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For those with sick children, how long has it taken till the kids are feeling well enough to go back to school?

For us it's been about 5 days out of school/work.
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many folks don't have paid sick days and can't afford to be sick or take time off to care for a sick family member.

I'm pretty lucky. I'm a municipal employee who's employer is leaning heavily towards not charging sick/vacation time if you are taking care of sick family members. In my case my employer shorted me in vacation time and when it was corrected I had over six weeks of accumulated vacation time on my hands. So I was off these particular weeks anyway. Just lucky.
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If it ain't bleeding, it doesn't hurt.