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.

@Toomuchtodo21 sounds like they don’t fully appreciate that his role is partly outside the home.
But I can understand your frustration entirely and this is why the capacity issues being caused by one KW families with a non KW at home are giving me the rage. As is generally the government’s broad criterion that caused this.
Very patently your childcare should be ringfenced by the government as you are both very much critical to the covid effort.

@NCstaythefuckathome they have asked for shift patterns which we have sent so I’m still hoping she will get a place those days he could be called out but even if he manages to remove the on call so he dosent have to go out I still wouldn’t be happy with him wfh and homeschooling - she is 4 now so needs constant interaction, he can’t have headphones in as he won’t hear her but he can’t have his calls on speaker as his patients are mentally unwell and so say things that are not suitable (sexual or swearing etc).

To me in a way it dosent matter that he’s a key worker his job is not compatible with homeschooling a child - I imagine that if you work media for example then also you might be making age inappropriate content so you can’t do it when a child is about. As I’m just a junior part time dr I earn much less so I’m the one that will be handing in notice even though it’s me that’s working with the covid patients

The school is full of vulnerable kids btw which is why it’s tight for places and I don’t begrudge them places

I can understand your frustration entirely and this is why the capacity issues being caused by one KW families with a non KW at home are giving me the rage. Exactly. Poor @NCstaythefuckathome has been making this point for 8 pages. A psychiatrist can't section people from home and homeschool! An accountant who needs access to paper documents can't wfh and homeschool. Etc etc.

But there are DEFINITELY people who have KW partners, who are working in ordinary salaried office jobs, eg marketing, sales, logistics, management, where they could have their kids with them without actively damaging those kids. They would have to work early and late hours, do a worse job, be apologetic and be interruptable. But they don't want to. It's hard and unpleasant.

They could also hire a nanny to work exclusively for them between 12 and 6pm each day and share the load. But they don't want to pay.

THEY are who I'm annoyed with- they're the ones having it easier than the rest of us.

Wife is keyworker, I am WFH, we have 2 boys 4 and 9

I was happy to keep them at home and school then whilst juggling work, but school rang me yesterday and offered them both a space in their year bubbles, I accepted as the younger boys speech regressed last summer when i spent 3 months in hospital and his grandad passed away.

I dont find myself selfish to want to try and get my boys education back upto speed and the school rang me, not the other way round.

@ElsaSchraeder - An accountant who needs access to paper documents can't wfh and homeschool”

Yes they can. My sister works from home and hasn’t seen her office in nearly a year.

@isitsummertimeyet - most schools have identified children they feel may have some vulnerability, or risk of slipping behind if not in school. Perhaps your child was offered a place because of this? Which is good of course...and shows some thought about the process, as opposed to those schools throwing open the first come first served window arbitrarily.

@Schoolmummmy Well, from general knowledge I would have agreed that an accountant could wfh with some accommodations, personally, but I've been told further up the thread that this is one of the examples of where people's jobs are more complex than they might appear from the outside. I take that point. It is perhaps right to look at employers- are they the ones making out like everyone needs to come into the office, or being unwilling or unimaginative enough to make adaptations?

My suspicion is that this is the case some of the time- and on other occasions, there are aspects to a job I simply haven't considered- I don't know about all jobs.

The point remains though... sometimes it's the individual taking the mickey. There are some people making life easier on themselves, at the expense of the lockdown for us all. If you're reading this thread, you know if it's you, in your heart. And it's not great behaviour.

Oh is a key worker i am not but work in manufacturing so were open but we do supply essential items as such i could have had a place for dd but we managed to work around it but if i couldnt she would have been in school.....what industry should we stop ohs key role supplying ppe or my manufacturing role supplying essential products for the country (heating products which is very indemand atm for some reason) the school have got 50 kids in (had an email stating it) most are at home with their parents

[quote Schoolmummmy]@isitsummertimeyet - most schools have identified children they feel may have some vulnerability, or risk of slipping behind if not in school. Perhaps your child was offered a place because of this? Which is good of course...and shows some thought about the process, as opposed to those schools throwing open the first come first served window arbitrarily.[/quote]
The teacher for the younger 4 yr old did say how his speech had improved since September when they restarted and it would be a shame if this possibly started to slide again with not having the school enviroment to help aid him.

I was generally prepared to take on the role of WFH worker and home schooling parent until they rang to offer the placements..

Im still not sure what was the right choice, Im still concerned about how safe it is and i know the likelyhood is pretty small but they have had kids from those classes with positive covids previously and had the entire years having to isolate for a fortnight on more than one occasion.

Sorry only read half dozen or so replies, from what I am aware, most places only require one keyworker to have a place, vulnerable can be single parent free school meals court orders looked after children , what they kept very quiet if you read GOV.UK is vulnerable also includes if you dont have the means I.e laptop or internet or the space for your child to work or the means to do the work well or at home. Speak to your school. Prob depends on size of school also.

People are still crammed into supermarkets and small shops /takeaways, enclosed into tubes, working in offices

That depends , in my area of London everyone is scared . People are keeping a low profile
We haven’t seen a soul ! This time people are taking it more seriously

Shops are quiet and not crammed

Everyone is petrified of catching it

And I think schools are a partial reasons
As their parents (the key workers ) are the poor buggers who are taking a risk, as they have no choice

Even if I was offered a place I wouldn’t take it now

So school have today decided on their own definition of a key worker so ex DH is no longer counted meaning we now can only have 2 days of provision rather than 4.

This means for 2 days a week DS will go to my sister, a nurse, with 3 children, one at nursery, one at infants and one at secondary. So between them all there is me - a frontline teacher, a nurse and 4 separate childcare settings with all 4 kids then going back into respective settings after mixing for 2 days a week.

Surely school is better?!

Yes 🙌
You totally deserve to have risk minimised in your case and have a FT place
I wonder who else has them ?

That’s really infuriating
I’m sad you are in this situation

More than sad

@Thisisworsethananticpated

Yes 🙌 You totally deserve to have risk minimised in your case and have a FT place I wonder who else has them ?

That’s really infuriating
I’m sad you are in this situation

Well, to be fair they will have a lovely time with their cousins who they have really missed but bloody hell that is one hit bed potential for infection right there isn't it?!

DH is considered a keyworker and I definitely am as a nurse. But our dc are old enough and reasonably sensible enough to be left at home alone age 10 and 14.

I would rather have them at home and leave key worker provision for the folks who really need it

@oohmamama

So school have today decided on their own definition of a key worker so ex DH is no longer counted meaning we now can only have 2 days of provision rather than 4.

This means for 2 days a week DS will go to my sister, a nurse, with 3 children, one at nursery, one at infants and one at secondary. So between them all there is me - a frontline teacher, a nurse and 4 separate childcare settings with all 4 kids then going back into respective settings after mixing for 2 days a week.

Surely school is better?!

Do they go to your ex in the week? If not shouldn’t they be counting you as a single parent?

@BungleandGeorge

It's a 50/50 split so for their time with him - he counts

But the non ‘key-worker’ partners can???

You’re missing the point here. If neither of you are key workers you use annual leave/flexi hours/request furlough/take unpaid leave so you can home school your kids. It makes sense for the lower earner of the couple to take the leave.

But if that lower earner happens to be a keyworker (eg a nursing assistant or Porter or hospital cleaner) he/she will take leave from a job that is crucial to keeping the country running during a pandemic. We need all keyworkers on deck!

One of the teaching unions, the NEUis calling for parents of young children to be furloughed for childcare and home schooling reasons. They don’t say who would do the work of those employees.

@Parker231

One of the teaching unions, the NEUis calling for parents of young children to be furloughed for childcare and home schooling reasons. They don’t say who would do the work of those employees.

Exactly!! I'm the only person in my university who teaches my subject. I have 40+ students needing to complete their professional qualification.... if they furlough me who teaches those students???

Ridiculous idea.

And a lot of the keyworkers are paid with public funds and therefore not eligible for furlough.

@HikeForward - and you are missing the point they has been made on here a hundred times! I’m not talking about lowly paid NHS workers here..or teachers or other ‘crucial‘ public service employees. I’m talking about the millions of home based workers who now find they or their partner...somehow fits into one of those hugely broad categories of key worker...and jumps on the bandwagon for their place. Many head teachers have now aired their views on various news reports of this fiasco..all saying the same thing. It cannot be an arbitrarily option that is open to everyone who has at least one parent who fits the list. Because as has been pointed out in the press many times now..that’s over half the country! And it’s not possible for schools to accommodate half or more of their students in school, and please the other half at home. There needs to be a case by case approach, with priority given to key workers who are NHS, teaching staff etc who have no other childcare at home...and not allow the places to be filled up with couples who work from home whereby one is a key(ish) worker according to some vague ball park fit on the list...and the other is either a part time something..or doesn’t work at all!
In my affluent area...they are the vast majority of people who are taking these places...not the worthy cases people keep pointing out over & over again on here. We get that...we all get that!
The system simply needs to be handled better by the schools. At the private school my DH is a governor at, they are already doing this..as most are. Their key worker kids now, are the same as last time. The state school I’m governor at...completely different picture. And now they’ve realised they opened up the gates too far and too wide, because everybody was going by the letter of the list, and they are now having to look at places for next week and beyond, as some of the classes are almost full. I just cannot see why this issue is so hard to grasp

We are a one keyworker household. One parent = sahp with a toddler.
We think we are doing the right thing by keeping dc at home and are jumping through hoops trying to educate or other school age dc x2.

I've heard that approx one third of the school children are at school and I'm feeling frustrated and angry that all these children are at school whilst we are stretched trying to do the right thing - that's an awful lot of keyworkers/vulnerable children...not many are eligible for free school dinners, so what is happening and yes, fairly affluent area.

I agree with above, I am classed as a key worker but I can work from home in theory, I have a unusual job where I am a one off in two school settings. In the private sector my job is not considered 'essential'. My husband is WFH as an Architect and I would say in the long run has just as much a contribution to society as my job. It is really challenging but I won't be taking that place as I don't think any of this is just about me and what I want and my 'rights'. How long do people want this to go on for! In Sussex, Surrey and in London it has been declared a 'major incident', do people not realise the implications of this!