To tell DD not to go?

[XantheBreeze]

NC’d as quite identifying.

DD is a final year student in a hospital (think nursing/ medic type) and supplements her student loan by collecting a child from school and looking after them in the child’s home until early evening a couple of days a week, working around her hospital schedule.

The parent has just texted to say they have COVID and will be self-isolating in the house but has asked DD to work as normal.

This seems pretty unreasonable to me, particularly as DD is seeing patients in hospital every day as part of her training but DD doesn’t want to let the parent down.

I can’t seem to find the official rules about going into a house where someone has COVID anyway.

AIBU to advise her not to go (she asked me my opinion). She works via an agency.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/self-isolation-and-treatment/when-to-self-isolate-and-what-to-do
'Do not have visitors to your home, except for essential care'.

This doesn’t make sense to me - if the parent is at home why would they need your DD for childminding?!

There’s no WAY A medical employee/student in a hospital would risk this.

Why is your DD needed if the parent is at home?

And yes it’s hugely against the rules.

Why so? I assure you it is. The parent said they’d be self-isolating in their room. My initial reaction was that the parent is being unreasonable, but DD is very kind-hearted and tbh I don’t know what other parents do if they have it and the children don’t?

What shifts is she doing in a hospital that allow her to do the school run?

Of course the parent is being unreasonable!
I can understand they might need your daughter for school pick up but she could just drop at the door.
She shouldn’t be going in and caring for the child for hours!

The parent might still be wfh, isolating for covid doesn’t necessarily mean they are too ill to work, and they want someone to entertain their child while they get on with it.

The parent here is being incredibly selfish by putting your dd in this position. Your dd needs to message back and say that she will be sticking to the government guidelines and not coming into a covid positive household.

I assume the parent still needs DD as the child will need collecting from school and if the parent is feeling unwell she hoped DD would supervise her homework/ get her a snack/ play with her etc.

It seems a resounding no which is helpful! I’ll pass this to DD.

Interestingly the job opportunity came via the hospital/ university I believe.

Sorry I misread because you said she sees patients every day but I see that she only does this a couple of days a week for this family. I suppose they have asked because if they are isolating they can't do the school run. So who picks up the child the rest of the time?

It'd be a big fat no from me though.

I think she could walk the child to and from school but she must not go into there home.
We all have Covid at the moment and no one is allowed into our house. My mum is going to pick my 6 year old up and take him to school (he’s had Covid over Christmas)
But your dd is not unreasonable to say that she’s not comfortable doing any of it.

I'd get her to tell them that she cant because her hospital work wont allow it

I can definitely understand doing the school run and dropping the child at the door but NO WAY should she be going into the house and the parent is highly selfish to ask that of her.

Thank you all. DD’s current placements allow her to do this a couple of times a week but I can now see it’s clearly against the rules unless childminding counts as ‘essential care’.
I’ll pass all of this and the link on to DD.

Glad to know she won't be doing it. I would risk it either. It's the agency who should be dealing with this thats why they get paid , not your daughter problem plus how would her employer feel if they found out she broke one of the guidelines especially in her position

Could she pick up the child and drop off at the front door rather than going in? There's no rule that says household members need to isolate, so that wouldn't be against the rules