To feel I can't cope with schools only going back part time in August?

[jbonsor]

Just that. I was coping OK with lockdown, and trying to keep positive about juggling kids and working from home til June, then take a few weeks holiday over the summer just to do things with the kids even if still restricted. This week I have received a letter from my son's nursery to say he has a space for the 2020-2021 school year but that due to covid 19 they can't confirm pattern of attendance, as in, they can't confirm if he will have the 30 hours he was having since August. I also have read a lot that primary school might be 2 days only a week or a very day but only morning or afternoon session.. This has really tipped me over the edge as I am dreading having to keep juggling all this for over a year. This really puts a strain in family life and finances because now we have to basically decide on one income only, and not onky that but I don't feel I am that good at home schooling and feel like my kids are going to fall behind. Sometimes I can't believe how everything fell apart so spectacularly and how is the Scottish government deciding this is the best course of action without any regard for the mountain of problems this will bring to a huge amount of families.

@trumpisaflump

I have written to my local MSP (happens to be SNP) asking for the rationale behind the standardised start date and how working parents are supposed to support 'blended' learning. I suspect I won't get a response.

I am hoping work will continue to let me WFH but they will still expect me to deliver my responsibilities / job so I don't see how I can commit the time to home school 3-4 days a week. DH does help but at some point his work are going to tell him he can't have the degree of flexibility he currently has.

@pigoons I've written to my (SNP) MSP asking similar. I've had a response from his office manager who has stated the following-

There is an education based portfolio question session taking place at the Scottish Parliament on Thursday at 2pmm_. These points may come up in a question or answer. I’d be happy to share any information available after the session if this would be helpful?

So basically nothing!

I got a response from my (SNP) MSP saying that more detail is expected this week and that she'd send it on to me when it arrives. She also noted my questions regarding the scientific rationale for the policy but made no comment on these. So no advice or solutions for working parents yet. I'm fairly skeptical that there will be anything more than the 'employers should be flexible' we've already heard.

*As everyone is going to be in the same boat employers will have to be flexible about hours for all

There will be plenty of people with no childcare obligations ready to step up

School is not childcare. So many here appear to think it is. My sibling (childfree) spends a lot of time complaining about her colleagues who have children who all expect to take their annual leave during the school holidays, who want time off for sick children, school performances etc.

The biggest issue right now is not that schools are not providing childcare, it is that employers aren’t flexible with working parents. This is what needs to be changed in the long term.

There is only so much that employers can flex. Mine and DH’s can probably let us mostly work from home, but they need us to be actually doing our jobs during the daytime. They just don’t have the spare staff capacity to pay us to be educating our children during the day, and there is only so much of both our jobs that can be done in evenings and weekends.

It isn’t about whether or not schools are childcare (although it seems unlikely we’ll have wraparound childcare either). It’s that there is a reason most jobs don’t let you care for young children while you’re at work, even if you’re WFH, and homeschooling them is going to take even more time and focus than just having them in the house while working would.

People do treat school as free childcare. That is obvious from the threads on MN.

Working full time with children is a problem. Both parents should be able to work part time and share childcare. Unaffordable people say. But many people could live in less expensive areas, reduce discretionary spending. But they don’t want to. Why should we have to will be the reply.
And yes I know there are single parents who don’t have this option. But it is an option fir many. Again it needs employers to be more flexible. That is what people need to be writing to their MPs!

Why should we have to will be the reply.

I think the reply might be more along the lines of ‘I’d rather not risk losing my job and house in the face of an upcoming recession’.

I don’t think it helps to present families with two f/t working parents as being somehow in a position of luxury that they’re too entitled to reconsider.

@Sittingontheveranda are you actually saying that parents with children should not work full time? Is this just on the off chance that the government decides to tear up the social contract we have and remove all childcare options (in school or otherwise) and suddenly expect us all to become teachers too?

Many jobs cannot be done part time in any effective way, and frankly, yes, why should a persons employment prospects be damaged simply for becoming a parent. We, like many others, both work full time (in roles that benefit society incidentally), and when we had children we made arrangements for them to be cared for. Our lives and routines, ours and the childrens, are built around this. Can you really not see why we'd be pissed off that the rug has been totally pulled from under us?

The decision to have children changes everything though and it isn’t up to schools to provide some sort of fix. Children need childcare. Parents should not have to work full time. Employers need to be flexible and as not everybody has children, then it has to be the people with children who work less and as a result get more flexibility.

it isn’t up to schools to provide some sort of fix.

It is up to schools to provide education, though, and that is what we are currently being told we’ll have to provide at home instead!

YANBU and it’s shit

I just can’t imagine keeping this juggle going

It is up to schools to provide education, though

It isn’t ideal but these are unprecedented times and Zoom and online learning can work better short term if parents have flexibility.

Between Christmas, Easter, midterms and summer holidays, kids are off anyway.

Both parents should be able to work part time and share childcare.

We could do that financially but it's not that simple. Having a baby screwed up my mental health massively as one example thus for us dh working full time and me not working was our best solution. Lots of my friends have husbands and partners who work away for up to six weeks at a time. How are the UK based employers of the other half of those couples supposed to set up their flexible hours?

It’s not short term though. It’s been from March, it’s now supposed to continue past August for - and I quote the government on this one - ‘the foreseeable future’.

And many parents do not in fact have the flexibility to sit there working through SumDog three days a week, nor to trot off to a new job/house right now.

@Sittingontheveranda

This is all very dependent on the job that you do.

Working full time might be important for the work that you do. If you have skills and expertise put to important use, it doesn't seem like a good idea to just remove these from the workforce when you have children. And you may not be able to work on your field of expertise from somewhere with lower property prices. Et cetera.

These are just some of myriad reasons why your suggestions are probably not a great idea.

The main one being that the detrimental impact for equality could be extremely significant.

Also I see no issue with school beinb both education and free childcare. This just doesn't seem to be a bad thing.

It’s not short term though. six months out of 16 years of primary and
secondary education is short term.

Where are you getting ‘six months’ from?

xtinak It needs a reform and change in attitude. Workplaces need to adapt. Employers need to adapt. Some people don’t want to work less than full time. Then have private full time childcare. Do not depend on nursery, schools and so on.
Parents have to adapt but employers have to allow flexibility.

Do not depend on nursery, schools and so on.

What about the educational differences? I'm fairly confident dh and I could teach our gremlins to a fairly high level along side part time schooling, certainly way beyond primary school. However having worked with vulnerable families, so many children will miss out on opportunities for a better future.

I'm not even more depressed. I've found out a private school in Glasgow (Hutcheson's) plan on starting back on 11th August full time. I presume this is because class sizes are already small and they can spread the children out more.
So the attainment gap widens even further!

I'm NOW even more depressed. Not not!

Exactly that @trumpisaflump. It’s disgraceful what they’re doing to our kids.

The Scottish government seems cool with a lot of state schools saying they can’t do zoom etc for ‘safeguarding’ reasons, despite private schools giving lessons in this way. It’s not that parents (and yes most of the time it is mother’s) can’t work effectively due to having to try to teach their kids stuff, and it’s not that the standard of work given out by the teachers is so poor (emailed a maths worksheet that took my daughter less than 30secs to complete) it is the effect on my kids mental health of. It having interaction with other kids. They have been doing well up to now but in the last week the despair has really seem to have set in. They are just so sad and frustrated. It takes all of my time trying to keep them going / happy-ish. They need to see alight at the end of the tunnel. This is in an area where the CAMHS waiting list for treatment pre covid was well over a year.

My kids are well beyond the Sumdog stage although that would be bad enough to have to teach tbh! With the best will in the world despite my own high level of qualifications I am never going to be able to coach my son on Nat 5 physios and chemistry, graphics or music. I can have a stab at English, Maths and German having obtained As at higher in those myself but it was 30 years ago, I suspect I am a tad rusty by now!