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Original poster

To think that those people calling for the schools to shut should check their privilege

517 replies

berryfull · 03/01/2021 19:11

It’s all very well and good to decide to keep your kids home or call for the schools to shut when you have enough space/have a garden/ have enough bedrooms/ have a home office/ can work from home/one parent doesn’t work/ you can work flexibly / your work can furlough you/ you have enough savings/ you have enough money/ you have WiFi / you have a device per child/ your children can read and write/ your children are independent/ your children are neurotypical/ your children don’t have disabilities/ you’re not scared of your partner/ you’re not scared of your children/ your mental health doesn’t make you a danger to your children/ yiu can cope with the stress/ your partner isn’t a danger to your children/ your health is good enough to allow you to look after your children/ your education level is sufficient for you to help educate your children you can feed your children throughout the day ..... etc etc

Stop presuming that all children will be safer at home. There are bigger and comparable dangers to the Covid that school keeps children safe from. And the vunerable ones are not being looked after.

Keep the schools open .... please!

OP posts:
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7
Thedarknightsaredrawingin · 04/01/2021 10:16

@Kndg and maybe a payment of some kind if a parent wants to stay at home
Don’t be absurd.

SusannaSpider · 04/01/2021 10:32

@Kndg and maybe a payment of some kind if a parent wants to stay at home

I'm not sure I'd go that far. But less working days would enable more parents to spend more time with their children, and reduce childcare costs, so less people would opt to stay at home full time. It would benefit the mental health of non parents too and allow great flexibility for volunteering which would benefit the community.
Although I have wondered about tax breaks for homeschoolers or SAHP. Where I live one parent can claim the tax allowance of their SAH partner.

JamesMiddletonsMarshmallows · 04/01/2021 10:32

@chocolatepowder you're absolutely right and as a teacher (sorry I keep prattling on saying that but I think it's relevant and someone needs to show that we are not a COVID-terrified hive mind) I don't think our children should have to be the ones to make sacrifices on their future. Especially when it's adults that are fucking things up and breaking rules left right and centre.

HappyNewYear2021 · 04/01/2021 10:40

@x2boys

Lots of vulnerable were not able to go to school in the last lockdown *@FoxinaScarf* , including many of those in special school,s .
Amazing that people still don't understand this.
Forestshade · 04/01/2021 11:32

@ineedaholidaynow

Where are the threads bashing social services etc for not doing their job during the pandemic, saying ‘think of the vulnerable children’. Why is this only aimed at teachers?
Exactly,

Everybody took schools granted for their extra help they are doing. Now when they are actually thinking about themselves and their families; people are demanding 'help'. They arnt the ones who are answerable, its the social services.

They are trying to do their job by online teaching its not perfect but all other services ( nhs, shops etc) aint perfect either as its a pandemic.

GrolliffetheDragon · 04/01/2021 11:48

DH is considered vulnerable due to a chronic health condition. The schools closing would make things difficult for us, but I prefer DH to be alive and well...

Duggeehugs82 · 04/01/2021 11:55

Well im a parent carer and a teacher , well qualified teacher but not working as a parent carer and i think schools should close. Not every parent carer thinks schools should be kept open

RickOShay · 04/01/2021 12:02

Social services have been working throughout the lockdowns.

flattyres · 04/01/2021 12:02

Duffie, if you are not working it is so much easier. But some parents have to work from home. My DD is severely learning disabled and as a lone parent I have to earn a living. is it so hard to understand, that for some families, having children (esp with complex needs) at home whilst trying to work poses an impossible challenge?

flattyres · 04/01/2021 12:04

Social services have been working throughout the lockdowns.

social services were a monumental let down for most families with disabled/vulnerable kids even before covid. They just throw you under a bus. nothing else.

RickOShay · 04/01/2021 12:13

Not always

flattyres · 04/01/2021 12:17

well, then you gave been lucky, Rick. we have been let down for well over a decade by that 'service' and I know that my experience is more the norm.

Daddyatethemincepies · 04/01/2021 12:28

I really wish people would stop using the phrase "check their privilege". It's being applied to everything at the moment 🙄

Doddle7 · 04/01/2021 12:57

So it is ok to risk school staff and their family's health? What about the children who are safe at home?

ItsNotGreenItsBlue · 04/01/2021 13:01

@Doddle7 what about the children that aren’t safe at home? The ones that are missed because no one quite classes them as vulnerable? What about the parents that have lost their jobs because they can’t send their kids in to school and now have to rely on benefits despite having worked their entire adult lives and can no longer afford their outgoings because benefits are piss poor. The kids that are going to bed hungry because their parents have now had to make a decision between paying their mortgage and putting food on the table?

ResIpsaLoquiturInterAlia · 04/01/2021 13:01

“Check their privilege” is meaningless in a world with such relative variety. The 1% and so called celebs doing their own thing according to their rules etc etc.

“Check your Covid footprint” or “check you Covid impact” should be more appropriate given the unchecked inadvertent mutating super spreading.

Be part of the solution not the cause. Stay home (if you can) and stay out of potential trouble. Let the scientists do their thing to eradicate the disease and then finally you will have all the usual things again provided the economy can support all the previous "freebies." If you are not paying for it then be thankful for those that are contributing to the ever larger bill! As a society we need to all pull together and do what we can temporary to help beat this and not cause more issues than they solve. Again not a "lecture" but just common sense.

Check your Covid impact and understand how R rates work and why hands, face, space and trace is a thing. And that is with or without any vaccine. If NHS, education and social security/services are detrimentally Covid impacted then what chance for any of us whether medically, mental, socially or economically disadvantaged or not!? What would be left? It’s no longer me me me and why not me!

So introducing “check your Covid impact”. Human right to life trumps all in a worsening medical pandemic war. Good luck and stay safe! We need to protect everyone and so sad for 70k-80k+ Brits passed already (with no doubt more daily) irrespective of “privilege”. Think of them no longer here, if not just yourself. These numbers need to stop!

flattyres · 04/01/2021 13:03

@Doddle7

So it is ok to risk school staff and their family's health? What about the children who are safe at home?
But some children are for all sorts of reasons saver in school. is that so hard to understand???
Slackarse · 04/01/2021 13:07

EvilEdna1

Maybe everyone who has no experience of working in a school should 'check their privilege'.

Spot on @EvilEdna1

Sorrythepersonyoucalledisunava · 04/01/2021 13:16

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

DietrichandDiMaggio · 04/01/2021 17:44

What it boils down to for me is that if it is considered to high a risk for me to be in my house, or even my garden, with somebody outside of my household, why is it okay for me to be in a classroom with thirty other people for six hours a day?

TableFlowerss · 04/01/2021 18:03

@DietrichandDiMaggio

What it boils down to for me is that if it is considered to high a risk for me to be in my house, or even my garden, with somebody outside of my household, why is it okay for me to be in a classroom with thirty other people for six hours a day?
One is considered essential and is a job...

The other isn’t....

DietrichandDiMaggio · 04/01/2021 18:06

Too not to.

ChloeDecker · 04/01/2021 18:13

@RickOShay

Social services have been working throughout the lockdowns.
Maybe but not face to face, at least not where I am in London.

They have left most of the ‘clear up’ to schools. It would have helped hugely if SS (and CAMHS etc) had been more available physically these past four months. It’s probably down to their funding and staffing though and I place the blame squarely at the government for this.

DietrichandDiMaggio · 04/01/2021 18:44

One is considered essential and is a job...

The other isn’t....

At what point would it be considered an unacceptable risk then, as we are obviously not basing it on scientific data?

I have accepted not seeing my disabled adult son for weeks (he lives in supported living and normally comes every other weekend), only having him at our home for the day on Christmas day, because we are being told it's too risky for households to mix. He is not mixing with anyone apart from the people he lives with and support workers. We have no idea who the children are mixing with outside of school, or if their families are following the guidance, so who knows what increased risk they are putting us at?

I was really happy last term to be back full-time and for the children to have had a successful return to school, but the much higher transmission rates of the new strain means that what felt safe before Christmas does not feel the same now.

For the record, I have not chosen to submit a section 44 letter and will be going in to school, but that doesn't mean I feel safe at work.

DeeCeeCherry · 04/01/2021 18:56

Too many people fully expect teachers/school staff to take risks that they'd never take themselves. & A huge sense of "so what it's your job" entitlement underpins that.