My kids are off sick more when I WFH – it’s easier than battling the school run

My daughter, Lola, eight, is at home from school mildly unwell – and I’m working from home. She’s watching The Borrowers while curled up in bed. I give her the odd reassuring cuddle and a spoonful of Calpol then I get back to my job. Is it a nightmare? No, it’s absolute bliss.

It’s one less P.E bag and packed lunch to make in the morning – and it’s like a holiday from the school run.

I got a call from her primary school on Tuesday to say she was vomiting in the Science Museum while on a school trip. I dashed off to collect her and dutifully keep her home, but, to be honest, I’m dragging it out now.

She genuinely had norovirus and looks a bit peaky still – but she hasn’t been sick for 48 hours. Many working mums would have sent her back like a shot – but not me.

I may as well be a case study for those work-from-home mums that the Ofsted boss has suggested keep their children off school with them because it makes life easier, not harder.

Sir Martyn Oliver, who will shortly launch his first annual report as Ofsted’s chief inspector, told Good Morning Britain (GMB) that the trend is noticeable in dwindling school numbers on Fridays – which, let’s face it, is the day that most people opt to work from home.

And he blames the “phenomenon” of home working on pandemic lockdowns, which is now having an impact on pupil absences.

"Pre-pandemic, we used to notice as headteachers and teachers that if parents did work from home they would send their children in,” he said. But now post-pandemic we also see parents are working from home and sometimes they keep their children off with them.”

Of course, there are those diehard mums who will clamour, “But isn’t it hell having a child at home while you’re trying to work?” It’s true, it can be tricky. But it all depends on the age of the child.

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There was the time when my youngest daughter Liberty, now six, was a toddler and watched her iPad in bed for six hours with headphones on while eating Pom Bears because I was on deadline and didn’t even have time to take her temperature. Never again! But now my children are at primary school, and more independent, to keep them at home for a day or two is actually a relief.

Sir Oliver has definitely hit the nail on the head with his findings. On the days I work from home, I’m way more likely to be sympathetic to claims of tummy ache or a mild sore throat.

It’s often most appealing near the end of term, like now, when we are all flagging from the full-on school timetable. Having even one child at home and the other at school – as is the case for me at the moment – is one less person to drag out of bed, give breakfast to, and get dressed. Oh, and to remind to clean their teeth.

It’s stressful for any working mum to have to drop kids off at school before starting work. I share the school run, so if one of my children is sick, the other mum takes over. It was particularly lovely this morning as it was raining – and although I offered to take Lola along for the ride and leave her in the car, the mum insisted on doing it. She knows she’ll need a favour soon.

As a result, I started work earlier and was more focused. Rather than screeching the car to a halt outside my flat and running to my laptop, I had a few moments of reflection. I walked at a normal pace, not like the Road Runner. I didn’t get annoyed with the dog, I was super relaxed.

I know a no-nonsense attitude to children attending school is vital, and some mums can’t work from home. The trend of working only from home has fallen since 2021, according to the National Office for Statistics survey earlier this year, and a hybrid-working model that’s part office-based and part at home has become the “new normal” for around a quarter of workers. According to a 2023 workingmums.co.uk survey, 26 per cent of working mums work remotely some of the time and 22 per cent all of the time.

But I bet a lot of those parents – particularly single mums like me – would agree that something has to give. If it’s not a bother to get your child to school, then it’s a bonus.

My children love school and are doing well, so I’m not worried about them missing the odd day. I am also a jellyfish parent and believe in letting them be. I get fed up with parents who turn up at the school gate with children coughing their guts out and who lie to the school that their child hasn’t vomited in the last 48 hours when they look half-dead.

There has to be a balance, but the odd away day is no bad thing for us working parents. However, now that it’s day three of Lola at home, I have to confess it’s getting a bit annoying, if only because she’s much better.

I might have had an easier day, but now I’m faced with her pacing around the place, asking for the glue and scissors or the iPad charger. The truth is, I can’t wait for her to go back to school tomorrow – and neither can she.