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AIBU?

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Original poster

Workmates and snow!

183 replies

ACSlater · 20/01/2015 18:44

It isn't even snowing here yet but people are already saying they can't come in tomorrow because they need to stay at home to look after their 32 year old! Drives me up the wall!!!

AIBU to think they should have a contingency plan?!!!

OP posts:
forwarding · 20/01/2015 19:48

It seems the whole Brit psyche is just geared up to see snow as a problem, whereas other countries just get on with it.

If it snows here, the main roads are gritted in good time so that main routes into school and work are open. Everyone has winter tyres and buses put huge treads on so they can plough through anything. So because you've got winter tyres even if your lane isn't gritted or your driveway you can still get out.

There aren't massive traffic jams because the roads are cleared and vehicles are prepared for the conditions.

Schools don't close because there's no problem getting there. If the playground isn't safe the kids stay inside at playtime.

Life continues as per usual.

Obviously every so often there is a huge dump and everyone has to take a bit more time or there might be some localised issues. Equally there might be nothing for a couple of years and everyone poodles about with their snow tyres on for little reason until Easter. Such is life.

shatteredboo · 20/01/2015 19:52

Oh I can't be bothered to keep repeating myself.

clam · 20/01/2015 19:54

So, forwarding, you live in a place where winter tyres are the norm, presumably due to harsh winters? Then clearly it is worth your while to kit your child out in snow wear each year. In the south of England it rarely gets as cold as it is at the moment. So the £22 cost you mention would be far more of an outlay here to a struggling family, relative to likely usage.

feebeecat · 20/01/2015 19:58

Our primary has shut once in 7 years. Local senior shut more often, but have bigger volumes travelling longer distances.
Policy at work is if you can travel for an hour, even on foot, and get to the nearest office, (civil service) go there. What the heck we're supposed to do then is anybody's guess Grin
But, YANBU - we have a light smattering of snow, promised to turn to rain in small hours & the declarations of 'I won't be in tomorrow' were rife by lunchtime!

forwarding · 20/01/2015 19:59

As I said previously, we have roughly the same weather in this region as in the UK.

pieceofpurplesky · 20/01/2015 20:00

You have just answered your own argument forward. We rarely have an issue here and if we do there are some delays and closures - you have just said that "there might be some localised issues" - so even though you are mightily prepared for bad weather if it goes really bad things change.
Just like here Hmm

winewolfhowls · 20/01/2015 20:06

Deciding factor at our local school is if public transport is running.

YouTheCat · 20/01/2015 20:13

It's expected at ours, that if public transport is running but you can't drive in the snow, you will walk a bit and get on a bus. I've only known the buses be off about 3 times in the 25 years I've lived here. Most of our intake are local and most of the staff are too.

When I was at school in Lincolnshire, so pretty rural, school did occasionally shut due to snow but it had to be very bad for that to happen.

TheFairyCaravan · 20/01/2015 20:17

We live rurally and I think our DSes had 2 snow days in all the time they were at seconday school. DS2 is on his last winter so he might squeeze another one out yet, but I doubt it. I remember them trekking off to catch the bus when we'd had about 4 inches lying for at least 3 weeks, and my sister posted on Fb a picture of Her kids having a snow day in a city centre down south and it look like someone had sprinkled icing sugar on the path! DH had to go in late once because he had to dig the car out, but he managed his 49 mile rural commute.

The best thing that has happened due to people not going out because of snow is once I had a hospital appointment and practically everyone else cancelled, so I had an hour with the consutlant! Ironically I've got another one tomorrow and I will definitely be going!

Pipbin · 20/01/2015 20:24

Oh FFS, it is not worth while putting winter tyres on in much of the uk for the one fucking week in the year when it goes below freezing. It's not even legal to have snow chains on your car here.
If you aren't in the uk Forward then I fail to see what problem you have with the mythical mass closures of school.

TooExtraImmatureCheddar · 20/01/2015 20:26

I used to get heaps of days off school for snow. NE Scotland. The local radio would list all the buses that were cancelled and we'd all listen with bated breath as we got dressed. Then it was sledging time! And a tiny bit of snow didn't count, it had to be quite a lot. If we were at school and a blizzard started we got sent home. Bus kids fairly frequently, town kids rarely. All bus kids had to have a nominated place to stay in town if it was too bad to send them home by bus. Happy days!

Tyzer85 · 20/01/2015 20:30

A few years ago it snowed heavily, I commuted from Surrey to Essex via train to work on a Monday morning and I was literally the only one in my team who made the effort. Pissed off wasn't the word.

Summerisle1 · 20/01/2015 20:36

Most people don't put winter tyres on in the UK, forwarding. Mainly because in some years (last winter being a classic example) here in the Southern parts of the UK we didn't actually have any snow. In fact, we didn't actually have a winter really. Just rain, storms and flooding. So all the snow precautions in the world would have been pointless.

We aren't "ready" for winter in the same way that other countries are because we simply don't get snow in any quantity very often. At best we get cold snaps and occasional light dustings of snow. So when we get it, snow causes chaos. Of course, the chaos could be avoided if we invested in the sort of snow equipment people take for granted in countries where they get snow but that makes no sense at all given the reality of our winters.

chicaguapa · 20/01/2015 20:38

DC are hoping school will be closed tomorrow but there's no chance in Hampshire.

A couple of years ago the head at one of the secondary schools received loads of complaints because he'd kept the school open, only half the students got there and then the bus company cancelled the rest of the school buses and a lot of them couldn't get home. It was chaos! Cue lots of angry parents. You can't win for trying sometimes. Hmm

YouTheCat · 20/01/2015 20:39

You don't need snow equipment for a light dusting of snow - and I have seen friends' kids off school in the South when there is less than a centimetre.

clam · 20/01/2015 20:42

And all those dailymail readers people who persist in mentioning that planes continue to operate in very low temperatures and deep snow in the northern regions of Canada, tend to forget that they those airports have about one plane arriving/departing an hour, and their de-icing machines can cope. Not quite the same issue at Heathrow, possibly the busiest airport in the world, where hundreds are scheduled and the system very quickly can grind to a halt.

Moreisnnogedag · 20/01/2015 20:42

I've checked - snow tyres are about £200 to buy. That's one heck of an outlay for most people.

I live rurally surrounded by steep hills on all exits out the village. The main trunk road wasn't gritted and people were driving like idiots on it. So no, if it snows heavily, it's a snow day for me. Because you know what, as much as it pains me to say, I am not indispensable.

MrsItsNoworNotatAll · 20/01/2015 20:43

I never had a problem getting into work before I had kids. Too far to walk but if buses were running I'd just wait til one turned up. I got there eventually.

With kids it's a different ballgame. If their school closes and it usually does when when there is a few flakes of snow. I either have to hope the school I work at shuts as well or if not that fil can look after them so I can go to work. If he can't, I have to take the day off. Not ideal because I don't get paid but that's how it is.

That's my back up plan and as I rarely have to put it in pIace I don't fret about it.

But it is common sense to have one.

ShipwreckedAndComatose · 20/01/2015 20:43

Yes, cat, that was our situation two years ago. barely a dusting where the school was.

However, over the ridge, 40 min drive away there had been an awful lot of snow. It had caused people to have to abandon cars, it was so bad. And guess where all the teachers lived? So the school had to shut.

forwarding · 20/01/2015 20:43

Summer Theere's nothing to stop the UK being ready, even if it only has to be ready every so often.

Like I have already said, we've had no snow so far this winter. No snow the winter before that. Lots the winter before that but nothing the year before that.

Even so, it's legal requirement to put winter tyres on from November to whenever it gets warm. Every year. So that you're ready in case it does snow.

Like a say, it's about the whole attitude and approach to winter. And when snow does come, it causes chaos.

Pipbin · 20/01/2015 20:49

I fail to see how this bothers you Forwarding as you don't live here.
Shall we all fit air conditioning too for the fortnight when it's hot?

clam · 20/01/2015 20:50

£200?! And the rest! Nearer £500 on my car.

I have a 4x4 (so hate me Grin ) but even that won't help me get to school when the roads are clogged up with other cars that are stuck.

And forwarding, if your country deems it necessary to make winter tyres a requirement each season, then it must have harsher winters overall than we do.

JassyRadlett · 20/01/2015 20:52

Forwarding, which bit of the UK, precisely? You'll have noted that different parts of the country get very different amounts of snow.

But I'm longing to know what this wondrous land you live in is, where the citizens and government are willing and have the funds to be completely ready for heavy snowfall, despite almost never having the need to deploy them.

Fabulous46 · 20/01/2015 21:01

I live out in the sticks, on a hill. 15 miles from the school I work in with no direct transport

I live 8 miles from the nearest "main" road. We chose to live here along farm tracks, however we ensure we can get out in the worst weather. If you choose to live remotely then you make provision for that.

Can I just clarify for chilefilly all the teachers in the authority are NOT randomers. They are teachers who walk to their nearest school. Each school gets a list in October of which teachers attend which school. The list includes what classes they will cover.

Neondoll I wish it was rolled out, I really do, as no schools would close, parents would not need to take time of work for school closures and it would be business as normal.

NeonDoll · 20/01/2015 21:02

forwarding for god's sake, it's like talking to a brick wall with you! How many times do people have to tell you that it doesn't make financial or ecomincal sense for the UK to invest heavily in snow tyres, ploughs, chains etc?!

Before the winter of 2009/10 we'd had about 10-15 years of mild, wet windy winters where we barely even got a frost, let alone a flake of snow! In fact I'd never heard of the term, "snow day" until that winter, prior to which the last time we'd had any really disruptive snow falls was about 1994, which I remember well because I had to walk three miles home from school in it when they stopped the buses!

Last year was mild, now snow here. The winter before we had a heavy fall, but it was much later and fell in late March meaning there was snow on the ground at Easter.