To send my DC back to school with Covid?

[TheChemicalsAintGotYouBaby]

DS tested positive on Sat, and was still a glaring positive last night.

He's due back at high school tomorrow. V few symptoms apart from a snotty nose, and DH and I seem to have swerved it.

He's desperate not to miss the first day of term, and I'm aware that official guidance means that you no longer have to isolate etc if you test positive, if all reasonable steps (masks, distancing etc) are taken. However, I wouldn't be confident he'd remember to do this (little scatterbrain!)

On the flipside though, I don't want to unleash a new infection that will no doubt spread through the school like wildfire.

WWYD?

YANBU - send him. Covids going nowhere and we need to carry on

YABU - keep him off until he's negative

@SnowqueenOfTexas but people go out with not proper covid all time? Because they don't know?

I don't test randomly, not paying for tests, not with current cost of living rises.

So I could be going out with covid, or flu?

You're talking about "proper" flu as in when people feel very unwell so they don't go out?

What about if people don't feel unwell with covid so do go out? They wouldn't go out if they were very unwell obviously.

Your argument is very flawed and you're kidding yourself if you think people are paying for tests for covid!

I'm not sure most people would necessarily pick up that a headache for a couple of hours or a couple of looser than usual shits could be a risk to others no, especially as those are non-respiratory, but they could both be symptomatic covid. Especially as so many of the possible symptoms have other explanations too. A headache might be due to tiredness, menstrual cycle, having sat gawping at your phone for the last hour, or it might be due to covid, and I think it's unrealistic to expect people would always think of the latter.

But even if you do, yep I think it's completely unworkable to expect people to test every time they notice they've got a headache, particularly given the fact that, as you've acknowledged, testing in itself renders some people vulnerable due to the potential financial impact. Sure, don't send your kid into school glowing with fever or a few hours after they last threw up, if you can wfh instead of sharing your cough with the office then do so etc. You're not going to get much disagreement there. That's reasonable. Expecting people to test whenever they're a bit more tired than usual, not so much.

I’m so sad. It’s incredibly painful to feel like it’s unreasonable to want my child to be safe at school. In the parents group I am in, there is an overwhelming feeling that our children are a nuisance.

I understand where you're coming from, it must be really hard in your situation.

I'm not trying to cause offence by answering your question honestly. I suspect others may not admit to choosing not to test for a minor symptom such as a runny nose. I don't know of any school parents testing that regularly since obligatory school testing and free covid tests ended.

Of course he shouldn’t go to school with an active covid infection. He’ll give it to the whole class, they’ll give it to their parents, their parents will have to take time off work and all the other parents will hate you for a very long time.

Why can’t you just keep him off til Monday?! It’s the obvious thing to do.

@SnowqueenOfTexas but symptoms for covid can be anything really , I wouldn't stay home for a headache for example and if I took. Day off every time i had one ,I wouldn't have a job
Same with kids for years we have been encouraged to send them in, now its back to checking attendance again
I will keep mine off when they are unwell and always have , follow the 48 hrs after D&V
But i simply cannot keep them home with a headache or slight sore throat every time or when have hayfever symptoms, not can i test all the time as we cannot afford them all the time
If mine appear to have cold/ flu then i will keep home or test but its impossible to stay home for everything , I would be out if a job and fined for kids attendance
Also i know so many work places where people are now being told to go in
We try our best and if clearly unwell we do stay home but for a headache , sneezing in morning ( my son is like that every morning. , due fo allergies ) we can't stay home
One day my ds sneezes could go on all day and we only then realise its not allergies

Although it's easy to say "of course you shouldn't send them, how selfish" it's never -even at the start of covid, and especially not now- been as black and white as that for a lot of people.

Humans are generally selfish - most, possibly all of us. In that we look after our own or our immediate family needs first. If people can't afford to take time off work, then they may well go into work with mild cold symptoms that might be covid, or send a child to school with a runny nose or sore throat that might be covid. Some work places expect people in after day 5 regardless of whether their test is positive. My sis works in a public facing role. She had covid earlier this year, and was still testing positive after day 5. She travels on public transport and is facing members if the public all day and had to go in whilst still testing positive.