So, why isn't this child acting sick?

Ok, you know what's almost worse than your kids getting sick? One of these annoying illnesses where they're running a 102 degree fever one minute and running around like nothing's wrong the next. Ugh!

Becca started off this whole adventure a week ago when she was running a fever of 100.3 last Thursday night when we got home from daycare/school/work/counseling appt. But no other symptoms and she was fine the next morning so we sent her to daycare anyway (sorry, B!). She never ran a fever again but did develop a chesty cough early this week.

Cue Miss Hannah, who got the fever Monday morning so was home from school. She complained of a sore throat and definitely seemed sick. And we kept her home the next day as well since she was still a bit feverish and her throat looked worse. Ron even took her to the doctor but was told it appeared to just be the 'crud' that's been going around. Ok, fine, whatever. No fever for Hannah since, although she's now gotten the same chesty cough as Becca. In fact, we can't tell which one of them's coughing when they're in bed at night. But Hannah's been running around just fine for 2 days now.

So then there's Abby. Who was running a fever over 102 degrees when Ron got home last night. But who asked him to pick Hannah up at school instead of her going to daycare at lunchtime today so she'd have someone to play with. Because she was bored. Ron took her to go get Hannah and Abby was running around the school just like nothing was wrong. And we kept this child out of school - for the first time ever, mind you - for this? When I went home at lunchtime today, Abby was doing card tricks (not very good ones) and then playing Go Fish with Hannah. But now, if the fever comes back, then we're supposed to keep her out of school again tomorrow...

Believe me, I have no problem with keeping the kids home if they are sick. And I definitely don't like the idea of sending them to school or daycare and potentially spreading germs to other people's kids as well as the teachers and staff. So why can't my kids act sick when they're sick? And how are you supposed to decide when it's appropriate to keep them home, if they are playing as if there's nothing wrong... I know the 'standard' rule is to keep them home until they've been fever-free for 24 hours, but that's hard to do when you've got to juggle which parent will get in the least amount of trouble for missing yet another day of work (total of 3 so far this week for Ron, which means that his paycheck probably won't even cover daycare for the week since we have to still pay the full cost for that).

So now I have no idea what to do about sending Abby to school tomorrow or about our trip to Mary's for the weekend. It's a gamble - is Abby still contagious or not? Will I come down with this annoying bug or not? I'm sure whichever direction I choose, I'll kick myself for not going the other...