Working Moms - Howell,MI

I have a pretty great boss and I could easily give her a call and just tell her that I am behind at home and need the day off. I am grateful for that.

See I always say I am going to clean but then I get back on the damn computer. :(

I don't think I have ever took a full day off but there are days where the work is slow and I bail.

I've done it to take a break from life, to clean and/or to do a date day with my husband. Playing hooky is good for the soul sometimes. I find being irresponsible for that little while recharges my back up batteries very nicely.

Don't work too hard around the house. Make sure you rest for the migraine! Enjoy the needed break!

Yes as often and frequently as necessary. My youngest is 16 and I still need mental health days from work.

Enjoy your day for me too.

In my work it was agreed with the boss that “sick” days can also be used as vacation days but if we get sick, than we have to use those same vacation days. By doing that, we can just take the day without remorse and do whatever we please without worrying about getting caught or anything.
It has actually helped a lot because nobody wants to take a vacation day unless you have plans and most of the time, you let the people at the office know ahead of time and leave everything up to date when you take the day off.

Because of this, and other "non sick" sick days, our employer eliminated unlimited sick days and gave everyone on a "paid time off" kitty.

Maybe you should R&R, the house can wait.

Good luck to you and yours,
F. B.

I'm pretty sure that's not a migraine you have if you can drive and do housework. A bad headache perhaps? But, I'm being pedantic. I haven't done this, but I know many people who have taken the occasional 'mental health day'.

Good for you! Enjoy your day!

I don't think I have ever done that to clean the house. But there have been a few times that I am drained that I call in and stay in bed all day. House work is not relaxing to me. My oldest helps me with the house work so I perfer to do that stuff when he's home and I have help with it.

Once or twice. Only when like you, I do feel lousy but maybe not so horrendous I can't get anything done. I've definitely done it with vacation days though. And your migraine may feel better once you feel more caught up on stuff... You can call it a "mental health day".

Yes, probably twice a year I do this...usually when the weather is crappy, the house work is piling up, and we have no food in the house.....I take full advantage! Drop the kids off and GET IT DONE!!! And, truthfully, I feel no guilt about it!

YES, YES, and YES. We are only one person not superwoman, even if we like to think we are, personally I don't have the body for superwoman. Just to be able to see my house all clean at once is better than a Xanax. I'm not obsessed, but really at some point the mountains and mole hills have to be cleaned up. Don't feel guilty; we have enough on our plates with out adding anymore guilt. Happy Cleaning!

Updated

Added note: It does NOT sound like you are taking advantage of your employer. It does NOT sound like you call in sick once a week or once a month. It does NOT sound like your morals are out of whack. It does sound like you are a good mom, cook, house keeper, teacher, taxi service, account, employee, doctor (hats we all wear) and a sane person, especially with your ONE sick day.

No. I have never called in "sick" to have a day at home. It's for this reason that if I say I'm sick, there is no question. And, I'm at home taking it easy and resting as you're supposed to do when you're sick.

I work with someone who took over a week off claiming to be sick but she didn't go to the doctor, had no note or documentation. However, she was seen at the mall shopping, had a birthday party for her son, went to her kids sports games. The thing is, she asked for the week off that her kids would be out of school and she was told no because we were so short staffed and it left only two people in the office. So, she said she was "sick" and took it off anyway.
My boss is very gracious with allowing personal time off, but not when it's a skeleton staff in the office as it is. She had no concern for any of that.

I don't know. I think if you need a personal day, call it what it is.
If you're really sick, stay home and down so you can get better.

Just my opinion.

Yes, I totally do this.

Yes, but I usually took it as a personal day. That way it didn't look like I was sick very much and I could plan ahead to get extra trash bags, have some chores sorted out I wanted to get done....

YES - and it's wonderful to get so much done. It's called a mental health day. :)

I have never taken a full day off if it wasn't planned in advance or for something fun that my boss already knows about. I've taken a few hours to get things done though.

Sometimes a quiet house is my battery recharger!

I've not done that myself, but it's absolutely legitimate. Self-care is more important than most people realize. I'm willing to bet that the state of the house was making you anxious, grumpy, overwhelmed, inadequate, or one of the other myriad of guilt related emotions that woman are so prone to. If it made you feel better to get your house to a state that you could live with, then not only is it not a bad thing, but it was the right thing to do. If you felt better at the end of the day, then you had healed yourself. Good for you.
(I have however, kept my son home from school so that we could get the homework done that wasn't getting done because with my 2 jobs - more than full-time - I hadn't been able to support him to get it done in the evenings.)

girl yes! the other day, or maybe every other month or so i have to take off early, approx 2 or so to go home due to headaches, like you. i'm a single working mom & it's my ONLY break from my son & work at the same time, lol.
i came in the next day & told my boss i did it & she said as long as i was caught up & had the leave it was okay! SWEET!
in addition, re: cleaning house - of course! when i work from home sometimes that's what i do, too! meaning....load the dishwasher & a load of clothes...work, document, make calls, move clothes to dryer, pay a bill or two, work some more, unload dishwasher, etc.,etc.
it's a must when you're a single mom or working mom at that to do what you need to do however you can!

No, but I've taken vacation days to do this. IMO if I am well enough to clean, I'm well enough to work. If I were sick enough to call out of work, then I would actually rest and relax to try to shake off whatever was making me ill. But every company treats sick and vacation days differently - for us, we have only so many vacation days but unlimited sick days so I don't use sick days for anything other illness. If your company treats sick and vacation the same way, then it doesn't matter what you call your day off. Enjoy the day and feel better soon!

Ugh, I wish I had the courage to do that... I feel too much karma about calling in sick when I'm not really sick.
It sounds nice. I'm kinda jealous of you right now.

I guess I feel I get enough sporadic breaks to keep me afloat (since I work in a school I get all the legal holidays plus winter and spring break). But thats not the same as a full day to yourself... I like that idea.

I have a friend that goes home for a 1/2 hour after work before getting her kids from daycare. I think that is a great idea too!

Put the broom down!! You stayed home sick. Lay your butt down on the couch and clean out the dvr. (catch up on your shows) :)

I haven't called in for housework, but I have taken vacation days when the kids are in school and dad is working. We usually go from bed to work to kids to cook to clean to bed, repeat! It's so great to have control of my day and get to make choices!

Well.... you ARE sick.... sick of working.... sick of having a messy house....sick of never having time to yourself.....

Don't feel guilty. You earned the sick days just as much as you earned vacation days. Unless your employer requires a doctor's note, I wouldn't sweat it. :D

I've done it... not to clean the house, but I've taken a "personal" day here and there. I'm taking one in a couple of weeks to spend my little guys birthday with him.... we're going to spend the day at dinosaur world. :) He doesn't know it yet!