ADs teach twisted lyrics to their pet tortoise

[BogRollBOGOF]

Crawling back to normality slightly slower than a tortoise taking the scenic route...

Previous thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/4173705-ADs-picnic-in-the-park-with-Twinkle-the-Tortoise

So, schools have been back for two weeks now, and infections are still falling albeit slower but falling. Why are people still shouting that it'll take another two weeks to see the effect on infections? Given that it the longest incubation period is 2 weeks...how long before they admit they were wrong?

Where do my fellow ADs stand on testing primary children/their families with the lft tests twice a week? I personally am not doing it, due to the rate of false positives and the amount of school that ds could end up missing because of that. But also, and I know it sounds batshit crazy but I feel like they've been "marketed" to us as the responsible thing to do. But realistically they're just wanting to use the cast offs from the governments operation moonshot bollocks that they'll never admit they didn't need.....

I waver on some things but on tests for primary children, absolutely not!

Schools need to make up their minds and either open fully and let the children get on with things without invasive testing or admit they think children are disgusting little disease spreaders that teachers (no disrespect to teachers as I think a lot of this is admin) shouldn't have to be in the same room with and shut for good.

I'm not doing any tests for primary age DD or the rest of us. Not when they are so inaccurate. Even when her bubble burst and lots of other parents in the class were testing; I just don't see the point.

And surely there will come a point when sending home close contacts or closing school year groups is seen as more disruption than its worth.
How many +ve cases in schools led to other +ves in schools?

I think it's fine for the tests to be available; they may reassure some of the worried. They mustn't be compulsory (including by teacher/peer pressure) though.

That I agree with.

The testing must be terrible for people who know they're financially screwed if they have to isolate for two weeks when in fact it's a false positive. There's very little evidence anyway around asymptomatic transmission or primary age transmission.

We're not doing the primary testing. I have to for work and am grudgingly doing secondary DC. DH, who is normal much more ablidging and easy going than me, doesn't want to. My DM is in our bubble and is even more of an AD than me and so there's no way she'd do it. That leaves DD and I'm not making her do it.

Our primary hasn't mentioned testing. It's bad enough trying to brush the DC's teeth!
I'm not sure that I could safely get DS1 tested even if we had to so might have to go down the precautionary isolation route in the event of symptoms.

At the moment our neighbourhood has been loitering at 2-4 cases per week. Other than the DCs going to school and my weekly late night shopping in empty supermarkets, we're not doing anything indoors. So for the next while the only place where we'd feasibly become exposed is via school itself, which means another classmate had it first anyway... or staff...

Playground rumours were a parent testing positive from another year group, spouse has LFTs for work so they probably picked it up via that method, but it's not spread into that year group. That child has no in-school siblings so it would be pretty contained amyway.

I agree with 101A, tests available for those who want one but it should never be compulsory.

I don’t remember this angst when norovirus used to rampage through schools on a regular basis. Surely that is also highly contagious and a threat to the elderly and vulnerable. Some parents were quite open about the fact they ignored the 48 hour rule.

True! I remember when some of my DC were babies, they were offered the rotavirus vaccine. That was one I had zero hesitation about. My main question was is there one for adults?

And actually, it seems to have been effective. They really don't get any stomach bugs at all. I used to have them a lot as a child and was dreading catching them from my children but it's happened only once so far.

Our primary has mentioned testing as an option but we're not doing them. A colleague says he has to do twice weekly tests as he lives with adults who work in schools. I can't see how this can be compulsory for him, who isn't even employed by the school himself but he seems to think so. It's probably 'encouraged'.

Last time I was in a post office @AcornAutumn (early December) , I was not allowed to buy any stamps that needed licking, due to the rules. The shop assistant/ postmistress and I exchanged eye rolls!

Mercy thank you, I've even debated calling a couple of exes who I know will come over. Didn't actually do it.

Taswama I must admit, I didn't know they still sold stamps like that, I thought they all had glue on them now.

The commemorative ones are usually still the traditional variety, maybe because the volumes sold are lower than standard first or second or Christmas ones. We had laugh at the idea that she would lick them all before selling them to me.

DP had a long chat with a friend from uni last night. He told DP how his daughters are each bubbled up with their respective boyfriends, and his wife is bubbled up with her elderly mum. Cheered me up no end to hear of someone else's flexible interpretation of the rules.
Like MrsDeacon , we have friends and family across the country (and the world). Which was fine until this last 12 months when it would have been nice to be able to see mum or MIL for a walk in the park. My mum certainly would have been happy to do that if only we were local enough.

@Taswama

DP had a long chat with a friend from uni last night. He told DP how his daughters are each bubbled up with their respective boyfriends, and his wife is bubbled up with her elderly mum. Cheered me up no end to hear of someone else's flexible interpretation of the rules. Like MrsDeacon , we have friends and family across the country (and the world). Which was fine until this last 12 months when it would have been nice to be able to see mum or MIL for a walk in the park. My mum certainly would have been happy to do that if only we were local enough.

I need to advertise for friends who are willing to meet

The sad thing is, as a long term depressive, anyone could visit me on MH grounds and if the police check, they can see I've been registered with the MH team for years and take a LOT of meds.

But no one will come.

DS gone back to university, haven't seen him since Xmas, so much work to do doesn't know I he's home for Easter it's sure tough for so many

Hiya, sorry I've not been around for a while! Hope everyone is doing okay - still sane - not too, too, too fed up, etc.

All okay here - school return has gone fine for DH and DC and it's been nice to see them enjoying a bit of normality. I've had a bit of a setback, in that I've been feeling tired and rubbish for a couple of weeks. Got some blood tests done and the results on my FBC were a bit all over the place. So it's back for more prodding and poking on Monday. I'm a bit nervous, crossing fingers that it is just an anomaly or whatever.

Fingers crossed for you! And glad to see you back.

@Jourdain11 good luck for Monday, hope it goes well. Good to see you again.

@AcornAutumn If I were closer I’d happily pop round to you for a coffee and a chat. My friends are similar, all absolutely petrified for some bizarre reason. Not one with any underlying health conditions but apparently Covid is a death sentence to them all

Good luck on Monday @Jourdain11

Good luck next week @Jourdain11

Good luck for Monday @Jourdain11

Good luck Jourdain

My day can be summed up by a pleasant bloody walk and minecraft.

After 12 months of watching youtube videos about it, I've picked up quite a lot of knowledge