My little girl is currently at home, off school with a nasty bout of flu and a throat infection. She has been under a duvet on the sofa for five days – three of which were school days – and I am quietly (most of the time) going mad. I'm not sure who has the worst cabin fever, her or me.

But it's not really the cabin fever that gets to me. Even though six out of the 16 kids in her class were actually present today (that's almost two thirds absent), all with various strains of the flu and associated infections, I still felt guilty for her not being there, for her missing school and for me missing a couple of appointments.

Feeling guilty for not sending a sick child to child care or school is simply ridiculous on several levels:

1. You should never send a sick child to child care or to school anyway. It's neither good for their health nor for the health of others
2. Other parents whose children went with hacking coughs and snotty noses are not in the right. So I should not feel like I've been soft or a pushover for allowing my genuinely sick child to stay at home
3. Employers, colleagues and associates or clients should equally not make parents feel guilty for postponing appointments. A great number of them are parents too and so they should understand.

Sophie Cross is a public relations consultant and writer who has publicised and written about everything from makeup to The Muppets, child care to celebrity chefs and perfume to Partners in Population and Development! Originally from the UK and as a languages graduate she has worked around the world, living in Australia for the last 11 years where she runs, PR Chicks.

She lives and works remotely from her little piece of Spanish heaven in Chite, the Lecrin Valley, just south of Granada. And FYI it's pronounced "ch-ee-tay" not shite.

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So why do I feel like this? I work from home, for myself and I still feel guilty, so I can only imagine what office-bound employees feel.

So let's get one thing straight. Working parents are parents first and workers second. And that's the way it should be. Bosses are also parents and should therefore understand a parent's predicament when a child is sick.

Parents can't just palm off a sick child on some poor babysitter. A sick child needs their mummy or daddy to take care of them and comfort them. And to be honest if the kids have got the lurgy, the parents most likely have as well and shouldn't go into work for that reason alone.

Surely your oh-so-dedicated colleagues would much rather you kept your and your children's germs away from them?

But no, colleagues and bosses have a special way of making you feel like your priorities are all wrong or that you're actually shirking work for staying at home with your sick child. It's the sarcastic remarks, the tone of voice and anecdotes about how they used to have to go to school regardless of whether they were sick or not.

I can reassure all of them, I would rather be in a nice adult-friendly, civilised, coffee-filled, germ-free office than at home where I am at the beck and call of a whiney child with a sore throat. (Although many bosses and colleagues can sound like they are just that!)

I have been so bad at putting meetings and deadlines over my child's illness that I have actually driven her, complaining of a sore tummy, to school, only to have her throw up in the back of the car about two minutes from the gates.

Generally speaking my little girl is pretty robust, but like all kids she has the odd wobble form time to time, when she's fine, but simply doesn't want to go. And that's fine too. School and preschool are hard for kids. Exhausting in fact. And the odd duvet day doesn't do any harm, for child or parent.

So my resolution is this: I will no longer put my work before my child's welfare. And employers, clients, colleagues and other parents will just have to suck it up.