To not feel sympathy for this mum?

[imreadytodive]

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mum-school-holiday-criminal-record-37163490.amp

a mum has been given a criminal record after taking her daughter out of school for two weeks to “see her sick grandmother” and refusing to pay the fine

Surely she realises nobody buys that excuse? If her grandmother was that unwell why wouldn’t she travel to Turkey in the 6 week school holidays leading up to September? I’m

From an all inclusive full of other Brits?

It’s the parents choice at the end of the day, if you’re going to do it at least own the consequences

Swimming, languages, different foods, learning what a plane feels like, how an airport works, even something as simple as in greece you don't flush loo roll. All of this is learning.

I totally agree with the principle that your child is not the property of the state and frankly a 2 or 3 week holiday is less detrimental than the parent who keeps their kids off a couple of times a week every week but not enough to amount to a fine.
We live in a nanny state. Its really quite sad.

Oh give over. “How a plane feels” isn’t going to help them in life is it?

If they think they would like to be an air hostess or a pilot one day then yes

But the consequences are completely arbitrary. It's simply justified as part of the holiday cost. You are just angry she didn't pay the fine, so I'd get off this hobby horse about lost classroom time and worthy holiday activities.

I think your point about museums shows a pretty narrow approach of what learning is. It’s not just schools and museums and activity sheets and things marked as educational. Even in an all inclusive resort they’re taken somewhere else, meeting new people, having new experiences, a different climate, being exposed to different food and shown a different pace of life. They will have their parents around all day every day and their parents may well be different and more engaged than on a rainy Sunday at home.

A holiday isn’t a right, but it’s a very normal thing to do and something most parents will want to share with their children. Saying that parents who take their children out of school for holidays don’t value education seems like a straw man argument. Different parents will just make different cost-value assessments on the relative benefits of being in school vs going on holiday and will come out with different answers. That doesn’t mean those who choose school care more about their child’s education.

Utterly ridiculous!

mother was getting things organised to go over there, 20 days was plenty notice for the school. No where does it say she was away to die there and then but there’s nothing wrong whatsoever with taking a child to meet their grandparent and especially in a circumstance like this.

the fact she was given a 12 month suspended sentence is crazy and that the government spending money on evening trialling this is insane. Her daughter won awards for attendance.

I wouldn’t have paid either. Meeting your grandmother and spending that time is so important.

also for OP to even try compare this to someone taking their child out to go to Disney because it costs less then it’s so beyond belief

And that's exactly why they get school holidays.

Eta this was meant to be a reply to the person who said that parents should be allowed to take kids away exactly when they like. My account is really playing up.

A holiday isn’t a right but there is more to life than sitting in school and there is lots to be learned from travelling abroad even just the experience of seeing different cultures , climates and surroundings nothing to do with museums. They don't even miss much in primary school in 2 weeks. And flights are way cheaper outside of school holidays . “A holiday isn’t a right “ is such a dull attitude in my opinion . That said it’s the law so she should have just sucked it up and paid the fine .

The system uses a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

We were constantly threatened with fines and criminal records periodically due to DD2's low attendance, when the lack of attendance was entirely down to school not meeting her needs and causing anxiety and depression.

I actually don't think a fine is even warranted for parents who are truly feckless as it doesn't help the children.

Well she is half Turkish and staying with family, I’m sure she got a bit of cultural exposure while she was there 🙄

She had 7 years to meet the grandmother though…

She should just own it, she took her daughter on holiday. Her dd had not seen her father or gp in 9yrs!! Her excuse is a bit cringy, tbh 😂

Kay, 51, from Doncaster, received a letter ordering her to pay an £80 fine (if paid within 21 days), which she chose not to pay out of principle.

If she couldn't afford the fine then I would feel sorry for her but just not wanting to pay it isn't really an excuse

I was replying to the previous poster who said she hadn’t died yet thus suggesting that it can’t have been that bad. My point was nobody can predict these things.

btw you are bang out of order minimising cancer and diabetes.

She could’ve gone in the school holidays…

I dont get the rule of not taking your child out of school for holidays. My son attended a prep school and then a private high school, and did his A Levels at a boarding school. Not one of these schools had an issue with us taking him out of school for a holiday.

If private schools can manage it, why not state schools?

It also highlights the lack of access to legal representation. The mum would have been able to get advice from duty solicitor at court but doesn’t appear to have known this.
Instead she’s approached it as a I’ll tell my story and they’ll let me off rather than from a legal point of view. It sounds like it was magistrates court - lay magistrates not judges.

Diabetes isn’t exactly “we must drop everything and get over there now” territory is it? Mum also didn’t feel that strongly about her daughter seeing her father and grandmother during the 9 years they had been separated before this holiday

If parents can take their kids on holiday during term time then so should teachers

YANBU.

She took her daughter out of school for 2 weeks to visit someone she barely knew. If her Dad wanted her to know her family, then how has he never visited her in 7 years, or arranged for her to visit him? And Granny is presumably still alive, considering there's no mention of her having died and the Dad says she was ill.

If she'd just paid the fine, she wouldn't have a criminal record. She thought she was above the law and her circumstances were special- they weren't.

It sounds like you don’t know much about diabetes. My goodness.

Clearly this family doesn’t have a lot of money and that’s why they haven’t been paying regular visits.

The problem is that you mentioned your sister’s Disney trip too soon.

I agree. I don’t think travel companies should be allowed to raise prices quite so much during the holidays. It really does push the poorer in society out of travelling and exploring the world.