remember the "clap for the kids"? there's more...

[PineappleDanish]

saw this posted on social media, not naming the author as it's just SO cringe from start to finish... Oh and the AIBU. AIBU to cringe myself outside in and feel a bit nauseous?

Dear parents in the U.K.,

Today marks six full weeks since our country went into lockdown.

You have had your children home for the same time now that you would if they were on summer holidays. People will say ‘but they are your responsibility’ and whilst that is true, no-one could be expected to have imagined this period before they chose to conceive.

You have protected, nourished, educated, supported and entertained your children during a period of national and international uncertainty and fear. You have experienced emotions for yourself and your family that you never knew existed, never mind experienced before.

Six weeks is a long time.

Think about how you feel at the end of the summer holidays, how ready you are for routine, how badly your house needs cleaned from children home, how much work you are ready to catch up on. Remember that exhausting feeling of having so little sleep, much less money and hearing ‘mummy/daddy’ every time you happen to sit down.

And you wonder why you are exhausted after six weeks of lockdown?

You are amazing! You have achieved something no other parent ever has during our time. You have faced six weeks unable to take your child or children anywhere, six weeks of no parks, holidays to break up the boredom, no day trips, no family to help. On top of that you have juggled work demands, loneliness on a level never experienced before, information overload from the internet and emotional turmoil of not being able to see people you hold dear. Even getting food to eat has been a major drama!

So it’s ok to feel drained. It’s ok to feel like you would sell your soul right now for five minutes alone. It’s ok to feel uninspired about another day of homeschooling, another day of never ending laundry and cooking.

It’s ok to be so very tired.

Six weeks is a long time.

But you have made it.

Be proud of yourself. Stand tall.

History will show you for your courage, your children will remember this period as a time knowing they were safe and loved and teachers everywhere are deeply grateful that you are there for your children when they should be but can’t be.

In short: you are awesome!

And so are your children.

Yes, I feel very strongly about that @SerenDippitty

My dad was bombed out twice- they lost everything. His mum was a widow in her 30s with 3 kids. There were no benefits. She had 3 jobs to put food on the table, when they could get any.

and this went on for 6 years- not 6 weeks.

They never knew from one night to the next if they would be bombed and dead the next day.

She’s on maternity leave so would have been at home with kids anyway. Just can’t go out for cake or get her mum to babysit.

How about a 'clap for the quiet, no fuss, normal, working people, who are just getting on with things because there is no alternative'?

YANBU at all. 🤮
And the author is VVU for saying ‘needs cleaned’ instead of ‘needs cleanING’ FFS.

My DS has recently learnt to clap and therefore now thinks that all claps for him.

Well done me! In my pjs, making sure DS hasn’t died of starvation yet, in my nice warm house, with my central heating, washer, dishwasher, iPads, laptops and other time saving modern conveniences. I am a hero.

“history will show you for your courage”

Hmmm. Listened to an interviewee on the radio this morning, he and his parents had been in a nazi concentration camp, the last to be liberated. When found by the Red Cross, they were digging in the dirt to find roots to eat. They’d spent the previous 6 hours, since the announcement of the surrender, certain they would all be slaughtered as a final hoorah before liberators arrived. When they did, the starving internees were given tiny amounts of food by the liberators, so that their stomachs didn’t explode, as had happened to interns in Bergen Belsen and Auschwitz when they had been liberated, because they had eaten too much too quickly.
Other people not in camps,

had been hidden in spaces under floorboards or underneath bales of hay in attics, some for years without a sight of sunlight and little to eat,

That, and the action of the people who sheltered them, is courage. Of course there are horrible exceptions (as there are in “normal” circumstances) but for the majority, staying indoors, reasonably warm with running water and adequate food doesn’t compare. It’s frustrating for sure and very worrying as we think about the future, certainly. Not worthy of commemoration though.

'needs cleaned' is certainly Northern Irish vernacular. I used to get teased about this phrasing a lot

Admittedly my DS is a baby and therefore not that much trouble but I'm sat on the sofa in my pyjamas eating an Easter egg. It's not exactly the toughest Tuesday morning I've ever had

Love this!

I'm a primary school teacher (don't shoot me!) and admittedly try to keep my messages to the children and parents cheerful but if I sent this out, they'd think I'd had gin for breakfast!

I do know teachers who would do this though. Luckily not in my school!

Yes, it is living hell for some people, lots of people. Some people are struggling and need support. And are doing incredibly well to get through it.

That doesn’t give the rest of us carte Blanche to queue up for a medal.

VE Day anniversary: sleep crammed in with strangers in a tube tunnel all night and then do a day’s work... having packed your kids off on a train to live with strangers and you haven’t seen them for weeks? House evacuees for months in end? My Mum remembers them having evacuees in the house, crying for their Mums, their Dads possibly dead in the trenches.

When MN is full of (some) people who don’t even want overnight guests in their house or to send their kids on a sleepover with a friend.

But you have made it

We have looked after our dc’s for a few weeks, not scaled fucking Everest!!

Christ on a bike!
Imagine raising your own kids?!?
Do these ppl ever stop and think that they chose to have these kids? Probably the same ppl who palm their kids off on anyone they can.
It’s the same #bekind arseholes, usually the biggest bitches about.

To add, also probably the same ppl who bitch about paying nursery/childminding fees.

My aunt, who came in on Kindertransport , remembers the Nazis searching their house.

People who are struggling now: you genuinely have my sympathy. There is no hierarchy of trauma and no one should feel afraid to ask for help.

It is the trite generalisations about our situation being ‘unprecedented’ that riles me. It is indecent.

It's this just someone looking for their 15min of fame - they want to be the person who started the thing and see how far it goes.

There's so much self indulgent nonsense going on. Some people have it really shit - depending on their individual circumstances for whatever reason. I'm not finding my own kids particularly difficult but I'm quite sure others are...its not hard to think about who they might be.

Ugh what a twat! Also, all of these are written by the type of mums who have TIME to write this drivel, ie. aren't working and are home making craft projects with their darlings in the garden and managing a full 6 hours of home education and baking, because they're not sat on their computers on work calls, going on mute to shout at their kids to be quiet and watch TV / play, etc. while mummy works and then having to jam learning times into the evening when everyone is tired and no one gives a shit. But I'm not going to fucking clap myself!! Someone else always has it harder. There are single working mothers coping with 4/5 kids in a high-rise flat with no outside space, there are also plenty of lonely people who live alone and haven't seen a friendly face in weeks and that's a lot harder to deal with than the carnage caused by your own army of feral little savages!!

My relatives werfe in auschwitz-they can fuck off with their woe is me hero posts about being parents

Must be honest here, I’m currently thinking of the parents and children who have to isolate in hospital rooms for weeks and months due to the child being severely ill, I am not criticising parents but come on now, parents are not “achieving something no other has had to do in our lifetime”.

Then thinking of parents and children who are victims of domestic abuse and trapped in their homes.

And families under the witness protection program who can’t go out, can’t see people, can’t go to school because they will be in danger.

I don’t deny that many parents are doing amazing things right now and juggling like they never have before, but actually a lot of people have been doing that for years. Just in a different circumstance.

Maybe I’m just getting annoyed at all these Facebook posts going round, singling out one group as being the “true heroes” of the pandemic and “if you don’t share you clearly are not grateful” sentiment that comes with them

Parents, you’re amazing. Non parents fighting a different battle, you are amazing.

When did being tired and fed up morph into being a hero?

I mean I don't disagree that this situation is frustrating and many people have a messy house and grumpy children. However it's a bit of a stretch to claim that makes someone an amazing person.

Ughhh @ Queenoftheashes' cousin!!
While all you can relax in the sun with a drink or watch endless amounts of films, we are non stop on the go with our children...

Oh fuck off fuck off fuck off.

For a start, people without children are surely more likely to be going to work. It's not all fun and games.

But fgs - I just know this is the kind of person who normally thinks they're so special cos they managed to reproduce, "being a mum is the best job in the world" and so on... Count yourself lucky you get to be a mum, and have a partner to help! Some of us would love to be locked down with kids but now have little chance of having any/meeting someone in time. Try dealing with that every day whilst unable to even meet a friend or fill your life with travel/holidays/gigs/whatever else the usual consolation prize for childlessness would be.

Can we have a clap for the brokenhearted, childless, infertile... or maybe just remember how fucking lucky you are to have a family when everything else in life has been taken away.

To anyone struggling with DC, hats off to you. It's difficult. But everyone is facing their own difficult challenges right now (and in future).

I can't imagine anyone who is really, genuinely, properly struggling, children or otherwise, gives a shiny shit whether strangers share this bollocks on Facebook or clap for them. Its just self indulgent 'look at me I'm a mummy' bollocks.

I'm not a parent (so shoot me!) but do I feel incredibly sorry for people who are struggling with their children for whatever reason, I know it can't be easy. I do not feel AT ALL sorry for people whose biggest concern is that their toddler is missing soft play, or little Jacinta is getting behind on her advanced maths. I really eally don't. Let's save our sympathy (and claps if you must) for people who really need it. Or even better, keep an eye out for your friend, neighbour or family member where the cracks are starting to show. Not on Facebook bollocks.

When did being tired and fed up morph into being a hero?

Hero is the most overused word of the last decade. It used to mean doing something truly exceptional, a "one person in a generation" type of thing.

Now it just means "doing the job you get paid for". Or in the case of the writer of the nauseating post, "being a parent".

I'm waiting for some for misguided bloke to put some equivalent guff on Facebook about how hard it is to spend everyday day with his kids instead of the usual half hour between bath and bed, and watch as he gets his arse handed to him on a plate.

What these attention seeking knobbers seem to forget is that for many families the actual summer holiday bears many similarities to this period. This is their reality a lot of the time. For us it's just a fleeting time by comparison, as Bruce put very eloquently.

I agree it's bloody hard being a parent right now but F me if you've time to write a badly worded tirade for social media you've got time for a cuppa.

I'm more traumatised by the random use of capital letters ...

Actually this thread has cheered me up ....Love the idea of Claps for Cats!

And a guinea pig who models, brilliant

All Around The World - I hope you are OK. Its different for everyone and hope you have some support. Even just phone your Dr.
My SEN child is chucking out meltdowns like a machine gun at the moment. I'm drained today. I can also feel tears behind my eyes. And I know we are lucky.