Asking DH to take leave to cover school work

[Binswangers]

I have asked DH to take leave to be with the children when they have exams from school.

I'm a key worker and I have to work that week. I have noticed that my 7 year old struggles with logging in and uploading work. My 12 year old needs to be kept an eye on, as he is prone to online gaming.

My DH normally works from home and I usually have after-school childcare. I don't have childcare at the moment. He says he's very busy, but I've noticed he doesn't start work until late in the mornings.

AIBU?

So parent him and sit next to him when he’s working!

OP is a key worker and out at work all day, how is she supposed to do that?

Can they sit next to dh as he works and work alongside him? Ds does that sometimes with us. Or as you are a key worker could they go into school for that week?

YANBU, my husband just had 3 days off to teach our children and I do mean teach. This was mainly because he wasn't able to help in the day and I have a back log of work. No exams though.

eh? exams? nope....

Re online gaming, most home routers allow you to block The internet for specific devices at specific times. I’m on plusnet and theirs is called safeguard but other if not all internet providers have something similar

lots of single parents are working from home and supervising their kids. Kids of ghisbage don't need someone stood over them all day.

Op, the school can just set exams. Do you mean they need to do some tests?

They need help logging on. And if one doesn't do the test, then they need to face to consequences from the school and you as parents.

I am sure your dh can keep popping in to make sure they are doing what they should be.

Is it possible they could do the exam early I the day?

Who normally supervises the kids is he looking after them whilst working at the moment or are you normally at home?

Is this a one off test? Or a week of tests? What are they for? (I assume this is a private school?)

Could you take 1 day off each? Can they do the test on the weekend?

Have you yet called the school to ask what flexibility there is?

We have been locked down a while it's not unreasonable for people to want a day off work if they have leave.

A lot of people are saying all exams are cancelled but my neighbours kids who are in a private secondary school also have exam week in a couple of weeks. Tests in every subject, just like normal, so it's definitely not unheard of. The parents have been asked to make sure no cheating is going on if they are not working outside of the home.

In OP's situation I would just check if DH could just work from the same room as the kids just so he can help out if there's any issues and he can check there's no gaming going on. I think he should probably do that regardless of exam week if he's the only parent at home. Especially for the 7 year old.

You can be a keyworker and work from home, is that what the OP is doing?

But if a keyworker is working from home they can't be expected to supervise children greatly, especially of that age where they are 'safe' provided an adult is at home.

National exams are cancelled.
Doesn't stop any individual school setting whatever they want to do.

It's a school that loves exams, I'm afraid.

The DH work problem is a bit of a red herring IMO. I would be more concerned that my child's school, in the middle of a global crisis, has chosen to put completely unnecessary additional pressure on children and parents by insisting on holding their own internal examinations at a time when they should be prioritising Mental Health and wellbeing. It betrays a complete lack of compassion for children who are struggling emotionally, parents who are struggling to combine WFH with childcare and home-schooling as well as essential workers like the OP.

Based on the information you've given (which isn't much) I don't think you're being unreasonable but as a parent I'd tell the school to get stuffed with their exams, how bloody ridiculous at the minute.

In reference to pp saying about key workers working from home, I'm a key worker and we're not able to work from home so perhaps OP can't either.

Yes, I know many keyworkers can't WFH, it was with respect to the comments asking who is supervising the children, implying they are being left home alone etc.
I'm assuming the OP isn't leaving a 12 & 7 yo at home on their own each day.

LOL at exams.

I would completely ignore the schools request for this. How utterly ridiculous and self important are they.

Can't help but think that after lockdown there will be a whole generation of children who think women are sole carers for everything.

I'm a teacher and I think schools have to realise that they can't expect all parents to be available to do things like this. It's totally unreasonable. Parents can only do what they are able to with their children in the time they have available between working from home/ working out of home/ supporting siblings with work/ caring for younger siblings/ sharing one laptop between an entire family all trying to work from home and do school work. Inevitably, this may not fit with a school's timetable for exams.