Manager scolds employee for leaving work early to pick up her sick 3-year-old son from daycare: 'He said I could have at least waited until a break.'

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Emmy Pratt • Writer and Editor
Jun 2, 2026 11:45 AM EDT

Should she have asked for permission to leave early? 

If you find yourself in an emergency situation, you shouldn't be pressured to attend to less important matters. If your house is on fire, you shouldn't be messaging your boss asking for updates on last month's numbers. It can be difficult to manage your priorities when your boss makes every little problem seem like the biggest deal in the world. If everything feels like a high-stakes emergency, you might have a harder time figuring out what actually needs to be addressed first.

What is more important, family or work? Without work, you wouldn't be able to feed your family. What's the point of working so hard if you don't have a family to support? Obviously, we all want to put our family above our work, because they are more important to us, but that doesn't always go over well with the boss. The mom in this story put her son's health above her job when he was in distress, and she got reprimanded for it. 

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  • A manager reprimanding his employee for leaving work early without telling him in person or asking for permission, even though she was leaving to pick up her feverish son from daycare, which definitely counts as a family emergency.
    via Getty Images (Unsplash+)

    A manager reprimanding his employee for leaving work early without telling him in person or asking for permission, even though she was leaving to pick up her feverish son from daycare, which definitely counts as a family emergency, which shouldn't require permission to attend to. 

  • Am I wrong for leaving a work meeting early without telling my manager because my kid's daycare called?

    My son is 3 and last Wednesday I was sitting in a two hour team meeting when my phone started buzzing. It was the daycare - he had spiked a fever and they needed
    via u/Stonks_Enjoyer_69
  • someone to pick him up within the hour, that's their policy. I stepped out quietly, texted my manager "sorry have to go, family emergency" and left. Didn't wait for a
    via u/Stonks_Enjoyer_69
  • response, didn't ask permission, just grabbed my stuff and went. When I got there he was pretty miserable, took him home, fever came
    via u/Stonks_Enjoyer_69
  • Cheezburger Image 10635602176
    via Vitolda Klein

    A sick, miserable little boy holds his teddy bear after his mom picked him up from daycare because he had a high fever.

  • down by evening and he was fine the next day so nothing serious in the end. But when I came back to work my manager sat me down and said leaving mid-meeting
    via u/Stonks_Enjoyer_69
  • without proper notice was unprofessional, especially because there were people from another department in the room. He said I could have at least waited until a break
    via u/Stonks_Enjoyer_69
  • or asked someone to cover for me somehow. I honestly don't know what "cover for me" even means in that context, I wasnt presenting anything, I was just sitting
    via u/Stonks_Enjoyer_69
  • there. He's been a bit off with me since and my coworker mentioned he brought it up after I left that day which made me feel worse. I don't regret leaving because there was
    via u/Stonks_Enjoyer_69
  • no version of that situation where I stay in a meeting while my kid is sick and alone, but now I keep thinking maybe I should have handled the exit differently at least.
    via u/Stonks_Enjoyer_69
  • HausDePotat NTJ. Your manager is weird.
    via u/HausDePotat
  • Stonks_Enjoyer_69 OP That's how it felt, I was honestly confused what else he expected me to do with a sick three year old.
    via u/Stonks_Enjoyer_69
  • MimZWay NTJ - you texted your manager you had a family emergency. That's all that's required in a situation like this. Family comes first.
    via u/MimZWay
  • Stonks_Enjoyer_69 OP That's what I thought too, I gave notice as soon as I could and didn't just vanish.
    via u/Stonks_Enjoyer_69

  • Would it have gone over better if she had clarified that her son was sick and needed to be picked up from daycare immediately? Maybe so, but employees shouldn't have to divulge intimate details about their personal lives to get the respect they deserve.

    “Family emergency” is vague enough that it could mean anything, but I bet the manager would be embarrassed if he knew the nature of the emergency after he behaved the way he did.

  • Oracle410 NTJ. I can't stand jobs that treat adults like they are in 6th grade. I own a business. If your work gets completed and you aren't having a family emergency every third day, at that point we are all adults. If you have to leave or handle something then do it. Obviously, I'd prefer if I had notice but unexpected stuff happens.
    via u/Oracle410
  • Stonks_Enjoyer_69 OP That's what bothered me, it felt like he wanted school-style permission for an actual family emergency.
    via u/Stonks_Enjoyer_69

  • The manager clearly doesn't trust his employee enough. He should know that she would never leave during a meeting like this for anything less than an emergency. 

  • CampaignVast1830 You DID tell your manager! NTJ - family emergencies permit us to break protocol, and the fact that he doesn't get that (and that he thinks there's such thing as "proper notice" when it comes to an emergency, which is usually unanticipateable) is stupid and dumb. And stupid.
    via u/CampaignVast1830
  • Beautiful_Bike_1823 My manager is like this. No clue. One time my kid had an accident and needed to be rushed to emergency. When I said "I have to go, I have an emergency" he said, "this will just take 5 mins" and proceeded to share his screen. Some people just don't care about anyone but themselves. I had an emergency again last week and he tried the same thing. I just said, "sorry this is an emergency" and he backed off. You have to be firm with these types as that's all they understand.
    via u/Beautiful_Bike_1823
  • Brief-Composer-6663 NTJ I think you handled it well. You did not create a scene or a distraction. Your manager is being weird and on some kind of trip.
    via u/Brief-Composer-6663
  • Away-Specific5361 YTJ. You shouldn't have left the meeting. Your kid was not "sick and alone"—he was at a daycare and if there was truly an emergency, they would have called 911. Your manager needs to know they can depend on you. Don't do that again if you want to be someone who can be relied upon a work. If you are uncertain that the daycare can take care of your son, find a new daycare.
    via u/Away-Specific5361

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daycare employee manager toddler meeting clients fever sick mom son
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