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!

Yes. So that they feel like they are dangerous.

YANBU

YANBU. It is getting ridiculous. Covid won't actually go away, ever. It's a virus and mutates. So we have to learn to live with it and ensure we live well despite it. If people are jabbed, tested, use masks, antibac and stay home if they are positive then we need to live normal lives again. I am so sad for this generation of children and young adults having so many of their rites of passage stolen from them in the misguided belief it will make things better. Youth depression and anxiety is sky rocketing. I think that's more detrimental, long term.

I honestly think that parents should set up their own nativities. Hire a village hall etc. There is absolutely nothing in the rules that says this wouldn't be ok.

That's a really nice idea actually.

DD4, is yr3 this year. Year 3 and up are not taking part :(

She did one, but that was in reception so they were just sitting either side of the stage shaking bells. No stage action.

At least i saw my older ones do theirs when they were little. DH (step dad to my big ones) will never see a nativity now. sigh.

@apintofwine

YANBU

I’ve not so much as set foot in my sons nursery. No chance in hell of any Christmas events. Have to pick him up from outside wearing a mask. Yet can do most other normal things, stand in a crowded Christmas market etc. So much they are missing out on

Same. So pissed off with the whole thing. I am no longer wearing a mask though. I will not comply with nonsensical rules.

I agree. I have one that's six and one that's four. Neither has has a sports day, a nativity or a birthday party.
If hospitals are full of Ill people and the nation needs to shut down to help, I'm all for it. If everyone is carrying on as normal except for children, its a load of rubbish. I work in the public sector too.

Our school has many children out with covid.

Schools are super spreaders because most children aren't vaccinated.

A school round here are carrying on but all parents must take a LFT before attending.

I have no nativity-aged kids, I've got CEV parents, and I'm not exactly in great shape myself, but I totally agree OP, we need to get a fucking grip.

@SirSamuelVimes

I am more annoyed with your misinformed post than the nativity plays .

Check your facts.

How do teachers magically re arrange the nativity at the 11th hour if Mary, Joseph and 2 of the wise men have covid?

Its not just schools having a problem either:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-59464618
Steps axe their remaining tour dates due to further Covid cases

I don’t understand the comment that everyone else is carrying on and children aren’t. My school has has sports day, children have had birthday parties and we are having a nativity with mitigation’s. If your school is not, you need to ask why. Birthday parties are not in the school’s remit!

[quote Unsure33]@SirSamuelVimes

I am more annoyed with your misinformed post than the nativity plays .

Check your facts.[/quote]
I didn't state a fact so I'm not sure what you're on about?

Nobody ever closed a school because of an outbreak of noro or flu.

But they do!

Go and look for the news reports on school closures, esp in the north and north west of England, from autumn term 2019. Several schools had to close classes and indeed a number of schools were closed for a few days due deep clearing - all due to norovirus.

We also expect any child with norovirus to stay home for 48 hours after the last bout.

We also send children home if they have either norovirus or a nasty cold/flu causing the child to be unwell or have a high temperature.

@JudesBiggestFan

I just think it's ludicrous. West end shows are full, pubs are teeming, my elderly parents have just got back from a Spanish holiday...but I can't see my four year old in the school hall. CoVID has already ripped through the school this term, there can barely have been a family unaffected, including my own. No-one to my knowledge seriously ill, just a few days off colour. If you're still scared of catching CoVID then of course don't go. But given kids have been stuffed into unventilated classrooms for months, it seems a little weird that it's suddenly a problem for parents to spend half an hour in the school hall. I feel I've been having this argument for months, but kids should be the priority. Their development, their emotional well-being, their childhood. As an emergency services worker my kids have gone to school throughout...because I was legally allowed to send them and I chose to (all bar a few weeks in the first lockdown). The older two are excelling academically and the youngest's teacher this week said it shines through that he has gone to school throughout, both because he is doing so well and because he still has a discipline that loads of them have lost. As an emergency worker I see on the streets the consequences of disaffected children...increased violence, drug taking, hostility to authorities. No, one nativity play won't change much of course. But a society that continually shrugs its shoulders at depriving its children of all that previous generations took for granted, is causing immense harm. Because covid doesn't cut it for me anymore.

I agree with this. My kids are older now but I feel so sad for all the milestones parents and their children are currently missing. Their wellbeing should be top priority but instead they're once again being put last. It's shameful.

@SirSamuelVimes

You stated wearing masks was a nonsensical rule.

“ But the strongest evidence in favor of masks come from studies of real-world scenarios. “The most important thing are the epidemiologic data,” said Rutherford. Because it would be unethical to assign people to not wear a mask during a pandemic, the epidemiological evidence has come from so-called “experiments of nature.”

A recent study published in Health Affairs, for example, compared the COVID-19 growth rate before and after mask mandates in 15 states and the District of Columbia. It found that mask mandates led to a slowdown in daily COVID-19 growth rate, which became more apparent over time. The first five days after a mandate, the daily growth rate slowed by 0.9 percentage-points compared to the five days prior to the mandate; at three weeks, the daily growth rate had slowed by 2 percentage-points.

Another study looked at coronavirus deaths across 198 countries and found that those with cultural norms or government policies favoring mask-wearing had lower death rates.”

It’s not.

@Unsure33

A school round here are carrying on but all parents must take a LFT before attending.

This is a good idea.

And I mean - no one's got anyone's arm up their back. If you're nervous you don't have to go.

But as i said earlier, nervous or not, if you're a parent sending your DC to school you're practically in bed with all the other parents anyway through your kid

@Rainbowsew you absolutely do not understand how the pressure on the NHS works, to such an extent that you are actually spreading misinformation. Letting Covid spread freely will only lead to more adverse impacts on those with other conditions - who are often CV or CEV too. It's all connected. Dispensing with Covid rules doesn't help in the way you seem to be imagining.

How do teachers magically re arrange the nativity at the 11th hour if Mary, Joseph and 2 of the wise men have covid?

It's not exactly Macbeth at the National fucking Theatre! They don't need understudies, and insurance for key members of the cast

You cobble something together and it's still magical and amazing for parents and kids.

@HeyMoana

I agree. I have one that's six and one that's four. Neither has has a sports day, a nativity or a birthday party. If hospitals are full of Ill people and the nation needs to shut down to help, I'm all for it. If everyone is carrying on as normal except for children, its a load of rubbish. I work in the public sector too.

The hospitals are full. People are already waiting ten or more hours in ambulances even to get into ED. Medical staff are horrified by the prospect of the winter.

@Innocenta I have a great deal of sympathy for cev, which is why we need the NHS services opened up again and people to be treated appropriately, I certainly don't think they're collateral damage.

However, if you're cev would you attend a germ ridden school play? Would you go shopping in a busy Christmas market, drink in a busy pub, dance in a hot sweaty nightclub?

Did you expect "normal life" to cease because you would be vulnerable to flu? Or any other infectious disease? If you would or wouldn't do those activities that would be your choice, if someone is cev the onus now as in non-covid times is to not put themselves in a risky situation. Even without the new variant and a sudden rise in cases, it would still be risky for a cev person to go to a public event at the current time. If covid never goes away, sadly that risk will always be there for cev people.

@RedToothBrush

How do teachers magically re arrange the nativity at the 11th hour if Mary, Joseph and 2 of the wise men have covid?

Its not just schools having a problem either:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-59464618
Steps axe their remaining tour dates due to further Covid cases

By creating backups? Why is cancelling everything "just in case" better?

My kids are older now but I feel so sad for all the milestones parents and their children are currently missing. Their wellbeing should be top priority but instead they're once again being put last. It's shameful.

You are so right. We are prioritising the wrong people (including me).

@StripyHorse

Nightclub...as an adult you choose to go or not.

School nativity, all the teachers and staff have to be there. Covid rates are high enough without bringing a load of parents in. Especially when some of these parents will have been on nights out etc

Some of those children or teaching staff will be CEV or have CEV family members. You will get over the disappointment of the nativity quicker than a child who looses a family member from covid.

Excellent point - my dad has cancer , I spent last year in the lowest vaccination take up area in the midlands with so much covid - kids losing parents, teachers losing family members. Teachers, retail, lorry drivers and many more people have no choice but to be there. Teachers are not considered front line so we weren’t vaccinated quickly and yet day to day contact . Luckily I’m out of it now . Parents yes I understand how disappointing it is but can we all risk our love ones again, I sat on the other side of the fence taking my 2 year old for PCR I had to after thinking of those parents who wouldn’t bother.Ok I agree not so many deaths now but Covid can cause damage without killing people.

We currently have a key stage 1 class nativity taking place later this week which is missing angel Gabriel (which has lots of lines) and a narrator. The stand in narrator can at least read the lines, but obviously then means the child is doubling up roles. We are still trying to work out what to do about the angel as that child is the one in the class who knows every line, acts and speaks it well, knows every song and knows pretty much everyone else's part too! Typical. Poor girl is also feeling pretty poorly with covid today too.

I know that we also have two other year 1 classes affected with missing cast, due to them testing positive, plus half a dozen across schools awaiting test results due to symptoms today.

All are aged 4-7y and almost everyone is symptomatic. Hence then being tested.

That's on top of the children off with chicken pox, d and v and viruses making them Poorly, but tested negative so far.

Honestly, we are going ahead with nativities this week at least, but don't expect anything spectacular- half the cast are either off school or feeling ill