Stop holding my hand, I'm an adult!

[2017ReasonsToMoan]

Text from school to parents:

"Don't forget school reopens Thursday 5th January at 0845"

Is it any wonder adults are behaving more and more like children when responsibilities are not expected of them?

We get the holiday list. The weekly reminders in the newsletter. Now a text in the middle of my holiday.

If I'm so irresponsible to need this, you can bet your ass I'll have forgotten again by Thursday. Why bother?

Ahhh.

That felt good.

You can email the NHS and opt out of their reminder service. I just googled.

Nhs probably find that the cost of sending out a reminder text is worth it for the reduction in missed appointments from people who have forgotten.

For the last week of term, we had: "school breaks up on Wednesday at 1.30pm." WE KNOW!

And they text me and DH!

Whether you need them or not it is benefitting your children because it means the teacher will not have to spend time helping those children catch up who wouldn't have turned up without the text.

Unfortunately the morning of the first day of term is often spent phoning families who 'forgot'. Children drift in throughout the morning.

To be honest, dentists and hairdressers etc, do the reminder thing mostly for themselves and not just to spoon feed their customers, because if someone misses an appointment, then their businesses lose money. When I last turned up for my hair appointment, my hairdresser was spitting feathers as the two before me had failed to show, and she was talking about introducing the text reminder thing. Most people these days juggle full time work with running a house and looking after children. We can't all be SAHM's or afford to have PA's unfortunately, so life is ram-jammed with things to remember. You must have opted into getting these texts OP; we had to at my DC school, so maybe just opt out?

I missed an appointment the other day. Just had a lot on... I couldn't believe it myself, not really like me I have systems in place to assist my poor memory.

Am I irresponsible or just human?

I am back to work in the school office tomorrow, Tuesday. Kids back on Wednesday. This information has been sent home by letter. A text was sent at the end of term, and info is all over the school website.

I guarantee you, I will answer 50/60+ calls from parents asking what day/time school is back.

There will also be parents who will be called to find out why their kid is not in and it will turn out that its because thier child told them school wasn't back until next week.

We are becoming a nation of adult children. Sigh

Oh OP, I think perhaps what we are becoming is a nation of smug, self satisfied judgemental pricks trolls? with zero empathy for others if your 'inconsequential rant' is anything to go by. Love the fact that you believe 99 people are reading this and agreeing with you though but keeping reeeeallly quiet about it!.

Bigger sigh.

I find text reminders really helpful. I am a disorganised fuckwit though. I am also terrible at spelling and I find spellcheck really useful. I had no idea these things caused people such terrible feelings of smugness.

Our secondary school is very good but the mis-information on the primary school website and in their newsletters amounts to gas lighting imo. I'm sure this is not unique.

Honestly, I love reminders because I'm just forgetful especially during times of change to my regular schedule, esp when they're also stressfull times of year.

I work in retail so I have been in work for the entirety of the Christmas period, Christmas Day excepted, which is out of the norm for my work schedule. On Boxing Day someone came into the store and I had to write out some paperwork for them ... I had to stop and look up what day it was because whilst I knew the date I had totally lost track of which day of the week it was.

When I am in my normal work schedule of being in work Wed-Sun I can keep track of everything else in my schedule as I know any appointments I make will 90% be made on my "weekend" of Mon/Tues unless I have no other alternative than to fit it in on a work day ... and I only keep track of the day of the week based on where I am in my personal weekly rota and the fact I have a whiteboard & calender right in my entryway to keep track of everything.

Throw in a Christmas rota of 6 day weeks, alternating shift patterns and changes to my store's standard opening hours and I couldn't tell you what day we were on or the date, without having to work it back from the key dates - like Christmas Day, Boxing day NYE and New Years Day, and checking the calender.

Nhs probably find that the cost of sending out a reminder text is worth it for the reduction in missed appointments from people who have forgotten.

AND

dentists and hairdressers etc, do the reminder thing mostly for themselves and not just to spoon feed their customers, because if someone misses an appointment, then their businesses lose money.

But why are we forgetting more frequently these days than in the past ? My GP surgery displays the number of missed appointments every week - when I first registered 20 years ago, it was just 6-7 a week, now it's sometimes over 100.

I used to work in a hairdressers as a teen; we never used to have more than the odd one or two no-shows and they'd often come running in late, apologising for forgetting.

Why are we more likely to forget appointments these days, and so need reminders, than a few years ago?

Is is just text reminders to which you object, or do you also abhor email alerts, @2017ReasonsToMoan ?

Why are we more likely to forget appointments these days, and so need reminders, than a few years ago?

Maybe because our lives are vastly more complex and busy and our 24/7 society has removed the reminders of what day of the week it is and what time of day it is.
An average GP surgery will be running a shit ton more appointments than it did 20 years ago and the cuts to funding, particularly in social care which have withdrawn social care from 25% of the people who used to get it means that a good number of those appointments have been missed by people who are now in emergency care or who are inpatients.

NewNN - think it might be because a lot of mums work these days, which makes for a hectic life, especially when they have lots of after school things. Don't know how old you are, but I'm at the age when I recall hardly any mums working at all when I went to school, and definitely no after school clubs etc. Not saying being a SAHM is easy, because it's not, but expectations are so much higher now, and you really have to be supermum to remember everything.

because our lives are vastly more complex and busy

Tell that to the cavemen who had to kill for survival!

a good number of those appointments have been missed by people who are now in emergency care or who are inpatients.

Which means that investing in an appt reminder service is futile, isn't it ? Because those people won't attend their appt even if they are reminded?

If that's why GPs appts are being missed, surely a better investment would be to improve communication between services, so those appts which will be missed because the patient is receiving different care can be reallocated to patients who need them?

That's right, cavemen had such a complicated life traveling to all sorts of different activities, working hard to pay their mortgage, filing self assessment tax returns, etc...

Cavemen didn't have to do school runs

People aren't secretly agreeing with you OP, they're judging you by how you are coming across, which is a smug self-congratulatory prick. Take it you've never ever in your life forgotten a single thing? Do you see it as incompetent to keep a diary for appointments? Are people only up to your standard if they remember it in their heads?

CherryChasingDotMuncher - sometimes not even then.

Cavemen's lives were very simple because all the cavetexts about the cavekids were being sent to the cavemums.

Take it you've never ever in your life forgotten a single thing? Do you see it as incompetent to keep a diary for appointments? Are people only up to your standard if they remember it in their heads?

I didn't read the OP like that at all. If we all took responsilbity for remembering things, using whatever reminders we can put in place (diary, calendar etc) and also took responsibility for the cost and inconvenience to others when we forget, then reminders by third parties wouldn't be necessary.

What does it say about the value that a parent places on their DCs schooling if they don't take responsibility for remembering when their DCs should be there?

How much respect does someone have for their hairdresser if they miss an appointment and as a result, the hairdresser makes a loss that day?

The fact that service providers have to remind their clients about their appointments says a lot about the value people place on those service providers.

cherry are you accusing me of sock puppeting? I can assure you I'm not the OP - I'll report to MNHQ to reassure you.