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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

School as child care

876 replies

Differentforgirls · 07/04/2026 18:45

From another thread.

A poster said that state schools are there for helping parents to work. Therefore teachers are childminders. Teachers!

I think schools are there to educate our children and, though the staff go above and beyond these days, that is their primary function.

AIBU?

OP posts:
BewareoftheLambs · 07/04/2026 21:50

cloverblue · 07/04/2026 19:12

I know you say this negatively, but if school hours replicated nursery hours I could work more, earn more and give us a better life.

Would be too much for the.children though. It's a rather sad thought. I don't expect there'd be many teachers willing to put children through that either. And when would any planning get done?!

LayaM · 07/04/2026 21:52

This is where fine principles and the real world collide I feel. It's all well and good to say that school is purely for education, it sounds very wonderful and high minded. But in the real world most of us need it for childcare to work to keep our heads above water and food on the table.

As a lone person I can't afford for school to be solely for education, if it didn't provide childcare as well I'd be out on the street.

BewareoftheLambs · 07/04/2026 21:53

FruAashild · 07/04/2026 21:24

This. Primary teachers want to distinguish themselves from nursery workers so they can be paid more even though they both teach the same curriculum. It's pure snobbery. Universal education was established in the western world to facilitate parents working outside the home, it was always about childcare.

I dont think they do? Maybe in Reception as that is EYFS, but ks1 and ks2 are very very different. The qualifications are also very different. I'd support qualified nursery workers being paid more, but I think the same is true for all those in any form of education.

Itsmetheflamingo · 07/04/2026 21:54

Surely it’s not difficult to understand that the point is more nuanced than you’re presented it?

the pandemic made it clear that school facilitated parents to work. Parents who society NEEDS to work. Both things- education and “childcare” can be true at once

GardenCovent · 07/04/2026 22:02

School is not childcare.
The purpose of sending children to school is to educate them by qualified teachers.
Yes parents can choose to work whilst their children are in schools but sahp can’t just choose to not send their children to school because they are at home to provide childcare.

PurpleThistle7 · 07/04/2026 22:03

I actually am not sure I understand the point here. The children are being cared for by the school while they’re there. I wouldn’t hire someone else for childcare during a school hours because they are safe and looked after at school. And yes, my husband and I are at work during the day too.

And we are still parenting them for anyone confused about that.

What is the actual point here? That people shouldn’t work? That kids shouldn’t go to school? That parents should go to school with their kids so they are providing childcare simultaneously to being at school?

wordler · 07/04/2026 22:10

PurpleThistle7 · 07/04/2026 22:03

I actually am not sure I understand the point here. The children are being cared for by the school while they’re there. I wouldn’t hire someone else for childcare during a school hours because they are safe and looked after at school. And yes, my husband and I are at work during the day too.

And we are still parenting them for anyone confused about that.

What is the actual point here? That people shouldn’t work? That kids shouldn’t go to school? That parents should go to school with their kids so they are providing childcare simultaneously to being at school?

I think the point is there’s resistance to any kind of development to the current system of how we provide school because the school hours and days were set up to mirror the working week to help facilitate working parents.

If we are lucky with good curriculums and good teachers, and well funded schools then our children can make the most of obtaining an education while being safely cared for at the same time.

Happyjoe · 07/04/2026 22:17

School is for learning, to educate so they become employable adults.

Besidemyselfwithworry · 07/04/2026 22:22

Our primary have a kids club and it opens

8-8:45 mornings (not early enough for a lot of people!)

3:30-6pm afternoons (this was 5pm until this academic year)

they put an email out with a survey saying that it was an expectation schools looked into their provision to enable people to work and that they would be expanding the opening hours until 6pm. It would be more helpful for a lot of people of they opened at 7:30am instead of 8am which is why I use a
childminder who does and people commented on this on the survey, along with holiday provision that they don’t have and so that wasn’t taken onboard.

One of the mums who uses the wraparound said she was speaking to the play workers and apparently hardly anyone uses it until 6pm and people have to book the extra
5-6pm hour and they’re reviewing this as it isn’t cost effective with staffing etc…

the reality is people need to work and not everyone has family who can help them.

CarlaLemarchant · 07/04/2026 22:26

Yes it’s childcare. No need to be precious about it. Not the sole or primary purpose but definitely to be utilised as such.

TheSocialHermit · 07/04/2026 22:33

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Whats your current financial position and set up? Also, do you work from home or work part time by any chance?

WearyAuldWumman · 07/04/2026 22:39

Schools certainly have a duty of care towards their pupils, but before I retired from my teaching post I was seeing parents (and the Scottish Government) expecting the schools to do more and more parenting.

We'd see pupils coming into school on a Monday morning saying "My mum says that the school nurse has to fix it..." It would turn out that the child had taken a tumble on the Saturday and no one had cleaned and dressed the wound.

We didn't actually have a school nurse - only Pupil Support Assistants with a first aid certificate.

Then there are the pupils who have not been taught table manners, toilet trained, etc to the extent that the Scottish Government has decreed that schools should "support" parents in toilet training their children - and no, I'm not talking about children with additional learning needs.

I've said elsewhere on these boards that my late husband was dismayed by his young grandchild's lack of table manners - using her hands instead of cutlery, eating sweets at the table, coughing over other people's food, etc.

Her parents seemed to think that all this was charming. She eventually attended a private school, courtesy of DH's daughter's work, and the parents used to gush about the fact that the grandchild had been taught "beautiful manners". It didn't go down well when my husband asked "Is that not your job?"

Latterly, I was aware of more and more parents giving the schools a phone number which was switched off during school hours, precisely so that we couldn't contact them. I do have sympathy for parents who were worried about antagonising their bosses by taking calls at work, but there were those who clearly took the "S/he's your problem now!" attitude. I've even seen a Scottish comedian joking about this online.

Not all parents, of course, but a significant number - and yes, they included middle-class parents.

Itsmetheflamingo · 07/04/2026 22:40

TheSocialHermit · 07/04/2026 22:33

Whats your current financial position and set up? Also, do you work from home or work part time by any chance?

probably dependant on a man working

Differentforgirls · 08/04/2026 01:09

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Differentforgirls · 08/04/2026 01:10

ToKittyornottoKitty · 07/04/2026 19:25

But it literally is, kids are at school while parents work - childcare. It’s just factual.

No that’s the way some parents view them.

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Differentforgirls · 08/04/2026 01:16

twinkletoesimnot · 07/04/2026 19:37

Well tbh I feel increasingly like I am there for childcare / crowd control only with a smattering of feeding / caring / clothing children at the same time.
My ability to actually teach - in a class with multiple children with EHCPs ( which are conflicting) a number with SEN plans and a further few with needs, with no classroom support, no money for supplies, even heating being seen as a luxury is feeling more and more impossible. Many parents are just fine with that as long as they can drop their children and run.
Woe betide me having to ring and say their child is ill. And very often I have ill children sent in regardless as to whether they are infectious/ well enough to cope. I do not think education is the primary purpose in a lot of parent’s view.

Agree with you. The attitude to education is appalling.

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Differentforgirls · 08/04/2026 01:20

PJ98 · 07/04/2026 19:47

School has my child 8.30 - 3.30 every day so of course if something happens, like my child is sick, I don't have childcare in place out of blue. The main purpose of school isn't childcare, however it does have children for the majority of the day on a week day and very obviously that means they are the care for the children during the week. Anyone who doesn't understand that is just a bit thick.

Charming.

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PivotPivotmakingmargaritas · 08/04/2026 01:22

nomas · 07/04/2026 19:04

YANBU. Parents need to parent their own children and only see school as a place of teaching.

Louder for the people at the back!!! Can we have this made into tshirts and billboards please

Babyboomtastic · 08/04/2026 01:29

It's absolutely both.

In the same way, holiday tennis club, for example, both teaches tennis and gives the parents the opportunity to work.

Differentforgirls · 08/04/2026 01:29

FruAashild · 07/04/2026 21:24

This. Primary teachers want to distinguish themselves from nursery workers so they can be paid more even though they both teach the same curriculum. It's pure snobbery. Universal education was established in the western world to facilitate parents working outside the home, it was always about childcare.

When did nursery workers start needing degrees?

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PollyBell · 08/04/2026 01:37

So how did the ''parents who work'' get jobs in the first place? skills they learnt at school?

Differentforgirls · 08/04/2026 01:37

This reply has been deleted

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Differentforgirls · 08/04/2026 01:50

BippityBopper · 07/04/2026 20:16

Well who takes care of a child while they're at school?

A school’s primary function is education.

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Differentforgirls · 08/04/2026 01:50

PollyBell · 08/04/2026 01:37

So how did the ''parents who work'' get jobs in the first place? skills they learnt at school?

What?

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Differentforgirls · 08/04/2026 01:51

TheSocialHermit · 07/04/2026 22:33

Whats your current financial position and set up? Also, do you work from home or work part time by any chance?

I’m retired.

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