Going back to work or school and social distancing

[whoosit]

I'm going back to work, my child is due to go back to school. I will need to get public transport for some of these journies. So should I still be socially distancing and not seeing my family or friends? It seems like I'm getting all the rubbish parts of life like work and school, the drudgery of it all, but none of the positives. So if they're opening schools and work places why cant we have some of the good parts of life? If my kid is exposed to people at school and I'm exposed to people at work why not just allow us to flow free?

Test, track and trace is not in place so why am I safer at work, my kid and his teachers safer at school than I am with my family?

[lljkk]

Folk think
"economy" = Denis O'Leary, Richard Branson, Helena Morrissey, James Radcliffe, & whether they are moaning about profits.

Folk certainly don't agree that
"economy" = job security for hairdressers, waitresses, businss admin, plumbers, retail workers....

No no no, the likes of Branson & Radcliffe (or "someone else") should simply pay more tax to create job security for the barmaids etc.

[Fluffybutter]

you don't think the millions of us who have not stopped going to work don't feel like this too?! Grow up OP!
Oh behave yourself !
That’s not what op meant and you know it .
Do you not feel slighted that you have to do the shit bits but aren’t allowed to do anything nice ??
You don’t need to act like a martyr , it won’t help

[Di11y]

the ramdoms on the bus are not safer, it is a calculated risk to restart the economy. and higher risk in some areas necessitates greater caution in others to minimise the spread while keeping the country afloat. which is why we're not being encouraged to just start giving up on social.distancing.

[babybythesea]

Can I just point out that this calculated risk to start the economy by sending kids back to school isn’t as simple as people suggest.
I don’t have alternatives. I’ll say that now.
But

1. there won’t be social distancing with the little children in school. It’s not realistic to assume there can be. So when you are calculating the risks factor that in. I’ve already seen someone on this thread talk about social distancing at school being safer than hugging a family member. It probably is safer, but the children will not be social distancing.
   
2. Although there will only be 15 kids in, I know that at least one of the children in my bubble went to a party this weekend, with several people not in her family. Assuming that each child only goes home to their household isn’t true. You have to factor in that your child might well be mixing with kids who have been mixing outside their household anyway. So the ‘isolated bubble’ idea doesn’t necessarily hold true.
   
   Doesn’t answer the OPs question. And we do need to get the world moving again. But the school thing has holes in it.

[BlackberryCane]

There's also the reality that some people simply cannot work without family providing childcare. If suitable childcare was unavailable and/or unaffordable to a person pre-pandemic, that isn't suddenly going to change now. And this is inevitably going to blur boundaries further: if your parents have already given your 5 year old tea after collecting him from school and you go round to pick him up after work, of course you're more likely to think fuck it, what's the difference if your dad says there's a bit left in the pan if you're hungry.

[coldwarenigma]

Retail worker here, so working. Meeting arseholes- shoppers each day who think the few shops open are open to pass the time because they are bored.
We had religiously followed instructions but meeting hundreds of people every day puts me and DH, who has health problems but not on shielded list at risk and makes me wonder the point wisdom.
We know the economy needs to get moving so people need to go back to work.
Not sure what the answer to parents working is to be honest.
Either companies will need to adapt or parents need to adapt but businesses are there to make money and are not there for philanthropy. If parents are such a liability they won't get employed or kept on. Often quoted on here 'school is not childcare' so childcare needs addressing or parents need to be aware that they are responsible for children and not take on commitments that cant be changed/adapted to. The pandemic is a once in a century event but economic events Brexit could just as easily throw the spanner in the works.