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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

If you keep panic buying fuel you'll be homeschooling again!😆

363 replies

FishesWithWishes · 26/09/2021 13:42

Teachers need to teach in schools don't they? Wink

OP posts:
Foreverlexicon · 27/09/2021 07:53

Less concerned about teachers than I am about paramedics and police officers…not always easy to get a bus or a train at 3am and without those workers people really will be in the shit 🤷🏻‍♀️

Moot point when there’s no fuel to fill the ambulances and police cars though. Perhaps they can cycle to jobs?

maddening · 27/09/2021 07:58

@FishesWithWishes

Piggywaspushed

allowed themselves to get down to no fuel

Just spotted the allowed. Interesting positioning of blame there.

Indeed. I wonder if anyone would say the same about taxi drivers, NHS staff, carers, driving instructors etc. hmm

Hmm? Good grief 🤣 I would suggest that any adult soley reliant on driving is responsible for managing their own fuel for their own car regardless of what job they do. It has been 2 days since the great fuel crisis of 2021, the proportion of people dependent on driving that have got so desperately low on fuel (and have not bought petrol during the great panic of 2021) is likely to be a minority.

Plus it is not all areas etc and lots of areas do have good public transport nearer cities for example.

There is a lot of hyperbole on this thread.

BluebellsGreenbells · 27/09/2021 08:01

Less concerned about teachers than I am about paramedics and police officers

Local school had a lot of blue light staffs children over covid - no school - no blue light workers

Piggywaspushed · 27/09/2021 08:16

It isn't hyperbole in my case. there is no petrol for 20 miles. Psychic powers did not extend to me filling up last Thursday when I had 1/2 a tank. Had I rushed about like a madwoman on Friday when I still had well over 1/4 of a tank I would have been one of the panic buyers. On Saturday morning there was no petrol. 1/4 of a tank will get me to Weds.

Why do people assume this is hyperbole??

Ponoka7 · 27/09/2021 08:17

"you'd have to undo years of common car ownership and town planning that assumes it - forget the out of town retail parks, cinema and leisure parks, everything would have to be redesigned to allow for local, town centre based shops"

The argument against out of town retail parks started as soon as they were being built. It never made sense to kill off town centers. Likewise the knocking down primary schools because the birth rate took a temporary slump.

"A large proportion will have an option other than driving, eg live local or have access to public transport including taxis. (V v v few areas with out a taxi)"

Taxis are now a nightmare, even here across Merseyside come 7.45-9am. We've had lots of taxi drivers leave, to never return. Most of the teachers live two buses away. For a large city, our buses are terrible.

"Less concerned about teachers than I am about paramedics and police officers"

They have emergency fuel supplies. If things got that bad the army would be brought in to supervise the emergency services getting fuel.

Everyone focuses on the Nurses/teachers, but it's the lower paid essential workers, the porters/cleaners/care assistants etc who can't afford taxis.

We need to realise that it was only originally BP who had shortages, so put the information out, caused panic, so then the government would have to grant emergency visas for workers. It means that industries don't have to reconsider their pay and conditions structures.

Buttons294749 · 27/09/2021 10:22

It's not even just rural. I live in london and DS goes to a special school 5 ish miles away. A 20 min drive, I can't get the train as I can't get the buggy up and down the stairs at the station. The bus would involve me spending hours going round and round to make the connections.

London is good if you're going into central but different boroughs aren't well connected on the bus..

TurnUpTurnip · 27/09/2021 10:37

I get the train all the time with a buggy as do many people in London that don’t drive. Are you seriously saying you can’t get the train cos you have a buggy 😐 I’ve been all over London by train and underground with a buggy or use a sling 🙄 people will help you don’t the stairs, or bump it down yourself, I use to live in a 3rd floor flat without a lift and use to bump the buggy down daily.

TurnUpTurnip · 27/09/2021 10:37

Down* not don’t

bluegreygreen · 27/09/2021 10:50

I suspect it may be more difficult to bump a buggy carrying a school age child down stairs - and a sling is unlikely to be practical

TurnUpTurnip · 27/09/2021 10:55

like I said in London people will help! They always offer, those of us without cars have no choice but to adapt our lives around public transport. Which is why I bought a carry strap.

If you keep panic buying fuel you'll be homeschooling again!😆
If you keep panic buying fuel you'll be homeschooling again!😆
Maireas · 27/09/2021 11:20

@JesusInTheCabbageVan

I will personally carry all the teachers to school piggyback rather than go back to the hell of homeschooling.
I'll send you my address
HugeAckmansWife · 27/09/2021 11:25

turnupturnip back when my kids were of buggy age there were loads of threads about how entitled it would be to expect any kind of help from anyone at anytime and certainly not to rely on it. That's just one example though of how public transport simply isn't as easy as a private car in most circumstances. It's frequently more expensive, takes much much longer or is actually physically impossible to get to A, B and C destinations by 8.30

TurnUpTurnip · 27/09/2021 11:33

I don’t rely on it and never would hence why I have a carry strap, but I’ve found even when I am not relying on it people insist I’ve never had to ask, people generally won’t take no for an answer.

Peaseblossum22 · 27/09/2021 11:37

@TurnUpTurnip if you read the pp post properly you will see that the poster is talking about a buggy for a disabled child at a special school. Bumping a disabled child weighing be several stone is completely different from a baby in a buggy fgs.

DanglingMod · 27/09/2021 11:38

Did you not read it was a school aged child going to a special school? Not so easy to put in a sling or bump down stairs!

TurnUpTurnip · 27/09/2021 11:41

Depends on the age of the child? Could be 4 I do it with my 4 year old as we still use the buggy on the school run.

Peaseblossum22 · 27/09/2021 11:44

It’s sad but generally people are not so forthcoming when it’s an eight year old in a buggy

Sockwomble · 27/09/2021 12:05

If someone does not have a child with disabilities they should really refrain from telling those with a child with disabilities, how to manage.

HugeAckmansWife · 27/09/2021 12:06

Well done you.. You win the medal for being most capable. What about when it's not a 4 year old, or the mother / father has their own mobility issues.. Not sure how long someone would have a healthy spine if they were carrying a school aged child up and down station stairs twice a day.

TurnUpTurnip · 27/09/2021 12:07

My child has autism actually. Simply if she didn’t have a car she would find a way. Like the rest of us that don’t drive.

HugeAckmansWife · 27/09/2021 12:16

Yes, but if that way can be quicker, easier and cheaper if you do drive, there simply isn't a reason not to as things stand at the moment. As I said upthread, if you don't or never have driven, you would make life choices about where to live and work with that in mind. If you have a car, likewise. To suddenly pull that away but leave all the other factors in place isn't reasonable.

Sockwomble · 27/09/2021 12:27

"My child has autism actually. Simply if she didn’t have a car she would find a way. Like the rest of us that don’t drive."

Your child is 4, still of an age when they and buggies can be carried. They don't stay that little. I can't do that with my 15 year old with autism who gets high rate mobility because he cannot use public transport.

BluebellsGreenbells · 27/09/2021 12:40

Less concerned about teachers than I am about paramedics and police officers

Local school had a lot of blue light staffs children over covid - no school - no blue light workers

noblegiraffe · 27/09/2021 13:28

@noblegiraffe

In a word yes the majority will reopen as they’re restocked on average every other day

Excellent news, no one needed to get up at 5am on the weekend after all.

Right, I've been to four petrol stations and they are all closed. What do I do now, Bungle?
PickAChew · 27/09/2021 13:54

@Macncheeseballs

No but it might make some people rethink how they live their lives, possibly, a bit like covid did. I'm not suggesting now or tomorrow but the future
When we bought our house, it increased dh's commute. It also shortened ds2's journey to his special school and put us in a range that entitled him to school transport, saving me a hell of a journey, twice a day, that prevented me from getting much else done.

It also put dh closer to where other potential jobs in his field are, should he wish or need to move on.

Of course, he didn't forsee that, 2 years after moving, he would be working from home, most of the time, so we're also glad we moved to somewhere with better Internet than our last house.