Why do people panic buy bread when it snows

Winter is depressing enough without being reduced to using UHT or powdered milk in your tea and going without hot buttered toast.

Hold my hands up to being guilty of forgetting the north of Scotland when talking about the amount of snow that’s fallen, but schools shutting still isn’t just about the teachers not living next door. DD works at a fairly remote school access wise and yes, lives about 8 miles away, but she doesn’t make the decision to not go in if the weather is bad, it’s actually the school caretaker who advises the head teacher if it’s safe to open the school having considered access via the roads, ability to clear the grounds etc

I wonder this too. They buy bread and milk as though we’re living in the 40s and would be able to magic up three meals and snacks from a pint and half a loaf.
This country (or the south anyway) has never been able to deal with snow. I remember snow days as a kid where the roads were shut or buses weren’t running. But down here it snows a couple of days of the year at most. Heat seems to be becoming a much bigger problem

Flour was impossible to get during Covid too. Apparently parents were buying it for their children to make play dough. Pasta also became very scarce.

I was some 18 months old during the 62/63 winter so don’t remember it but have photos courtesy of my dad.

yes it snowed yesterday evening around my area, but I think the main roads must be okay because the primary school is open. I have an appointment at the drs Wednesday so I'm going to venture out then but I'm not panicking because I bought most items I need at the weekend.

Only if you have a big enough freezer.
Yes they are a staple food but you can survive without for a few days.
I just think there's better food/drink to stock up on if you're going to be stuck indoors for several days.

Can you imagine what would have now if heads decided to open schools regardless?

What would happen if there were literally not enough teachers to staff the place and accidents happened? The laws and regulations for schools are completely different now to how they were in the 60s or even the 80s.

Angry parents would be all over Mumsnet/facebook complaining and people would be telling them to sue the school for not protecting their child. Phrases like 'in loco parentis' would be bandied about. If schools are opening, they must be confident that they have enough staff to keep the children safe and that they can make the grounds safe.

You can blame stamp duty for the school teacher thing by the way. It was very very normal to move for a job before the 90s even if only ten or twenty miles. Now you’d be bankrupted by doing this. Knock on consequence is more people with longer commute, busier roads, more road deaths, more pollution. Thanks Labour.

The "alerts" are fine are just warnings and information you can do with it what you want.

When I started teaching in the 1980s if our route to school was blocked by snow, we were expected to report to our local school for the day - primary, secondary, whatever. I'll always remember our burly rugby playing head of geography, seriously traumatized by a day in charge of a reception class!
Of course, we worked for the local authority then, not just for one local school.

In the NE of Scotland there has been a huge amount of snow.

As has already been stated, most teachers do not live within walking distances of schools anymore. Our school in rural Aberdeenshire is shut today, alongside the main A road which gets here, so what's the solution to that exactly?

You can freeze bread and milk and they are still staple foods for many.

Our school only closed when the coal lorry couldnt get in,and we had no heating.

I think that consumption shifts. My Tesco order has been cancelled which is in the nearest city. I have food but stocked up on milk/ bread as we get through loads locally.

Icy school ground, we used to make it worse by sliding on it Happy days

People certainly don’t seem to know how to cope with a bit of bad weather anymore, we’ve hardly had huge falls of snow but we have weather warnings about travel and how cold it is. As for schools, I’m not sure they shut purely because teachers don’t live on the-doorstep, it’s as much about access and the ability to keep the schools premises as clear as possible because, as others have said, heaven help the school if someone’s child slips on the ice and actually hurts themselves,

Oh and if my employer expected me to sleep on a camp bed in the office so as not to miss work the following day I would be looking for a new job.

I don't. I usually go to the office on Monday but I am not driving in the snow. Decided to WFH.

How has a thread about panic buying bread turned into an attack on teachers?!

Disclaimer - I am not a teacher.

I remember 1963. My school remained shut after Xmas because it only had outside toilets which were frozen up The snow banked on the sides of the road was taller than me - this was Cardiff

Insurance is another huge issue for schools so one teacher supervising more than their usual class size is no longer an option. Not because they can’t or don’t want to do it but because the school would be open to litigation should anything happen to a child in these circumstances. Same situation for icy school grounds.

Because we are a nation of ❄️😆zero resilience!

That's brought back some memories! We lived on a farm and I had a 4 mile walk to school. I was 6 so my mother usually walked most of the way with me but came onto the grounds with me that day. She decided that I should wear my trousers under my skirt and take them off when I got to school and she would take them and my wellies home with her. As we weren't allowed into the building until the teacher was there (she drove in and was always late), this happened out in the snow. My teacher witnessed Mum helping me change, saw trousers were involved and tore a strip off her. Mum gave back as good as she got and I started the day cold, with wet socks, and very very upset. The caretaker witnessed all this and grabbed my mother on her way out and said that the next day I could change in the boiler room and leave my stuff there. So the next day, we did that. Said teacher saw me coming out and that day the caretaker got a bollocking! What happened for the rest of that winter, I can't remember, though have a vague feeling that Mum went to the headmaster and sorted it out.

There are lots of things we could do as children of the 70s/80s that wouldn’t be considered acceptable now.

We live in a more litigious, health and safety conscious society now and less risk will be taken because of it.

Many people don’t have the money or space to have a plentiful supply of food, those that do should recognise their privilege.

Welcome to the real world teachers! Everyone else has to drive to work in it.

Rubbish. When the weather is like this, there are endless threads discussing whether people should be allowed to WFH.