To think that everyone who told those with preschool children in 2020/21 to get a puddlesuit and that lockdown wasn’t that bad needs to read this

[manysummersago]

BBC link

Reading the above has made me feel so angry and sad at what was done to the babies and toddlers of this country, and I can’t believe that we let it happen, quite honestly.

@TimBoothseyes

Singer parent to 2 children. Self employed jeweller.
We had "school" from 9 till 3. Then normal dinner/play etc. I worked after dinner and overnight. Went to bed around 3/4am. Got up at 7.30am. For months and months on end. But the other options was to allow my children's schooling to fall behind.

This arguing back and forth is exactly what the government wants.

While everyone is too busy doing this no-one is focussed on the fact that they’re doing nothing to help any of the issues

@jumpbounce

Surely a lot of this could actually be parenting issues rather than lockdowns?

Parents feeling like it is school/preschool/nurseries job to educate the child and not bothering when these were closed.

I have a young child who as a result of being CEV had no preschool or reception education AT ALL and had to shield for over a year! That child is now in year 1 and doesn't have any of the above issues and is ahead of many of her peers who I know personally and whose parents regularly declared how they couldn't be bothered and it wasn't their job to educate.
Education in early years begins at home!

Education does begin at home. It continues and flourishes in a formal setting with trained professionals.

Having two children at home, a husband who was a key worker, still working full time, looking after a CEV Mother and trying to homeschool is a recipe for disaster.

Many flourished over lockdown, many didn't, that is in no way a reflection of poor parenting. We tried our best and we are now reaping the consequences of children who did not do well in isolation. That is not our faults.

So many posters defending lockdown even now, when the harms to children are becoming clear. On a parenting forum, of all places!

We are discovering that we cannot dismantle society, and expect children to grow and develop normally.

We are also discovering that the economy cannot be turned off and then on again. The rising prices, inflation and resulting poverty are all bills from lockdown, starting to be paid.

I seriously wonder his many who shouted for lockdown are happy with the real cost.

A round of Old Macdonald does not equip the child with the skills needed for language development.

Children need to be exposed to a range of situations and hear language in context.

Imagine you are learning a foreign language and only hear it spoken by one or two people. You don’t have the opportunity to practice in real settings such as supermarkets, public transport and so on. You know those cringeworthy French lessons we had at school where we had to enquire the way to the tourist information office or the train station, or ask the time? That’s why.

To be fluent in a language you need to be immersed in it, in a variety of contexts. Read up on it.

@ReadyToMoveIt

Love the fact that people think I’m ‘lazy’ because my children were affected. I was doing a full time job, caring for a toddler and homeschooling a 6 and 5 year old. I worked until 2am most nights so that I didn’t fall behind. Up at 7am with the children. Really lazy, me 😂. Honestly, anyone who wants to tell parents who were almost broken trying to juggle everything that they were just ‘lazy’, I’m sorry that you have such issues in your own life that you’ve become a nasty, emotionally dead cunt.

I'm so with you. I have a special kind of rage for people who were furloughed and felt lockdown / home school was a jolly family time. Those who didn't have to juggle a full time job, different children doing homeschooling at different levels plus all the cooking, and cleaning up of every meal will never understand.

I also have a little pocket of rage for those people who were apparently 'key workers' and sent their kids back to school whilst mine were kept off. Key workers my hairy arse.

@JustLyra

This arguing back and forth is exactly what the government wants.

While everyone is too busy doing this no-one is focussed on the fact that they’re doing nothing to help any of the issues

To be honest, I doubt the government give a shit about MN.

The days when MN swung the election are gone.

@jumpbounce

Surely a lot of this could actually be parenting issues rather than lockdowns?

Parents feeling like it is school/preschool/nurseries job to educate the child and not bothering when these were closed.

I have a young child who as a result of being CEV had no preschool or reception education AT ALL and had to shield for over a year! That child is now in year 1 and doesn't have any of the above issues and is ahead of many of her peers who I know personally and whose parents regularly declared how they couldn't be bothered and it wasn't their job to educate.
Education in early years begins at home!

I cannot believe people are STILL coming out with this absolute rubbish.

I spoke to, played with and read to my daughter every day during the lockdowns. We did the work set by the school (when she would engage with it without bursting into tears). We rang people and spoke to them on FaceTime. We went on endless bloody walks. But she still developed mental health problems because she needed face to face interaction with other children. There were aspects of her emotional and developmental needs that I simply could not provide. It may be comforting to believe that all these issues are down to ‘poor parenting’, but I’m afraid it just isn’t the case.

Could just be an age thing, but the summer of 2020 when lockdown eased was when her toilet anxiety started - not being scared of toilets but scared of there not being toilets - so to this day, she spends 20 minutes on the toilet before school, goes at every transition period at school and at home. I think it's because we spent so long inside/only going out for a walk, she wasn't used to/couldn't remember being out for longer periods of time and how to manage waiting to use a toilet.

I had this exact same thing aged 6, but 30 years ago so it had absolutely nothing to do with lockdowns. I think it's an age related thing as that's the very earliest phase where you're fully independent and I was terrified of how to tell adults who weren't my parents that I needed the loo, or even worse in a situation like the school bus when there didn't seem to be one.

I did end up developing significant anxiety and MH issues so it's best to keep an eye on it or nip it in the bud if possible. My parents were oblivious and it was different times so nothing was done about it.

@Flyonawalk

So many posters defending lockdown even now, when the harms to children are becoming clear. On a parenting forum, of all places!

We are discovering that we cannot dismantle society, and expect children to grow and develop normally.

We are also discovering that the economy cannot be turned off and then on again. The rising prices, inflation and resulting poverty are all bills from lockdown, starting to be paid.

I seriously wonder his many who shouted for lockdown are happy with the real cost.

I didn't want lockdown, but curious about what we should have done instead?

My DS had a huge problem with toilets at this age 15 years ago-I don’t think lockdown can blamed for everything.

Yanbu- My dc are teens - we’re picking up the pieces of the last 2 years. I saw the damage happening at the time with all their usual routine and social activity stopped. They are all developmentally catching up to where they should be. And that’s teens . Young children must be worse.

Funnily enough all the people who spouted the kids were alright and we should all lock ourselves away we’re not the ones who had school age dc to worry about.
Tue kids were not alright.

What was wrong in suggesting a puddle suit? The children of those who did buy one will have had good use out of it.

Someone I know with a three year old, who has recently started going to a nursery part time, believes that lockdown was extremely beneficial to her. She has learned so much from being with her parents, especially her accountant dad whose work was mostly done from home. The girl has emerged very articulate and confident. Now that she's at nursery, she loves it!

The other problem was childcare for parents who had to go out to work during lockdown. That must have been so unreliable for many, no doubt a lot of child care providers shut down altogether for a while.

How a child develops will depend a lot on the parents, some are better at teaching and encouraging than others. However time passes quickly and children are great at recovering and adapting, far better than adults.

Time will tell but I doubt there has been any permanent damage to children. That may not be true for adults who have lost jobs, been seriously ill, etc, and economically we are in a bad way.

I don't honestly know how else the pandemic could have been managed though no doubt there are many theories; hindsight is all very well. Nobody dreamed it would last as long.

To be honest, I doubt the government give a shit about MN.

The days when MN swung the election are gone.

It’s not just MN though. This thing of just ranting and raving at each other is everywhere.

Brexit is a prime example. People too busy ranting and raving at people who voted to the other way to step back and say “actually, regardless of the result they ballsed up the handling of that massively”.

Divide and conquer tactics at their finest and it’s happening again with this.

[quote BeforeGodAndAllTheFish]@TimBoothseyes

Singer parent to 2 children. Self employed jeweller.
We had "school" from 9 till 3. Then normal dinner/play etc. I worked after dinner and overnight. Went to bed around 3/4am. Got up at 7.30am. For months and months on end. But the other options was to allow my children's schooling to fall behind.[/quote]
Self employed means that you could decide what your hours would be. You weren't expected to be present during the day for zoom meetings or phone calls by your employer then. What worked for you doesn't work for everyone and to call other people "lazy" because they were not in a position to spend 6 hours a day to educate their children is uncalled for.

The fact that there has been an impact on all of us, including the very young, does not mean that lockdown was wrong.

It does mean that we need to address those impacts and support people much more than our present bastard government intend to.

I can’t see anyone here who actively wanted lockdown. I see some pretty vile teacher bashing (once again) by a few posters, though. I think we can agree that lockdown was disastrous for many kids. I teach in a deprived area - many kids with no devices and with parents who couldn’t or wouldn’t support their home learning. We are where we are. Schools are working hard to mitigate all this. Being angry and blaming anyone but the government is reductive and a waste of time.

@Jackiebrambles
Can I join you in that rage ?
DH was working crazy hours trying to sort the impact on the company.
I was left juggling my job, and two kids, a 3 yo and 9 yo who struggles with school.
We were both on our knees.

Meanwhile I kept getting told what a lovely time my SIL & Bil were having both furloughed one was doing school with their P1 while the other walked the dog with the preschooler - how nice we were both shattered.
My 9yo was getting depressed wouldn't eat. And my LO was getting plonked in front of the telly.

Brutal absolutely brutal

@Flyonawalk

So many posters defending lockdown even now, when the harms to children are becoming clear. On a parenting forum, of all places!

We are discovering that we cannot dismantle society, and expect children to grow and develop normally.

We are also discovering that the economy cannot be turned off and then on again. The rising prices, inflation and resulting poverty are all bills from lockdown, starting to be paid.

I seriously wonder his many who shouted for lockdown are happy with the real cost.

Well said. It became obvious and not just in hindsight, but during.

@JimmyGrimble

I can’t see anyone here who actively wanted lockdown. I see some pretty vile teacher bashing (once again) by a few posters, though. I think we can agree that lockdown was disastrous for many kids. I teach in a deprived area - many kids with no devices and with parents who couldn’t or wouldn’t support their home learning. We are where we are. Schools are working hard to mitigate all this. Being angry and blaming anyone but the government is reductive and a waste of time.

Hear hear - the government are now compounding the issues by not addressing the cost of living issues, by making the poorest even poorer.

UK was very underprepared due to the last ten years of austerity, our economic impacts have been worse than the rest of Europe, our economy is not recovering like the rest of Europe.

Honestly, blaming lockdowns is way too simplistic and the trends being discussed here have been present and growing since before the pandemic. Many, many young children were not adversely affected and even thrived during lockdowns, I have witnessed it personally. More needs to be done to address the glaring differences in the circumstances in which these children are developing. There is a world of difference between the upbringing and opportunities they have which has a real impact on their cognitive, linguistic, physical and emotional development. Blaming lockdowns just isn't helpful.

It will be interesting to see which children who were initially impacted from lockdown get back to their correct levels first, unfortunately I assume it won't be the children from vulnerable families. Unfortunately, there is only so much schools/nurseries can do.

I read a speech that Amanda Speilman gave to nursery leaders and she said that from their findings the social impact seems to be short lived. With increased work on reading and communication, again hopefully, many children will catch up, but the attainment gap will probably get even wider.

The same with children who were homeschooled during lockdown. Yes, there would be children, who in normal circumstances would be supported by their families, but due to juggling homeschooling and WFH that normal support was lacking. So some children would have fallen behind, who would not normally have done so, but again with support from school and parents will most likely catch up. Others, without that support, won't.

We are also discovering that the economy cannot be turned off and then on again. The rising prices, inflation and resulting poverty are all bills from lockdown, starting to be paid. Hmm, not in France though, so can't all be about lockdowns...

Couldn't possibly be austerity, underinvestment, Tory corruption and Brexit too, could it???

Do you really think current poverty is all about lockdown????

@NovacDino

Honestly, blaming lockdowns is way too simplistic and the trends being discussed here have been present and growing since before the pandemic. Many, many young children were not adversely affected and even thrived during lockdowns, I have witnessed it personally. More needs to be done to address the glaring differences in the circumstances in which these children are developing. There is a world of difference between the upbringing and opportunities they have which has a real impact on their cognitive, linguistic, physical and emotional development. Blaming lockdowns just isn't helpful.

Many, many young children WERE adversely affected and struggled during lockdown, we have also witnessed it personally.

Parents were abandoned with a complete lack of support and understanding. So many of us had to navigate working from home for the first time WHILST trying to teach our kids. If we weren't teaching we were plonking them in front of the TV between 9-5 and needing them to entertain themselves because we still had to turn up. That was because of lockdown.

Every time we dare to express blame to lockdown and the closure of school it's always thrown back at 'what didn't you do? Why didn't you do that? What's wrong with your children? Why are you lazy? We did great. I don't think that's the problem.'

We're telling you it is. My kids were absolutely thriving before lockdown, they were destroyed by it - socially, educationally and emotionally. We all were. I got so stressed I was losing hair, it was an impossible situation.

Do you really think it isn’t?