To be annoyed they've cancelled my son's nativity

[JudesBiggestFan]

I'm just so tired of the arbitrary and pointless decisions that rob children and parents of yet more joy.
Last year my son had his nativity play cancelled at preschool. This year, the school (after designating him a shepherd and giving him a line...the excitement!) have cancelled again. Because Covid. Never mind all the pubs, restaurants, Christmas shopping, family parties that all the kids, teachers and parents will be going to.
The nativity is some kind of super spreader event that must be forfeited!
It's not going to make the news, but I'm just so bloody tired of it all. He'll never be this little and innocent again...I tolerated it last year but my patience is gone.
Anyone who wants to be is jabbed, we have lateral flows, it's as safe as it ever will be.
Yet the commercial stuff can go on, but the pure joyful ness of a kids Christmas nativity can't. Just wanted to vent really. No point complaining in real life anymore!

@Drumshambo

I suspect There are parents, grandparents, aunties etc all over the country who will be bloody delighted that they don't have to sit in a freezing hall, bored shitless listening to little Jack and little Lottie mumbling incoherently for over an hour😀

I feel sorry for your children / grandchildren / nieces or nephews.

It's all so sad.

My dc have worked so hard on their nativity/play/concert and it's all been cancelled. They will film it but it is so sad they won't get an audience like they've been planning and looking forward to.

The birthday party thing makes me so sad! My older DC had so much fun going to reception whole class parties and it really helped them all gel and the parents to get to know each other. We've had none of that and the group of parents really don't know each other in the same way. Staggered drop offs etc have compounded that.

What's a blip in an adult life is all a 5 year old remembers at this stage. Never known a routine where stuff can actually happen predictably, where you can plan stuff and look forward to it and know it will actually happen.

Even my older ones are really struggling to cope with the rolling rota of staff and friend absences and the random last minute changes and cancellations all the time.

@Sprogonthetyne

Last year DS's nursery did the nativity and videoed it, then sent out the vidio clip. It actually worked quite well as the teacher could edited out all the fogotten lines and stage fright. Would that be an option, especially if they've already been practicing.

But you don’t go to see your child’s nativity for a flawless performance. You go to share the excitement, the milestone with them. You go to make sure they see your beaming smile and thumbs up when they look a little scared. You go to see how proud they are of themselves and their pals when they finish and the people who matter to them most in the world are beaming and clapping and looking at them as though they are the most brilliant small person in the world. That’s what they miss out on. The non tangible (and therefore non measurable or valued) emotional development which you can’t quantify.

Ah bless! Very PFB.😀

What is PFB? Keep seeing it on MN.

@BogRollBOGOF

It's just a nativity (x2) It's just a Christmas fair (x2) It's just a sports day (x2 but you can watch the football/ tennis on TV) It's just a residential trip It's just a class outing (x2) It's just a disco It's just trick or treating It's just a scout camp It's just two birthdays It's just a birthday party (x a lot!) It's just a holiday It's just Christmas It's just a swimming lesson (or half of your allowence) It's just an open evening It's just a parent's evening It's just seeing your mum's face as you walk out of school after holding it together all day It's just a kiss before you walk through the school doors each morning It's just 10 minutes waiting for your sibling (do not play! Keep your distance!) It's just a play ground It's just SEN support It's just 6.5 months off school without access to friends (when you can hear the key worker children at playtime from your garden) It's just to keep granny safe (even though the care home rules banned you from seeing her and it's now over two years and you barely remember her)

Good job kids are resilient isn't it eh?
It's just a nativity after all.

It's just the pausing of speech therapy for...nearly 2 years. It's just hospital check ups for 18 months because of course a phone call is as useful as a physical check up

Absolutely spot on.

@Benjispruce5

What is PFB? Keep seeing it on MN.

Perfect first born

@Porcupineintherough

Good job kids are resilient isn't it, eh?

Yes, it is. It's how they survive, even in conditions far tougher than these.

Why would anyone want kids to just survive? That’s not what childhood is about.

@Drumshambo

Ah bless! Very PFB.😀

Not really. I have two, one in Year 6 and one in Year 5. My days of watching a Nativity are over. You keep your condescending tone though - I’ll keep my happy memories and wish the same for others.

@Drumshambo

Ah bless! Very PFB.😀

Ah yes, concern about how heartbroken your 5 yo might be after nearly a third of their life has been this fucking chaos. Of course that's PFB. I mean the kids have just had such a ball brethren lock downs, home schooling, not seeing friends and families, my yr 2 hasn't done a complete year at school since nursery. But yeah, I only care cos he's a PFB. hahahaha. They're only kids. They don't matter. Screw them eh.

Haven’t read all the posts

Totally feel for all
the parents of kids at a younger age and missing Nativity plays HOWEVER
as a parent of a 17 year old who has been robbed of her last few years of school , sitting her exams ,It’s those kids who I feel extremely sorry for , these kids will never get this time back , it’s awful 😞

I agree with you. Tbh I think people feel better about covid punishing the kids, adults spread covid just as much. Omnicrom isn't a thing because too many kids sang songs somewhere, it's because adults get on planes, go on holidays and insist on meeting face to face with stuff they could do on zoom.

My kids school is having a nativity, there are 60 parents allowed in the hall to watch, maximum.

@llm24

Haven’t read all the posts

Totally feel for all
the parents of kids at a younger age and missing Nativity plays HOWEVER
as a parent of a 17 year old who has been robbed of her last few years of school , sitting her exams ,It’s those kids who I feel extremely sorry for , these kids will never get this time back , it’s awful 😞

None of our kids will ever get these years back. It isn't a competition. Some 17year olds will cope with the chaos, do well in exams, move on and some will end up with long term MH issues and no qualifications. But that doesn't mean that the younger ones will have nothing worse that a sad feeling over not being Mary.

Currently teaching year 2 and preparing for a nativity.

I fully understand that this particular year group have missed the most in education terms. Why then, am I wasting my time hammering a nativity into them when some of them can barely read and write? If my class don't meet the expected standard as a minimum, that comes down on me. I can teach the basic skills when I'm trying to get them to perform when they clearly don't want to. They're all up for the idea of performing to their parents but they are too young to understand that it's 90 sets of parents, not just their own.

Totally sick of hearing how far behind these children are but yet a nativity is a must have.

The 6/7 hours a week we are spending on this could be better spent, I don't know, teaching them stuff they actually need.

My yr6 DD missed out on her school journey last year and whilst that was disappointing, it really wasn't the end of the world.

As a teacher with my own children, I do not want to sit in a hall of 90 parents with little ventilation. If I catch Covid from being in my classroom, I'll suck it up because my job is to teach. If I catch Covid as a result of being crammed into a hall with 90+ people for a non essential nativity, then I'm going to be pissed off because yet again, school life dictates my family life.

I'm over it.

@Porcupineintherough

Good job kids are resilient isn't it, eh?

Yes, it is. It's how they survive, even in conditions far tougher than these.

I'd rather my kids thrived rather than made do with surviving.

We've been surviving since the stone ages. It would be nice to aim a little higher than that in the 2020s.

@LucyLastik even decent filming and sharing would be fine though, I'm not sure I want to sit in a hall with 89 other parents either. But surely those kids DO need something fun, something normal as much as they need rescreening for phonics (why???) or their times tables etc. They need something to make them love school again. And that isn't a reflection on the teachers, my sons are great. It's a reflection on their educational experience in a pandemic. The older kids can at least remember what proper school was like

Well said @LucyLastik. Couldn’t agree more. Daily nativity rehearsal would be better spent on soooo many other things.

I don't have children, don't intend to have children and have no strong feelings whatsoever about primary school nativity plays, but some people's absolute determination to shit on anyone who dares to care about something they personally don't is really nasty and seems like such an exhausting way to live. I genuinely don't understand what people get out of making multiple posts on a thread like this just to tell everyone how much they don't care and how stupid other people are for caring, while increasingly winding themselves up about it.

I also don't understand the attitude of "it's shit for everyone, so stop moaning" that someone always has to bring to every covid thread. I know it's shit for everyone! That doesn't make me feel better, it makes it worse! Why would it make anyone happier to know that loads of other people also feel bad?

It's just the pausing of speech therapy for...nearly 2 years.
It's just hospital check ups for 18 months because of course a phone call is as useful as a physical check up

I'd forgotten about rolling around on the kitchen floor trying to interpret the online physio call for the dyspraxic, autistic child who couldn't interpret the instructions at all...
NHS targets ✅
Actual practical benefit to child ❎

Covid rates were rock bottom in July 2020 at that point too.

@SleepingStandingUp tell Ofsted that because they don’t care, don’t want any Covid excuses and will put a school straight into Requires Improvement if standards aren’t up to pre pandemic. How can they be??? So many chn didn’t engage with home learning.

@JudesBiggestFan

I'm just so tired of the arbitrary and pointless decisions that rob children and parents of yet more joy. Last year my son had his nativity play cancelled at preschool. This year, the school (after designating him a shepherd and giving him a line...the excitement!) have cancelled again. Because Covid. Never mind all the pubs, restaurants, Christmas shopping, family parties that all the kids, teachers and parents will be going to. The nativity is some kind of super spreader event that must be forfeited! It's not going to make the news, but I'm just so bloody tired of it all. He'll never be this little and innocent again...I tolerated it last year but my patience is gone. Anyone who wants to be is jabbed, we have lateral flows, it's as safe as it ever will be. Yet the commercial stuff can go on, but the pure joyful ness of a kids Christmas nativity can't. Just wanted to vent really. No point complaining in real life anymore!

I'm a teacher... my colleague has just come out of intensive care after catching Covid... we have a child in our year group recovering from cancer...

We don't take these decisions lightly... but we have to do all we can to keep everybody safe.

@SleepingStandingUp

I know it’s not a competition and never said it was but kids go to school to eventually sit exams and come away with the best results possible

In twenty years time a kid who is 5 is highly unlikely to remember covid stopped them from being in a nativity over a 17 year old who had an awful experience in their last few years at school

Yeah, fuck teachers who have to mingle unmasked with tens of unvaccinated kids every day. Little Timmy’s nativity is more important.

@MasterBeth

and mingle with the unvaccinated parents so they can see Little Timmys nativity 😡

I feel it's okay to feel upset at these things as they happen, but talk of 'ruining' their lives is a bit dramatic. I do wonder about some posters here. Are you sure you're shielding your child away from how you feel devasted vs how they feel/naturally react. Yes, there is bound to be upset kids, but is it that deep? Kids are going to school everyday. They are the ones enjoying quite a good amount of freedom now, within the context of a pandemic. This pandemic will settle down. It already has if you compare this year to last. Give things time. These same kids who won't have a nativity can still access a whole lot of enrichment outside of school.

Children are quite like the 'snoggers in a club' when they mix in various extracurricular settings, except maybe the snoggers don't have the luxury of spending 6+ hours in a setting with peers everyday, so let's not put groups against each other. We have all suffered.