To be absolutely gutted about derailment of secondary school dc’s education

[sunshineanddaffodils]

I know why we’ve shut schools and I know it’s a necessity and the right thing to do. But I am selfishly so upset. Both at great schools that they’re happy at, lovely friends etc. DS is year 10 so GCSEs next year. On track for good grades, always done well, good friendship group. DD year 8 loves her friends, loves all the fun things her school does outside of lessons as well as enjoying lessons. I’ve not had to worry about them at all regarding school and just always been really happy for them both. Now I worry they’ll never get back to where they were and am feeling very sad about it today.
Just read this and I know I’m being incredibly self indulgent.

To a pp: the one thing I am concerned about is my children's mental health in the lock down, not so much the academic. It has felt at times prioritising physical health over mental.

I have year ten teen too. He has great friends he gets on very well with, I’ve found chatting online daily has been a lifesaver. At least he’s laughing and mucking around not completely isolated.

I’m not overly upset for him I would be if he didn’t have that though.

ChicChic there's always one that has to come in with a remark like that, isn't there? OP pay no mind.

When I feel like this I try to look at the bigger picture. We are SO lucky for so many things, but the fact that this virus has on the whole spared our children is the biggest blessing of all. Previous Coronaviruses had the ability to wipe out so many of our kids if they had become pandemics. The fact that we’re here wringing our hands about them missing a tiny proportion of their education and in other threads their ‘firsts’ is an absolute privilege.

Justanother I agree.

We would all be going crazy if age range was different.

This brings back a strong memory I have of my first year of secondary school.

It was a school that had a historic first building where all the 11 year olds were settled for the first year and then moved into the modern main school building over a little bridge for the second tear onwards. As part of our learning we got out the registers of this school perhaps a hundred years before. When small pox and other childhood diseases wiped out a huge amount of children every year. As the teacher turned the pages we saw children disappear. More would appear on the register and then some of those would disappear as the months went on. They had died.

That was so powerful to me that I remember it thirty years later. Our kids are going to be going back to school alongside their friends and their friends will still be there when they do. How wonderful!! They won’t give a shiny shit about a few months of education lost. It will be a dot in the landscape of their lives.

I know for those of you whose children have lost their GCSE year or A Levels have been affected it’s more than that. I get it. But these kids are alive and healthy. That’s the thing we need to focus on. Honestly this had the potential to decimate all of us in a way that we can’t even imagine. Our worse fucking nightmares. We have to thank our lucky stars.

@TheZeppo thank you .. it's just a shame for those who excel at the end isn't it .. she is predicted 8/9's in every subject and we were hoping to get them all to 9's but without the final exams I don't think this is possible .. obviously they are still great grades but you can't help feeling a bit sad for them can you when they have a plan .

OVienna, I know what you mean.

But every time I think that, I remind myself that seeing close relatives die, maybe even having to listen to them die, without pain relief and sedatives, if hospitals get to overwhelmed to take them in, isn't going to be great for their mental health either. People are already dying at home, not just elderly, but young and middle-aged. Do I want my dc to have to live through that? Do I want them exposed to viral overload while trying to care for me?

The lockdown is to try to ensure that as many people as possible are saved, and that even those who can't be saved can have their pain relieved and be treated professionally in an environment where they pose no added risk to their nearest and dearest. It is about keeping our children's mental health safe too.

I have a young adult dd with ongoing MH problems. She is suffering from the lockdown. But not as much as she would suffer if I got as ill as a colleague recently has (rushed into hospital with heart damage nearly a month after first coming down with the virus). Not as much as she would if I died, even worse if I died at home and she had to witness that. Not as much as if she didn't have me there for support in years to come. At least now I can support her. Not as much as if she got ill and suffered permanent lung damage. Not as much as if a friend got seriously ill and she worried about being the one giving it to them.