To say that every child and young person…

[KnowButNeedU2TellMeAsItIs]

That got through the pandemic, followed the rules, stayed indoors for long periods of time, endured isolation, online learning, ping pongs in and out of school, slow vaccination roll-out…

Should get a medal.

Our kids are amazing and gone through so much but not one bit of recognition.

@comealongponds still beats being homeless, being in Ukraine, being CEV, right? There's always someone worse off, op never even said who had it worse.

it’s not only kids and families with kids who suffered under lockdown.

But no one said no one else hasn't suffered

And even having struggled myself, I’m well aware that what I went through was nothing compared to NHS staff working on covid wards for example.

But then again that's nothing compared to what people in Ukraine have been through...

Absolutely not. What a ridiculous idea. Get a medal for getting on with it? Give over.

No wonder this country is going to hell in handcart. All the hand-wringing about children and young people having to stay home with their families and only communicate with their friends online - which they did before and are doing after the pandemic - all being such a fucking hardship!?!
Really, get a grip.
Don't we all want to get the youth of today to develop the much sought-after resilience?!
Honestly, what ludicrous notion, hand out medals 🙄🙄🙄🙄

My DDs loved lockdown. No school, get up when they want, no work..... I'm the one that if anyone needs a medal for attempting homeschooling via the tiny bit of work that was sent home. And trying to get them off their screens. But it was fine

I know some kids found it really hard, but not all of them. My dc would be baffled at the idea they deserved a medal. They both really preferred distance learning, got more exercise than they do normally (long dog walks every day) and seemed hsppy keeping in constant touch with their friends online.

@Cornettoninja so what issues are being wrongly attributed to the pandemic?

I don't agree with a medal but funding & more help for dc & younger generations.

Yanbu. They went through key formative stages at a time of crisis. And during that time of crisis the adults around them were also negatively impacted.

It will play out, over the years. I feel for them.

I agree

Kids, in general, had family support, and no financial concerns.

That's a sweeping statement.

While it wasn’t an ideal situation I don’t think they went through any real hardship. It’s not like they’re living in a war torn country where they lost homes & family members and seen the kind of atrocities that many children around the world see. All they did was stay at home. Of course it was bad for some kids depending on their home situations, but for the average kid I don’t think they deserve medals or anything.

So I did have a large glass last night but I’m still RAGING that of all fuck wit places this platform is still full of sneers and dumbwit whataboutery. What do you mean what did our children do?

We could forever compare our kids
lives in comparison to others - that’s not what recognition is about. And why is it bad to recognise that for our children and young people these last 2 years have been insanely challenging? That what we asked them to do was really really hard.

And for those people whose kids had long
lie ins with butterflies and walks in the woods - fantastic I’m pleased for you and I’m pleased for your kids and I still say thankyou to them. For many kids it wasn't like that and no one has bothered to say well done or thankyou or even acknowledge that - and that makes me really sad.

And judging by this board they’re not going to get any thanks either.

I feel for the younger generation, I think they have been amazing. Medal, proper services, catch up support - throw it at them because they deserve it.

Don't we all want to get the youth of today to develop the much sought-after resilience?!

And yet referrals "to mental health services between April and September 2021, up 81% on the same period in 2019. This compares to only an 11% increase in referrals to mental health services for adults Furthermore, the number of children and young people referred for urgent or emergency crisis care increased by 59%". "Mental health services have faced a record number of eating disorder cases in children and young people".

I'm not sure the best tactic is to ignore the above & talk about children starving round them world.

No, i think they should recieve a properly funded education system that is adapted to allow time for the social skills development too and a decent level of funding for cahms so people can actually get mental health support. This will need training of a lot of practitioners too.

To be any value, a medal means you have achieved what most other people can't. If everyone gets one, it's worthless. To exclude children would be ridiculous. Children would not be remotely interested in a medal that everyone else gets. It doesn't signify you are special in any way. Medals are fundamentally uninteresting unless they are for a particular skill or achievement. I am not at all interested in winning/losing, this is just basic sense.

No, my kids had an absolute blast they seriously don't deserve a medal.

Who is that you want to say thank you? And exactly who to? What form would this take? An awards ceremony? A piece in the media? Money given to everyone between the ages of 2 and 20? Why would the country spend millions on giving out medals? Because it would cost millions. Would every child get one, even those who didn't follow the rules at all? There were loads of those where i live. Medals don't just materialise out of thin air. That money could be spent on education.

You seem to be really angry about it and i am not really sure why. What would this recognition look like, and what difference would it make to your life?

The idea that they should be recognised because they made sacrifices for the older generation is absurd. That's part of living in a civilized society. Young people are no more important than older people. Older people don't need to be "grateful" to young people for following the rules. Everyone was supposed to, regardless of age.

Perhaps elderly people, like my grandmother, who were confined to their homes, who aren't tech savvy and who became incredibly isolated as a result should get a medal. We missed every one of the last special occasions in the last year of her life because of lockdown. At least teenagers could still socialise online.

@KnowButNeedU2TellMeAsItIs They need therapy, not medals. Especially teens. The lockdowns have stunted their emotional growth. So many have social anxiety, general anxiety, depression etc. So many act really young for their age because they haven’t socialised with their peers.

Thinking back to myself as a child/teen I would have thought I was in Heaven at being locked down and not having to attend school.

YABU and ridiculous OP. Of course it has been awful for some children, just as it has been awful for some adults as well, and they were the ones who had to worry about homeschooling, paying the bills etc.

@druto

@Cornettoninja so what issues are being wrongly attributed to the pandemic?

I was specifically addressing your post below, but in general it happens quite a lot that existing issues are highlighted or exacerbated during various crises and then somehow become marketed as a result of a crisis that nobody saw coming.

Have a look and see how far back urgent warnings of an energy crisis existed (insulate Britain had a good point and even they got serious about it at a fairly late stage retrospectively) which is now apparently a result of the war in Ukraine. Yes it didn’t help, but this was already an issue.

Everyone had a tough time and no one is denying that some children struggled but they won't pay for it forever.

Really? what age will state pension be in 10 yrs time? free at the point of care NHS in 10 years? higher taxes because we are facing a huge population demographic shift?

State pensions - these have been allowed to drift along for decades with no change in entitlement age despite changes in life expectancy and population age distribution and are unpopular when they do happen. Although I concede that it’s been managed terribly with shifting goalposts affecting those with the least time and resources to cushion themselves. These have been a time bomb for a long, long time. Probably more so for younger working age adults right now since the burden of age distribution should lessen somewhat for their children.

NHS - again, I personally can recall a couple of decades of conversation about privatisation (which has already happened in various guises) and conversations about funding.

Population demographics and taxes - tie into both above issues and again have been a well entrenched subject of concern and discussion. Immigration is part of the solution but as a country there is a push back against it. Taxes aren’t inherently a bad thing, mismanaged ones are.

Listing those issues alongside ones created by the pandemic without acknowledging their history pushes them into the category of ‘things we had no control over and couldn’t have possibly foreseen/averted’ and that’s just not true.

Are they difficulties facing generations? Yes. Are they rooted in the pandemic? No.

No. I think a medal is a daft idea.

I do think we need to invest massively in mental health services, totally overhaul education funding and the support and facilities kids have access to, and generally recognise that prevention is better than cure. Probably a bit more expensive than a medal.

Imagine if it was a guaranteed right that every child had access to proper music, open spaces, swimming and public art. Imagine if every child had access to high quality nursery, school and wrap-around care.

@KnowButNeedU2TellMeAsItIs I don’t follow your arguments at all.

Actually thanking children implies that they somehow collectively decided to follow restrictions with a comprehensive understanding of what that meant in reality. It’s also implies that children have a responsibility to do the same again off their own backs should the conditions require it.

ensuring that services and support are available to those who need it is something we owe them as the ones tasked as their protectors in society (and have been failing at since before the pandemic by all accounts) but no thanks should be involved from any party. It’s not something that should be begged for or require x-factor style justification.

you’re conflating two issues and coming up with a skewed scenario whereby offering all children thanks and acknowledgement somehow makes a difference. It doesn’t - actions speak louder than words imo.

Are you 12 by any chance?

Not all kids 'had an absolute blast', some kids had a terrible time. Mental health issues have sky rocketed. It's a bit glib and lacking in compassion to say 'my kids loved it' so everyone else should feel the same

@Moithered no

Ok thanks, it was rather unclear

I agree with PP's that the medal would be pointless. Similar to clapping for the NHS,but at least that was free.

What we need is proper funding and support put into services (education,mental health, SS, sure start centres, youth centres etc). It happened,it sucked and some children where severely damaged in many ways. We need to help and support them , not pretend it didn't happen or hand them a medal. That's equally useless. Not expect the to perform and behave as Covid isn't a thing anymore (and the effects of it are gone or insignificant)because the government decided it isn't.