‘Now is the winter of our discontent,’ wrote William Shakespeare for the opening line of his play, Richard III.
That line was written sometime in the 1590s but it has resonated a couple of centuries now – and taken on a completely new meaning beyond the fate of old mate Richard.
I think Shakespeare, visionary that he was, could have just as easily been writing of 21st century working parents with children spending their first winter in childcare.
‘Tis the season for snotty noses, tickly throats, hacking coughs and rattling chests. Throw 50 or so children in a building, crank up the ducted heating, and watch those medical maladies spread like wildfire.
Children are not known for their personal hygiene practices, and despite the best efforts of staff, it is inevitable that air-borne viruses make their way round the centre.
My two daughters are spending their first winter at childcare.
It is just two days a week, but their immune systems have taken a battering – and so have my sick days.
So far, we have battled tonsillitis, hand foot mouth disease, slime-green snot and high temperatures; and this is all in the last four weeks. Who knows what the next three months hold.
When it is clear that one of our children are unwell, my husband and I enter in to that uncomfortable dance of figuring out whose work is more important the next day and which one of us is going to call up sick.
We want to keep the children home so they can rest and recover (and not spread their germs) but we both hate to feel like we are letting work down by skiving off.
It must be a real struggle for single parents with nobody to share the load, or for parents who work casually and lose a day’s pay, while still having to fork out for a day at childcare.
Shakespeare and his wife, Anne Hathaway had three kids; by the time they were toddlers Shakespeare was a growing success in London and Anne was at home, probably tending to the kids winter illnesses by the hearth.
While Anne did not have to argue with William over who would be call up sick, she did have much more serious concerns – one of their children died from the bubonic plague, at a time when more than a third of English children died before their 10th birthday.
While modern parenting has its challenges, I sure am thankful that it also has bulk-billing GP clinics, antibiotics, children’s Panadol, and paid sick leave.
– Jade Glen
