To think Boris’ letter to working parents missed the mark

[SuddenlyMummy]

Am I being unreasonable for feeling more frustrated after reading it?

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9204433/amp/Boris-Johnson-sends-open-letter-Britains-parents-No-10-plans-relax-exercise-rules.html

It seems well intentioned and no doubt intended to make us as parents feel more supported, and better understood by the people who are making important decisions affecting our daily lives. I doubt Boris intended it to feel like a kick in the gut.

To me at least, the fact that someone could even suggest that it’s possible to deal with the challenges of homeschooling and their day jobs ‘magnificently’ seems completely out of touch. Actually more than that - it feels unfair to suggest that it’s possible to do even an adequate job of educating your own children whilst at the same time attempting to meet the basic demands of work.

And who are all these super-parents who are also “meeting all the other demands that small people generate from breakfast until bedtime”? Because I’m not one of them. 99% of my homeschooling efforts end in my child flopping under the table pretending to be asleep, leaving me with 86 photos or videos of her non-cooperation for me to edit down into a few seconds of what could be mistaken for a successful learning moment to upload onto Tapestry.

I found my son eating my face cream earlier this week and today I spontaneously burst into tears on a zoom call with 92 colleagues before remembering that I am now abiding by a ‘videos on’ policy. Yep. Magnificent.

I know I would want tell my parent friends the same thing - they’re all doing the very best that they can in the circumstances. I might even make the mistake of telling them that they’re doing great, when really I have no idea at all how they’re doing. Maybe they’re right to be worried about their absence from / performance at work and their kid really is doing badly at home and will be behind their classmates when schools go back. Being told that they’re magnificent probably wouldn’t help much I guess.

So for anyone who feels like they are not doing a “great job” for kid and country - but instead finishes each day feeling like they’ve failed in something important because there is just not enough time or emotional energy to go around - you’re not alone.

What would you have wanted Boris to say instead?

We're in this mess because of him and his useless fucking government.

He can shove that letter up his fucking arse.

I would like to have seen:

"Schools will be opening on x date. In preparation, all teachers and support staff will be offered a vaccination appointment [2 weeks before x date]. There will be Oak Academy provision for CEV children until the national vaccination program is complete. Parents or guardians of CEV children will be eligible for furlough until this time. Thankyou for your patience."

YABU for reading that rag; YABU for believing a word that idiot says.

Rather than this patronising nonsense I want him to set out what is happening with GCSEs this summer and promise it won't be a shambles like last year.

What BlowDry said

Context is everything in this I think. If this letter was written by a widely respected politician with strong credentials as a parent, and some evidence of being able to empathise with the electorate, then this would actually be a very nice albeit pointless letter. But in the context of a prime minister who has shambled or lurched into disaster at every turn of this pandemic, who refuses to even confirm how many children he has, and who could do so much more than he is doing to help working families through this, well its just a pile of self serving crap really. And if he really wanted to demonstrate that he understood what we are all going through, that letter would be addressed predominantly to mothers.

I can't even be bothered to read it....

How about “ we accept that homeschooling and working > 16 hours per week cannot be done simultaneously. Therefore we are introducing a legal right to furlough for parents of children under 12”

i would have wanted him to say that he was resigning -useless pile of shite

I would like him to say that all children will be repeating this year to take the pressure off from trying to keep up with the curriculum. Without the homeschooling parents only have to concentrate on keeping children alive and healthy which although still demanding whilst working from home would be a lot easier than trying to learn how to teach

@UrAWizHarry

We're in this mess because of him and his useless fucking government.

He can shove that letter up his fucking arse.

That's just not true, is it

The letter made me so mad!!! I have the rage again just thinking about it.
He's obviously worrying about votes.....personally he can stick my vote and his shitty letter up his arse

Seriously why do you need a letter from Boris at all....to tell you what...well done for being a parent?
I've been homeschooling for almost an entire year now. I've had my kids at home every single day for an entire year (come the end of February) as a result of covid but I don't feel like I need a thank you for that....I'm their bloody parent...that is my first job above everything else in the world to look after my kids under any circumstance thrown our way !! Long before a pandemic came along as well !

That man has the permanent expression of a lump of cheese trying to understand quantum physics. Still, at least he’s stopped trying to impress us with his knowledge of checks notes ‘ancient Greece’. That was just embarrassing.

100% with what BlowDry said.

Spot on @BlowDryRat

Why the repeat use of doing great, such an Americanism. We're British we're doing as well as we possibly can given the horrific circumstances (very low bar)

@UrAWizHarry

We're in this mess because of him and his useless fucking government.

He can shove that letter up his fucking arse.

This is my view too!

whyorwellmatters We absolutely are in this mess because of him and his useless government. The government had plenty of time to take action to prevent the virus to get a hold. Our borders should have been closed, Cheltenham should have been cancelled, the status of the virus should not have been upgraded, far more testing should have been done, quarantining should have been supported and enforced and the government should have locked down much earlier. Doris and his government went on and on about doing "the right thing at the right time" because they couldn't believe that most people, unlike them are willing to do their bit for the good of public health by staying at home. He hoped to have only one lockdown so held off for far too long. He wasted billions of pounds on contracts to party donors and friends. The government, having allowed stockpiles of medical equipment to be run down and hospital wards to be closed, took far too long to get supplies. Remember the plane from Turkey with the useless PPE?

"That's just not true, is it"

Yes it is. It's 100% his fault and (although it won't, because he clearly doesn't give a fuck) I hope every single one of those 100,000 deaths keeps him up at night. It's the least he deserveres.

Totally agree with many of you. Unless he writes a letter saying that parents have the legal right to furlough during school closures he can stick it ...you know where.

The cheek to be so patronising when he's done bugger all to support working parents. And he's the PM. He could do it easily. Totally within his power and responsibilities.

I haven't read the letter and won't but just want to send solidarity. I'm a single working mum. I cried on camera and was mortified so you have my sympathy / empathy/ solidarity. These are shit times.

Mr Johnson as a parent would have a little bit of respect if he acknowledged his failure as one and all the children he has fathered.

If Mr Johnson had acted promptly in March and September especially the impact on parents would have been less, because restrictions would have been for shorter periods, and fewer people would have had the virus so having to self-isolate. Fewer parents would have lost a parent or other loved one to the virus.

What would you have wanted Boris to say instead?

"I take full responsibility and I resign"

I just don’t know what he hoped to achieve. It felt like he was undermining the massive difficulties this is causing working parents by saying we are doing a great job. I’m angry that he could say that anyone could do a great job of this. It’s impossible.

@famousforwrongreason thank you 💐

@gallbladderpain totally agree that looking after the kids is a parent’s first priority, but that includes keeping a roof over their heads. Most of us can’t afford to take indefinite unpaid leave let alone lose our jobs. I might be wrong but it feels like there could be a higher risk of redundancy for those of us who haven’t been able to put as much time and energy into work as our non homeschooling colleagues.