To send my child back to school without getting test results!

[Dickorydockwhatthe]

I'm on the 5th day of waiting for his results. Ds 1 tests came back negative, still waiting for ds 2 who is fine. We are all fine. I can't afford time off work, ds needs to go back to school. 119 are useless. They have finally lodged a complaint but could take 3 days from now and then it could be lost. What should I do? I'm at breaking point with it all and theres no one to complain to!!

Op I sympathise it is truly awful trying to earn and get through this pandemic

@bobster31 questioning whether the op should have had children ffs? Maybe you need to reevaluaye your career with an empathic steak like that !

Streak not steak

I can totally understand where you're coming from @Dickorydockwhatthe it must be an awful dilemma for you.
Have you contacted your local council? I noticed mine was promoting their support package for low earners. The system has well and truly let you down.

Don’t you even dare put your child back to school if they have not had their test results back. You are a very Irresponsible person if you do! 😡😡😡😡😡

Cool your jets! Can you not understand OPs frustration with a shit situation and no pay?

You cannot send him back in until the 14 days have passed if he has been sent home as part of a bubble.
His negative test is irrelevant.
Your daughter can go in after a negative test if she isn't part of a bubble

The child that self isolated due to school contact has finished their isolation period. The issue is the late result of the other child who was coughing (but isn't any more)

Then when someone dies...

Took me 4 days to get results, so me, dh, and 2 dds all off work and school, I totally sympathise, it’s a rubbish system that needs to improve, but it’s the only system that we have and we have to stick with it. I tested negative, so seemed even more of a waste but at least I can hold my head high and say that I done the right thing for the sake of my community. I could never live with myself if I knew that I had infected somebody.

People on here calling the OP selfish should be ashamed of themselves. Wanting to be able to pay your bills and feed your children isn't fucking selfish. Losing income isn't just an inconvenience to some, it's the difference between being able to keep a roof over your head.

The government should be funding people to isolate when they need to so they don't have to be faced with these decisions.

It's appalling that there is no financial support for parents of children who have to isolate. My kids have been off for a week now because of cases in their bubble and it's been fine for us. We have secure jobs that can be done from home.

But, several parents in the class WhatsApp groups have expressed frustration and worry over their loss of income. The £500 isolation payment is only if you have to isolate, not for parents of children that do. GPs won't issue isolation sick notes that some employers demend for parents, again because it's not them that are isolating, it's the child.

The government have completely missed out a section of society and so it's not really surprising that people like OP are raising these questions.

It's easy for people on Mumsnet in their naice houses with good jobs to get angry at OP. But maybe OP not getting paid means that OPs children won't get fed properly this week.

I find the total lack of compassion here deeply disturbing. This isn't a black and white scenario where anyone who gets sick or has contact with people who are sick can stay at home for two weeks doing crochet or baking bread without any worries whatsoever.

Do you not think many are at breaking point with this!?! It's incredibly selfish to send anyone in before results are back. If you are all 'fine' why did you get tests? Or do you have someone in the family who has it and thought you might be asymptomatic? Because if you don't have symptoms and haven't someone in the house with it why did you get tested!?

I had covid and was horribly ill - left me with pneumonia. That was in March and I still suffer from symptoms now!! Do not risk infecting anyone! I was perfectly healthy before this. The damage to my lungs is permanent. The initial illness was terrifying and nearly killed me. No one knows the long term damage of covid infection, not even scientists because its just too new. It could be devastating long term even if the initial infection was mild or asymptomatic.

You just have to grin and bare it like the rest of the world.

The reason you children were isolating was because someone in one of their classes had tested positive. Even if the test came back negative you are supposed to isolate because the incubation period for this virus is roughly 7-10 days and you could develop symptoms or have a symptomatic disease up to 14 days after contact with someone who tested positive. I know it is cruel to keep children at home but it will be more cruel to unknowingly pass this on.

@Dickorydockwhatthe

Ds 2 is fine now no symptoms the one who is still coughing is negative and can go back to school because he has his results!! How can people afford this? Ive stuck by the rules, I've did what I needed to do and yet they can't explain why I've had one test result and not the other!! If I didn't care I would have tested and isolated in the first bit but now 5 days later without no results still? That's acceptable for families who have to take leave or claim sick pay?

Nope fraid not. Can't go back until 14 days isolation is up despite the negative test unless this was done on day 14. If school agree to take them back its yet another farce in this whole mess of a country

@Hopeisathingwithfeathers

I thought they said kids don’t really spread it?

I really hope this is a sarcastic comment lol

@Dickorydockwhatthe it is 7 days minimum isolation from the onset of symptoms, those are the rules.

You are not at breaking point: you've only been in your house for a measly 5 days so stop being so bloody melodramatic and follow the bloody rules.

Tell your manager you have another 48hrs quarantine and then you will be back to work.

If we don't all follow the guidelines set out this virus will never go away and this situation you are in will keep replaying over and over again, get the message.

Well said @WorksTheDinerAllDay and @Waxonwaxoff0 People really should be showing some compassion for others who aren't as fortunate as them. The OP knows what she should do but is expressing her frustrations and concerns with the system for working parents. I do believe NHS staff won't get paid if their children have to isolate, what a disgrace.

Just get another test done. Hopefully that will come back quicker. Please....for the sake of all the school staff who have no ppe, have vulnerable people in their families or are themselves vulnerable but out of options and have to be inschool. Please don't send him in.

Breaking point?

Please don't send him in and by the sound of things you've missed the boat to retest. Ideally you should be tested within 5 days of symptoms starting. If the first child was tested after this then they may have had a false negative. It's very important to wait for the other test result. Totally agree it's an awful situation but my friend works for contact tracing and she is beside herself phoning people to discuss their positive result to find out they have gone back to work because they felt fine!! Don't be THAT person.

Its now 8 days from start of symptoms unless you're in Scotland where its 5 days

That's for a test BTW
@FelicisNox its 10 days you isolate with symptoms, not 7 days

It's easy for people on Mumsnet in their naice houses with good jobs to get angry at OP. But maybe OP not getting paid means that OPs children won't get fed properly this week
And maybe if another parent decides to send their kids in without a negative result then the OP's child will be off again for a fortnight (which will be more time off work for her), and then when the bubble bursts in her other child's year group she can take another fortnight off work to supervise that child, repeat each time a parent chooses to send their child in without a negative test and it turns out the child was positive.

It's all well and good saying everyone saying to isolate properly is sitting at home in naice homes and try to play the class card, but the reality is that its precisely people like the OP who will feel it most if bubbles keep closing for weeks at a time, or there's a spike in a school caused by parents sending their children in when they've not been confirmed negative.

The (as you put it) naice mumsnetters will probably be able to work from home if the bubble closes regularly, or teacher absence means the schools are closed. The OP won't have that luxury and I highly doubt if she's ever faced with substantial closures to her DC's bubble she would be sauing 'ah well, I guess they couldn't help sending their DC in without a negative test'

Unless you have been through this situation in mine or anyone else's shoes saying just get on with it when you do not know that person or know anything about their life is harsh. I hope you never feel the frustration and the worry this will cause, such as how you will pay your bills and morgage. I would never send a child in if i thought he was high risk and I know deep down I won't, but for a moment I was questioning everything because at the end of the day I am human and I don't have a fancy job where I can work from home or savings to dig into and just afford to take it on the chin. This will really affect my family financially and emotionally. I tried doing the right thing and I made a mistake in getting ds 2 tested because he developed a slight cough. If it was him alone, I would have probably waited to see how it developed but because his brother was coughing loads and had been in an exposed bubble and I had to drive over an hour away to go to a testing facility I booked him in too thinking well he's probably getting whatever his brother has and I didn't want to waste time. I'm sure many of us have had a moment where they were unsure if they needed to get their child tested because of a cold, slight cough or temp. In hindsight I'm pretty sure his cough was from playing footie the day before and the cold air because he seemed fine the next day. I wasnt taking a test unnecessarily I thought he had the onset of a symptom and made a split decision in a panic, because I needed to get a test ASAP plus once you book a test you cannot cancel it again another flaw! I never knew I'd be waiting over 6 days later and I probably won't even get result so will have to isolate for 14 days😔. When you do the right thing and it bites you in the ass you do question your moral compass 😔. If I really didn't care and was selfish would I have bothered to test and drive an hour each way to a testing facility. You can judge all you want but you have not walked in my shoes. I'm sure there are people even worse off then me and I dread to think the impact this flawed sytem is having. These people who are trying to do the right thing in very difficult circumstances. So instead of judging why not join in and write to your MPs and ask why results are taking so long and what are they going to do about it.

It's appalling that there is no financial support for parents of children who have to isolate. My kids have been off for a week now because of cases in their bubble and it's been fine for us. We have secure jobs that can be done from home.

But, several parents in the class WhatsApp groups have expressed frustration and worry over their loss of income. The £500 isolation payment is only if you have to isolate, not for parents of children that do. GPs won't issue isolation sick notes that some employers demend for parents, again because it's not them that are isolating, it's the child.

The government have completely missed out a section of society and so it's not really surprising that people like OP are raising these questions.

It's easy for people on Mumsnet in their naice houses with good jobs to get angry at OP. But maybe OP not getting paid means that bOPs children won't get fed properly this week.

I find the total lack of compassion here deeply disturbing. This isn't a black and white scenario where anyone who gets sick or has contact with people who are sick can stay at home for two weeks doing crochet or baking bread without any worries whatsoever.

**this, totally. My dsis and her husband waited 9 days in total from ordering a test (none available in local area or anywhere near), which was negative. They each lost a weeks pay. Nice if you can afford it but many can’t and I feel many mumsnetters can’t grasp how that affects families.