When is it ever okay to let a child skip school? 

It is a question journalist and mother of young children Niamh O’Reilly recently considered after she “inadvertently” gave her nine year old a duvet day off school. 

 “It was sort of a situation where he seemed under the weather, he thought he was under the weather and we kind of called it that evening,” she explained on Lunchtime Live. 

“And we said, ‘Okay, sure, look, we'll keep you home tomorrow and see how this pans out.’

“But actually, when the morning came around, he was grand - he was jumping five bar gates, basically.

“But we kind of made the decision, we sort of missed the school run for him and stuff, so he just ended up having the day off.”

Children watching TV. Picture by: Alamy.com.

There is, Ms O’Reilly feels, a lot more pressure today than there was on children in previous generations. 

“There was very interesting research out recently from the Ombudsman for Children about children's mental health and where it is,” she said. 

“So, I think they are under different pressures than we were, but I'm not necessarily sure if duvet days are the solution. 

“Because even if they take a duvet day, they still have to go back in the next day.” 

However, while it might seem like a good idea in the short-term, Ms O’Reilly feels it is far from ideal as a solution. 

“I think it's probably better to kind of get to the root cause of maybe what's making them feel burnt out or they're feeling stressed or overwhelmed,” she said. 

“What is the reason for that? Because a duvet day might help in the short term, but I don't think they're a long-term solution.”

Main imahe: Childrenwith their mother. Picture by: Alamy.com.