she missed as many as 15 days of work per winter to take care of her daughters, now 5 and 8, when they first started daycare.

Some working parents say that juggling sick kids and a demanding job is among the most stressful career experiences….

REDEFINE SICK DAYS

HR experts say sick days - the number of days, usually 10, that employees are allotted to stay at home for illness without affecting compensation - don't provide enough flexibility for working parents, because you can only use them if you're the one who's sick. That puts parents in the awkward position of having to fake an illness to stay at home with sick kids….

THE FLEXIBLE OFFICE

Flexible work arrangements, such as setting up employees to work from home or allowing for flextime, is one of the most effective things employers can do to mitigate work absence or the stress related to caring for sick children, HR managers and parents say….