Honestly I don't know what the answer is. Having a kid stay home sick is a tremendous burden for working parents. Maybe it's not so bad if one parent is a homem

Honestly I don't know what the answer is. Having a kid stay home sick is a tremendous burden for working parents. Maybe it's not so bad if one parent is a homemaker, or if you have a network of family members to support you. Many families do not. It's quite difficult for us to manage on top of the many times school closes when work does not. We are both lucky enough to even have jobs that let you take a last minute personal day to care for your child, but many jobs do not work this way, or even if you can take off, you lose income. You're not going to keep a kid with a stuffy nose home if it means not having enough to make ends meet. Tough shit, right? But kids get minor colds a lot. In the winter they just infect each other (and us) all the time. Often, by the time they show symptoms the whole class has already been infected. The practical realities have to be acknowledged. The solution is to draw a line, on one side you are sick enough to be required to stay home, and on the other, oh well.