One key worker, child should stay home

[Areyouactuallyseriousrightnow]

Not sure if there has already been a thread but AIBU to think that if only one parent is key worker and other is WFH, child should be staying home as school provision is for key workers who cannot complete their important role if they have to look after child at home, not so that the other parent can continue with work without interruption?

My partner is a key worker, but I don’t consider us eligible as I am home and therefore technically can be with the children.

YABU- if there’s one key worker take that opportunity to send the child in.
YANBU- if there’s another parent at home, child should stay home.

Oi Northerner

What a crock of shite

It's not a game this stuff, and nobody cares what you think

We should all sacrifice ourselves for the god of Covid to share the societal burden, ODFO

What a great time to make yourself unemployed, middle of a pandemic and in a recession

Some of you people must be on the wind up, shit for brains!!!

@Dishwashersaurous

I’m a key worker, even though I work from home.

Husband already told that he can’t take any unpaid or paid leave until Easter.

Therefore if my children can’t go to school I will have to quit my job to look after them.

Like lots of women I work part time and therefore am the lower earner.

We are similar. DH is keyworker, WFH but on calls most of the time. DD is 6 and needs supervision. I can't take AL between Jan and April. I am the high earner. Schools that only take children of two KW/only those that can't WFH are breaking the law. If you have a SAHP that's a different matter though my friend is a mental health worker who was on a video call to a vulnerable client when her young DS walked in to show her his "costume" which wasn't proper clothing (her DH was doing home learning but DS had gone to the loo). So it's not really suitable in some cases for young DCs to be home at all.

@BadTattoosAndSmellLikeBooze

But if you think for a single second, we are going to risk DP's job (that pays almost 4 times what I earn each month) and have me to go into work while he juggles children and wfh, you are insane. I'll take unpaid leave so he can continue uninterrupted and our mortgage is paid.

I didn’t say that did I. But to be fair, I have 2 friends who are not classed as key workers. The nature of the blokes work is that he can’t do it from home regularly. The woman can work from home and earns more. She will be juggling the kids schooling and her job and has no option because neither are classed as keyworkers so it’s not just keyworkers who have to cope. You’re arguing with the wrong person, I’m very sympathetic to anyone coping with young kids and working. I did say if the other parent is working from home but I presume you missed that bit. I just know too many people who took the piss last time and we should all have a problem with those people.

That is exactly what you said - your opinion is that if one parent is working from home, they will 'cope' with work and childcare while the key worker is at work.

I hate to break it to you but he would not cope. He attends meetings all day during working hours, he can't attend them in the evening once I am home. All his team have no children/adult children so if he were to keep disappearing for childcare, the excuses would wear thin and if he were furloughed. Consequence of this is they would employ someone else to do the work. Nothing to stop them from making him redundant and keeping the replacement as he is relatively new to this post and not had years to prove himself. Also furlough pay would only just cover our costs (even with my salary added in). Job market for him doesn't look so good in finding a new post if he were to be made redundant.

Alternatively, I take unpaid leave, his job is safe, our family is at lower risk as no exposure via my work and I will walk back into a job when this is all over as there are huge shortages courtesy of our government underpaying staff. Which option do you think most NHS workers will take? Its a total no brainer and the government know it which is why they haven't insisted both parents are critical workers

@TheNortherner

I find it quite distasteful that people who have two incomes in a household think that it is reasonable for the key worker lower paid one to threaten to give up/give up work if they are not given a place at school for their children. Single working parents do not get any choices if not given a place. Is your non keyworkers mortgage/job/childs welfare more important than theirs?

It is not a threat, it is perfectly valid to make decisions in the best interest of your household. We all agree that single parents have the raw end of the deal but expecting others to compromise their financial security to match the lowest is a ridiculous way of thinking - this isn't a race to the bottom. If government paid all the roles vital to keeping society moving fairly for the amount of work they do, we wouldn't be in this position.

@Tentacles14 describes it perfectly - if you want certain services to be open, provisions need to be made for the workers who provide it

@ofgavin which bit is a crock of shite?
The fact that i dont believe the non key worker is in need of help with looking after their children whilst wfh than a single parent?

[quote TheNortherner]@ofgavin which bit is a crock of shite?
The fact that i dont believe the non key worker is in need of help with looking after their children whilst wfh than a single parent?[/quote]
The whole lot

@TheNortherner - it doesn’t really matter what one believes. The hard facts are despite your views, many will make those decisions to reduce key worker availability so their own family can cope if school places are not provided.

And society will have to cope with less key services as a result. And I repeat, if the public are in hospital with a shortage of medical staff - the public will have a lack of care.

And if that is less important to society compared to making the stand that key workers spouses cannot necessarily do it all without help, that will be the consequence.

That is society’s choice to make of course. But then there should not be complaints about lack of care etc if that decision is made - it is made in full knowledge of these issues and needs to be ‘owned’.

If we value key workers so much, the least we can do is make sure their children are cared for properly.

@MessAllOver

If we value key workers so much, the least we can do is make sure their children are cared for properly.

Exactly.

This judgemental attitude is one of the worst things lockdown has brought out of people.

In our house we are one key worker WFH and one self employed with no work due to covid. I sent my kids to school rather than keep them home. One was year 1 so his year was back. The eldest went back in the key worker group.

I'm sure plenty of people judged us for this. The school didn't. And the handful of close friends who I explained the mental health problems my eldest was experiencing, I'm pretty sure didn't judge. Who knows maybe some did.

The point is, a lot of people enjoy that superior feeling and judge others situations when they don't know the full story. Look after your own family, do what is best for them and stop rubbernecking at what everyone else is doing.

Different schools have different key worker provisions, that might not seem fair but that's life.

There are many people in jobs that cannot be done from home. They should get a place automatically if they are a single parent or their coparent also has to work outside the home - if only 1 out of 2 works outside of the home then it's on a case by case basis. Who qualifies as a keyworker needs to be expanded to all those who work outside the home because under the previous lockdown those in manufacturing were ignored even those producing components for n95 masks! Not everyone can be furloughed because they are needed to work

@ofgavin*I wish all this key worker shite would blow over, it's the main cause of most of our problems right now, "I can't do this because I'm a key worker", "I want this because I'm a key worker"

All workers are important, all children are important, regardless of whether their parents are perceived to be saintly keyworkers or not.*

Why the rage at keyworkers?

And society will have to cope with less key services as a result. And I repeat, if the public are in hospital with a shortage of medical staff - the public will have a lack of care.

Which is essentially what the teachers and unions are deciding for us though. It is directly linked to the decision to close schools, at short notice, that will lead to many having to leave key worker roles.

It's not as simple as the union decides it's not safe enough so that's that. If we want critical people to be available there needs to be the infrastructure to support that.

Me and DH are key workers, him in a Covid linked role and me in a brexit linked role. Both WFH but cant do that with children at home, but we'd be unlikely be able to send DC to school should they close so there is the very real risk that one of use could end up unemployed.

@Pringlespop

It needs to be everyone who cannot work from home so definitely sky engineers and help desk because they have internet services too. We had issues that manufacturing wasn't automatically allocated a place, you cannot wfh! As they were in the ppe supply chain it was critical staff could work

"Key worker"

@ofgavin that speaks volumes of how you see single parents then

[quote MichelleScarn]**@ofgavin*I wish all this key worker shite would blow over, it's the main cause of most of our problems right now, "I can't do this because I'm a key worker", "I want this because I'm a key worker"

All workers are important, all children are important, regardless of whether their parents are perceived to be saintly keyworkers or not.*

Why the rage at keyworkers?[/quote]
No rage about key workers but sick of the description being used to cover off why certain people should have special treatment,,,, plain old workers who aren't considered key, but nevertheless have worked throughout, in and out of the house, keeping what's left of the economy afloat are just as valuable

My husband is a keyworker and I work part time from home. I’m obviously happy to keep my child at home on the days that I’m not working, but I can’t work and look after my child and I can’t expect my employer to pay me to look after my child.

[quote TheNortherner]@ofgavin that speaks volumes of how you see single parents then[/quote]
No it doesn't, it speaks volumes of how you view other people on the subject of single parents

Yes @majesticallyawkward - my DH is a key worker and cannot work from home. I am not a key worker, work full time and now from home. I respect the schools decision - whilst disagreeing with it. But no one should be in any doubt that in the government making it permissible for schools to put such criteria on key worker places, will potentially lead to a lower standard of teaching (teachers having to share childcare with non key worker spouse), less doctors, nurses, food shops opening times etc. If that consequence is fine by society, fine. But given the complaints about teaching quality, no gp services etc I doubt it.
And agreed, that is flabbergasting that those who manufacture PPE are not included!

I find it quite distasteful that people who have two incomes in a household think that it is reasonable for the key worker lower paid one to threaten to give up/give up work if they are not given a place at school for their children

Unfortunately this is the reality though. It's often a case of economics.

All the research is showing that women are being disproportionately disadvantaged during this pandemic. This is due to a combination of things - the jobs women tend to do ( lower paid and/or sectors which are being impacted most), the gender pay gap ( in many relationships women earn less) and societal expectations around the role of men and women at home and in the workplace.

I agree that men need to be contributing equally to childcare and homeschooling but unfortunately this didn't happen during the first lockdown for a variety of reasons- some of that was down to individuals but some of that was due to workplaces not offering flexibility. Yes this needs challenging but it takes time and isn't going to be sorted by tomorrow.

If using a key/critical worker place at school helps prevent women from quitting their jobs then I'm all for it because if we're not careful all the progress we've made over the last few decades will be lost.

@ofgavin - all workers are indeed important. But not all are required at this moment in time for the smooth running of society. In the long term yes I agree with the need to prioritise those making contributions to the tax take. It’s also worth remembering that many key workers are not employed by the state - there are plenty of key workers in the private sector.

What if one of you is not a 'keyworker' but still has to go to work? And the other is a key worker?
Nobody has said only key workers can go to work, have they?
Only that only key workers' children can go to school.
And anyone who can work from home, should. But what if they can't?

@BadTattoosAndSmellLikeBooze

Just trying to understand why everyone is so bothered about whether it’s one or 2 key workers

Because if only 1 parent is a keyworker and the other parent works from home, the other parent can look after the child, therefore reducing the number of children that staff and other keyworkers children attending school are in contact with.

Yes this is what I thought first time round. We could have taken up a school place, but chose not to as dh works from home most days. Like many others have said, it was very tough and dc suffered as we were not able to complete all the work.

It then transpired that many of his friends were back in school- some from the start as key workers or health plans - but others joined as he weeks went on. These children did not have key worker parents.

I also heard from my friend, a TA that loads of parents who “weren’t coping well” were able to send their kids in. Well none of us were coping well, so I don’t get that argument either.

Basically it’s not fair, but this time I won’t be a doormat for the greater good, as no one else did!!