Is the world and their dog key workers!!!

[anxiouscrazymum]

So I am not a key worker, I work 3 days a week and have 2 KS1 children.
I am having to adapt my hours around my children's school work and will just have to run myself ragged over the next few months like many others!
AIBU to think that some parents are taking the P@@s and using Key worker benefits to be bloody lazy.
Why are the allowed to send children 5 days if they only work 2/3?
Why are they allowed to send in if their partner is furloughed or working from home?
Why are they allowed to send children in of the just work weekends in a supermarket normally?
We have 14 out of 30 children in my DS class at school, they have the class teacher with them and also have each other.
I feel my children are being penalised and will miss out on school and social interaction all because I am not a key worker:
If there were less children in, the teacher would be able to undertake zoom classes and online interactions. Because of the number of children in we just get set daily tasks!
Sorry for my rant AIBU x

Guidance for who is covered under education hasn't changed (here is March's list feweek.co.uk/2020/03/20/list-of-key-workers-and-vulnerable-children-revealed/ and the list now www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-educational-provision/guidance-for-schools-colleges-and-local-authorities-on-maintaining-educational-provision). So suspect it's interpretation of the list that has changed (maybe by employers). Unless universities are under another category?

I am a doctor . Although I work full time some of these shifts are weekends or nights so I am sometimes at home on weekdays. My kids will go to school 5 days a week as consistency is better for them to adapt to and I don’t have arguments about them going to school when I am tired and need to sleep or just have a quiet day .

Hey I only work 2 or 3 days yet I have to keep my daughter in a bubble 5 days a week else numbers and routine would be chaos.

@Littlebelina

Guidance for who is covered under education hasn't changed (here is March's list feweek.co.uk/2020/03/20/list-of-key-workers-and-vulnerable-children-revealed/ and the list now www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-educational-provision/guidance-for-schools-colleges-and-local-authorities-on-maintaining-educational-provision). So suspect it's interpretation of the list that has changed (maybe by employers). Unless universities are under another category?

We were told last time that university staff weren't key workers. This time the DfE have confirmed that we are. I suspect we were just forgotten about last time and weren't a priority because we can WFH and for most courses teaching had pretty much finished.

No we are smack bang in the middle of term and teaching is at it's busiest.

moomin11

Yes YABU to suggest that keyworkers taking up keyworker places they are entitled to equals taking the piss and being lazy.
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No no one was suggesting that. Can’t you read? It was saying that certain keywords positions shouldn’t be plus if there is another parent at home, the child shouldn’t be at school. If your taking the piss you yourself will know. From the start It should be two proper keyworker families only. Then what’s the point of shutting Down schools. It just makes it unfair to the child left at home snd unsafe for the teachers.,

It is the interpretation of the key workers. I know a mum who works for a broadband company and she got a letter issued from her company that she is a key worker. She works from home. I work in IT and I got offered a letter too as I work on the projects related to the government however I refused to use it. I don’t believe it is right. And yes everyone’s situation is different however we will never bring those numbers down (or it will take really long time) if we don’t do sacrifices. Sending kids to school should be your last resort like back in March. What happens if there is an outbreak in school, all kids and their parents who are actually working on the front line will have to self isolate. Plus how about teachers? I don’t believe it is fair to put this kind of pressure on them. My daughter’s class have 15 kids in out of 30, so 50% capacity however teachers have to deliver lessons in class and online. I find this lockdown mockery to be honest. This is not a lockdown if everyone is allowed to their own interpretation. We had 1000 deaths yesterday how high numbers need to be to make everyone realise this needs to be taken seriously.

The NHS say for LONDON they will likely be short by 2000 to 5000 beds.

They won’t be treating people who are in a road traffic accidents or have a heart attack.

Can someone people explain why the government are not stepping in and rethinking the number of “key” worker children they have permitted to attend.

We will all be locked up for longer and more people will die.

They need to act fast.

Last time it was the furloughed who got a bashing, this time it's those claiming keyworker status...

A friend is a TA in our local primary and she said numbers were low. But then we live just outside Greater London in a borough where cases have gone up 35% in the last week and where even before Christmas staff and kids were starting to drop like flies. NHS England have said London hospitals will be overwhelmed in the next 2 weeks, best case scenario. So not surprising people are being cautious about sending kids in.

Bellyjellee

I know of at least 3 stay at home parents that have requested a place for their child because their partner is a key worker. Some people are definitely taking the piss. I'm sure a lot of others genuinely need it though and deserve a break.
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No I would need to phone the council snd complain if I knew them. Not jealous but bloody angry with all this. My two children are missing out in their education, my sons behind as it is. What gives them the right to do this, lazy lazy parenting. What the point of even shutting down the schools??
I heard from someone last lockdown in my area , when the mother took her child to school to drop off. The reception asked at the hub for her phone number. The mother replied no it’s ok my husband is in all day. They were marched out. But our council were very strict last time. Two keyworker plus it was in category’s. 1 being nurses/care / doctors down to category 3 supermarket staff and so on.

I walked past my local primary school at playtime yesterday and it was pretty busy. In the first lockdown you barely saw a single kid. Difference was stark.

My heart sank - we aren't going to get out of this anytime soon are we.

I keep saying this but you cant base it on just job and think you know the circumstances

The reality is that most people during the last lockdown didn’t know what the effects of Covid were. People thought we could die from getting covid. So they didn’t wa t their children to mix with others, thinking that the possibility of them dying or getting very ill was very real. Obviously now stats show that the vast majority of people dying or being badly affected are the elderly or those with underlying conditions. Therefore most people think the risks are minimal. And indeed everyone now knows what a ball ache homeschooling is. So for example my friend, a SAHM mum with an NHS management bod for a husband (certainly not a key worker), has send both her children to school.

This. There needs to be something in place to prevent employers taking advantage and force them to support their working parents. Of course workers are going to have to use places that they're only tenuously entitled to if their employers expect it of them. Same with me (as a teacher) when my own DC's school has messed about with closures (I say messed about because there weren't any cases) and I couldn't get a KW place because I live and work over a border: my employer wasn't going to let me have the time off paid.

Workers don't have the power to change this. Those who are knowingly sending their children to school while they WfH should be prevented from doing so IMO, but I don't think that's the main problem here.

This, 100x over.

Last time, employers thought it was just for three weeks. Most semi-decent employers were reasonably supportive. Now, they know it’s most likely going to be until Easter, and their goodwill just doesn’t extend that far. My employer hasn’t even acknowledged it - not even an email round. And I appreciate that many employers are coming under serious pressure, but it’s the government’s job to support and encourage them to support working parents. I have heard countless stories of employers pressuring parents to take up places they are tenuously entitled to, or not entitled to at all. I know someone who is a single parent and categorically isn’t a keyworker (she would be the first to admit that!) Her employer has told her to throw herself on the mercy of the school and beg for a place instead of supporting her to work flexibly, or looking at other ways they could help her. If the school say yes, that’s another child in school.

It is very, very difficult for employees to push back on that sort of pressure.

And I have a huge amount of sympathy for parents who are balancing homeschooling with work looking at lots of other children in school with a timetable as usual and feeling resentful.

DDs school have said that if they go in as key worker children, they have to go in all 5 days. There is no option to just put them in when you are working so she has to go all give days despite me working two days a week as shift work. Neither of our jobs are able to be done from home (paramedic and brain injury care work ) and we don't have anyone we can use for childcare because they are ECV and shielding.

I'm a civil servant but my job is completely computer based and i have been working from home since the start of the march lockdown. With both school closures all of my company have been offered the option to be classed as a keyworker if you want your children to go to school.
My partner is also still working and would be classed as a keyworker but isnt in any frontline work.
I wouldn't dream of taking advantage and sending my child to school despite the fact im worried the lack of school is making him further behind than he already.

Many people in my position would send their DC to school and i think it's wrong.

Are there threads full of how nurseries are open and how wrong it is that people are sending their children to nursery?

Course not!

What about the safety of the nursery teachers or the R rate.
Pretty quiet on that front probably because everyone can access it.

Last lockdown I wasn't allowed to go in to work, this time I'm expected to. I work in a school (support staff, currently supervising a handful of secondary-age students doing remote lessons). So it's definitely different this time in terms of expectations and I think this is reflected in the number of children in schoo, particularly primary level. Hopefully the numbers are still low enough to do the job of slowing the spread of the virus.

My son (Y3, ASD and ADHD) was offered a place this time - (I didn't request it but was emailed to say he'd been identified as qualifying). I've sent him in because last time he absolutely would not engage with the work as he can't cope with the idea of school being at home. Should I have deliberately chosen to disadvantage my child and refuse the place? I'm really not sure. But I couldn't do that. I feel guilty either way tbh.

I do think it should be down to the schools though, to gatekeep the places properly and check if there are SAHM or part-time workers requesting them.

DH and I both keyworkers.

I cannot work from home and work part time on a rotating pattern, so not the same days each week. School said we had to have set days and they're the same each week. So I had to choose Weds-Fri to send them. I won't always be in work when they are in but that is the school's decision. DH will WFH when they do not have school provision and I am in work, but he can't do this every day as there are certain things he has to be in work for (sensitive information and systems he cannot access from home).

Last lockdown the school would call and ask for my shifts each week but they're not doing that this time because of the increased numbers attending.

I guess that would mean I'm taking the piss then?

@Pinkandwrinkly

Last time it was the furloughed who got a bashing, this time it's those claiming keyworker status...

Don't worry last time keyworkers got a bashing as well (when's groundhog day again)

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/3855447-To-many-key-workers

No one said that we are bashing key workers. This has been addressed in TV today and I’m sure it will explode soon. I work in IT and infrastructure sector and I got offered a key worker letter from my company as I work on government project. I refused to use it and decided to do flexible working. However I’m aware that in my daughters school people got offered same options by their companies, eg broadband company even if people work from home. Companies are aware that employee can’t be properly productive if they have kids at home....however are we going to decrease the numbers and got out of it if the schools are 50% full? I saw a parent dropping his child at school today and I know he is furloughed (his wife is good friend of mine so I know her situation really well), however she is key worker. Clearly the dad should be looking after the kids? I know everyone’s situation is different but every family is struggling right now and we should take this seriously. If you work from home, you should have your kids at home...at least if your kids are vulnerable at home. You will read here situations that both parents are key workers and actually work in frontline but actually didn’t get spot in school. Unfortunately people know that the risk for kids is low now compare to March and have been through homeschooling. It is hell and hard work, we all know it... but schools should be used as the last resort in current situation

@Persianparadise

moomin11

Yes YABU to suggest that keyworkers taking up keyworker places they are entitled to equals taking the piss and being lazy.
Bookmark

No no one was suggesting that. Can’t you read? It was saying that certain keywords positions shouldn’t be plus if there is another parent at home, the child shouldn’t be at school. If your taking the piss you yourself will know. From the start It should be two proper keyworker families only. Then what’s the point of shutting Down schools. It just makes it unfair to the child left at home snd unsafe for the teachers.,

Yes I can read thanks and do you need to be so rude? The OP said:

AIBU to think that some parents are taking the P@@s and using Key worker benefits to be bloody lazy.

The selfishness of some people not new. Covid oy affects the elderly and vulnerable so who cares.

Forget that some of these (as retirement is now almost 70) will be teachers. That the NHS is so overwhelmed, they can't standard care and as such, teachers, parents and those acting unselfishly all the way through will due from delayed diagnosed cancer, heart disease, kidney failure etc...