Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
Thread gallery
7
sst1234 · 03/01/2021 19:46

You are not wrong OP. It’s the same people who don’t mind paying extra to shop in local independent shops. And lecture others about doing the same, because it’s only money, right?

Saylethewayles · 03/01/2021 19:47

We’re not calling for hospitals to close!

Firstly, hospitals are more essential than school

Secondly, people who work in hospitals have full PPE and access to regular testing

HTH

Katjolo · 03/01/2021 19:47

Vulnerable children can go to school, alongside children of key workers. Speak to the headteacher if you feel that your child is considered vulnerable and should therefore be at school.

Tomnooktoldmeto · 03/01/2021 19:48

Perhaps you should check your privilege op!

You might be healthy but I’m ECV, my two additional needs children, one with an EHCP would be far worse of if their mum was dead from Covid than if they missed school

But they won’t miss their education because they will be working safely from home

Teachers are entitled to the same protection and respect as all frontline workers and right now that may well only be achieved by education from home

And before you think I don’t get it, I’m a retired nurse with direct itu experience, my dsis, niece and ex sister in law are all there on the front line as are many of my friends and ex colleagues and I know just what crap they’re going through

We need to do what’s best to get this under control now and stop thinking only of our own needs

Poppet1974 · 03/01/2021 19:48

Cringe cringe at ‘check your privilege’.......
but that said let’s hear your solution OP, I’m interested what you think should be done.

chaosisaladder · 03/01/2021 19:48

@sst1234 looks at my nurse salary and my DH police officer salary and feels confused

walksen · 03/01/2021 19:49

"Where was the huge spike in Covid cases that happened when the schools reopened?"

Clearly visible in schools ONS survey figures. It never made it to headline pcr tests figures because unlike universities no one mass tested schools when there were outbreaks in them.

flaxensunshine · 03/01/2021 19:49

@mamamilkmachine

If the schools are closing to protect teachers then should the food shops close to protect workers? The world cannot just stop!
This!!!
JamesMiddletonsMarshmallows · 03/01/2021 19:50

Brava, OP!! Well said.

The most impoverished in our society will be relying on their children being fed this week. Children in abusive homes get the chance of respite from abuse. Schools must remain open.

flaxensunshine · 03/01/2021 19:51

@Katjolo

Vulnerable children can go to school, alongside children of key workers. Speak to the headteacher if you feel that your child is considered vulnerable and should therefore be at school.
Yes because children who are vulnerable because they come from abusive/violent/neglectful (etc) homes where they are at risk of significant harm are going to have parents that care enough to speak to school and make sure they have a place 🙄🙄
Laiste · 03/01/2021 19:51

Where was the huge spike in Covid cases that happened when the schools reopened?

They reopened last time after a long lockdown when numbers were down and we didn't have a mutated virus which is supposed to be more easily caught knocking about.

We've just come out of a xmas with loads of households mixing. Personally i'd like a delay on one more week. Otherwise we WILL have schools shut for weeks and weeks again.

Keep the door shut for a tiny bit longer, then we can open it and leave it open. Open it now and it'll be slammed shut for ages.

JamesMiddletonsMarshmallows · 03/01/2021 19:52

Oh and BTW I'm a teacher I'm not scared for my health - I'll take one for the team as a low risk person who's already had the virus. There are plenty of teachers like me happy to do this for the greater good of their pupils. My friends who are nurses and doctors have been doing it since March

MrsHamlet · 03/01/2021 19:52

@mamamilkmachine

If the schools are closing to protect teachers then should the food shops close to protect workers? The world cannot just stop!
You are aware that schools are closing to protect school staff AND students, aren't you?
m0therofdragons · 03/01/2021 19:52

Not sure why so many hate the phrase “check your privilege”. I think it’s easy to forget that if we have a home, income that covers the build, heating, bedrooms for all dc and space for them to work, we are privileged even if it’s not a mansion we live in. I think we need to remember that sometimes. Whatever happens, my dc will feel loved and safe. Sadly, not all dc will feel that and many fall through the gaps.

alwieba · 03/01/2021 19:53

@berryfull

"Where was the huge spike in Covid cases that happened when the schools reopened?"

To think that those people calling for the schools to shut should check their privilege
VetiverAndLavender · 03/01/2021 19:53

If I could send just one word into oblivion, never to uttered again, it might be "privilege".

movingonup20 · 03/01/2021 19:53

I do agree that schools need to remain open for those who need them, but perhaps there's a compromise where parents can homeschool if they can

JamesMiddletonsMarshmallows · 03/01/2021 19:54

Stop presuming that the vunerable children are being looked after, they are not!

This pisses me off when people presume this. No one is going to say "My husband is a raging alcoholic and we physically abuse our child so can they go to the hub school please".

If schools close we will be feeling the damage in yard to come and it's our children who will suffer it

flaxensunshine · 03/01/2021 19:55

@JamesMiddletonsMarshmallows

Stop presuming that the vunerable children are being looked after, they are not!

This pisses me off when people presume this. No one is going to say "My husband is a raging alcoholic and we physically abuse our child so can they go to the hub school please".

If schools close we will be feeling the damage in yard to come and it's our children who will suffer it

Exactly!!!
Pukkatea · 03/01/2021 19:55

And I'm sick of the number of people dying and everything else that has to be restricted so that children can go to school and spread the virus. People are losing their lives and their livelihoods.

Iggly · 03/01/2021 19:57

@WorrierorWarrior

It looks to me like most of the parents of today's children look on schools as a place to give the parents a break from their children. Schools are there to educate and to a certain extent socialise children not to give parents peace. This is a seriously tough time that we are all going through and it is not just difficult for school children and their parents. It is really tough going for everyone for a variety of reasons.
Not quite.

Employers are expecting parents to work as normal even with their kids at home.

Schools haven’t been given enough resources to actually implement proper covid safe environments.

Test and trace is a shower of shit despite the billions that have been thrown at it.

pollylocketpickedapocket · 03/01/2021 19:58

I really, really wish the schools could stay open.
I’m a single, self employed mum, my income is going to be slashed by at least a 3rd, my very sociable only child will be climbing the walls to be with other kids and if you’d have asked me 24 hours ago I’d have agreed they absolutely need to stay open. But listening to all evidence just today they need to close ASAP.

GarlicSoup · 03/01/2021 19:59

@SaltyAF

Stop asking members of school communities to cure all society's ills by risking their health.
This ‘Check’ your facts OP.
ChloeDecker · 03/01/2021 20:00

Where were you, OP, when the thousands of vulnerable children had to endure self isolation periods, without even being able to get fresh air and exercise outside their home, some running over a month, last term because schools did not have safer Covid measures?

Where were the threads you were starting, campaigning for safer measures to keep schools open more?

Or are you just starting now because it’s only just starting to affect you?

JamesMiddletonsMarshmallows · 03/01/2021 20:01

Where were you, OP, when the thousands of vulnerable children had to endure self isolation periods, without even being able to get fresh air and exercise outside their home, some running over a month, last term because schools did not have safer Covid measures?

I imagine she was busy looking after her two disabled children whilst WFH