Missing work for an obscene number of sick days has been causing a lot of stress. My husband doesn't have much flexibility. I have a fair amount of flexibility, as about 85% of my job is office work to meet a deadline, but then sicks days cause stress of falling further behind and struggling to keep up. And stress in the event they overlap with something I can't miss: then how is DH going to manage to get away to cover? Or what happens if he's traveling?

A father in LO's daycare class says he's used care.com's backup care service when his daughter has been sick (only a few days this year, I'm not jealous ) and he found it very professional and was very pleased. My employer provides a subscription to the service (you pay for the childcare but there's some fee to access it that they cover). I hadn't even considered it because I feel horrible leaving LO with a stranger when he's sick and obviously you're relying on care.com for the quality, as there's no way to vet a babysitter last minute. And what if he gets really sick and the babysitter is not that attentive...

Have you used this type of backup care or would you consider it in a pinch? I feel like knowing that I could have childcare when I'm really in a bind would relieve a ton of latent stress that I've had lately... But I am still hesitant to try it and feel like maybe I should just do everything to make caring for LO myself work....