Parenting Daily

When your teen says they’re sick, do you flash back on “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”? Well, maybe not so much during the summer—unless they have summer school! Hopefully by now you know whether your teen is genuinely sick or just sick of day-to-day responsibilities. If not, though, here are some things to keep in mind the next time your teen wants to call out sick.

Remember that you want to prepare your teen for the “real world.” In the real, adult working world, most of do have some sick days. And sometimes, admit it, you’re not always sick when you call out. Sometimes these can be referred to as “mental health days”.  If you have a teen that is hard-working 99% of the time and does well with an occasional brief break, why not let them have their little bluff illness day?

Mind you, I’m not advocating that you let them out of big responsibilities or anything like that, but if you know it’s a safe day for it and you know they’ll be better off with a break, it may not be the end of the world.

If, however, you have a teen that pulls the “I’m dying and need to stay home” routine far too often, without cause, then you need to really adopt a different stance. When I was working for a juvenile probation department, the rule with kids who liked to be truant (play hooky, be out sick too often, etc.) is that they must go to school each and every day. Once there, if the school nurse determined they were too sick to stay, then it would be an excused absence. Otherwise, they had to tough out the day.

On the flipside, be careful to monitor your teen’s activities if they are out for the day. You’d like to think they’re old enough that you can trust they’ll just stay at home and, if genuinely sick, be resting. But a phone call or two on the home landline won’t hurt (unless, of course, they’ve forwarded that line to their cell phones!). Even if you come home on your lunch break, it doesn’t have to be an obvious check-up. Bring them something you know would help them feel better and you’ll feel better, too, if you see they’re where they’re supposed to be!

Any other tips or lessons learned from sick teens? Drop me a line!