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.

@Jobsharenightmare

Too many parents sticking their kids in front of the TV. I often get slammed on here for quoting the WHO guidelines on passive TV.

What else was there to do when working?

@peachgreen

The damage done to my now-preschooler, then toddler, by losing her father far exceeds any damage done by lockdown.

Yes, lockdown definitely has been detrimental to her and I can see that - but believe me, there is worse.

This exactly! So many parent of children, grandparents seriously ill. Yes lockdown had issues but lets face it, losing someone that was a close family member would have been worse.

@manysummersago

Someone will say ‘teachers weren’t furloughed, they were working’ I bet.

Which is true!

@Swayingpalmtrees

The children that were murdered, abused and neglected because there were no school or nursery safe guards in place.

Not to mention the children that are STILL unaccounted for, thousands of them.

Schools and nurseries didnt Close to vulnerable children, and those under the radar so to speak could be taken out of education without penalty anyway if the parents wanted. Of course its heartbreaking, but are you trying to suggest this only happened during lockdown? The closure and cuts to early years and schools are a bigger factor.

A child drowned as a result of his mother working during the lockdown - that really upset me.

The child drowned because the door was left open, they could have gone out when she popped to the loo or went to make a cuppa.

@manysummersago

I don’t think anyone is disputing that funding is an issue (or lack thereof) but I honestly do not know how anyone can claim with a straight face that shutting down everything apart from supermarkets for six months and forbidding interaction with everybody except members of your own household has had no effect on children.

But that isn't what happened. You could go outside and see people at a distance, you could talk to people online. Lots of nurseries stayed open with very little changes, some playgrounds were closed, not all. The biggest one near us never did, just had signs suggesting you were careful.

I'm not disputing that some children were far, far more affected than others and some were much more isolated than others but with anything the insistence that it was a universal experience benefits nobody and ultimately makes the voices of those genuinely badly affected get overlooked.

I know I say this from a position of massive privilege having employers who were understanding about home school and a nursery that was pretty much unchanged throughout but it is possible for a lot of children to have been hardly affected at all.

toomuch You could not have been on here when we had thread after thread with pp demanding schools close, and stay closed.

You obviously missed the massive arguments on here between parents and teachers. No one was calling for 'mitigation'!! Our schools would STILL be closed no doubt if they had their way. We have record numbers now, so I am guessing that would have been another perfect excuse...

I am sick and tired of being blackmailed that teachers will leave education - well the door is that way>>>>> plenty of people willing to take new jobs in teaching with some real enthusiasm and genuine care for children. We don't need militant teachers that disregard children at the first opportunity thanks all the same.

We see you, we are paying attention.

@Swayingpalmtrees where are you? Where were 30% of teachers furloughed?

patch you are one of them! I refuse to speak to you.

@manysummersago

Someone will say ‘teachers weren’t furloughed, they were working’ I bet.

Here you go - teachers weren't furloughed. I was in every day, teaching children of key workers and providing and marking work for children who were home schooled. Ok? BTW, I would much rather have been teaching the whole class at once, it would have been much easier from my point of view. I hated lockdown as much as you did OP, but as a teacher I did not make the rules, I just had to follow them. Don't blame the teachers or nursery practitioners, we were all just doing what we were told.

there was a survey published in February 2020 that said most health visitors weren't even able to provide the minimum level of support

Yes I honestly have not seen the point in my health visitor whatsoever for my 2021 born DC. Not even minimum support, literally none. I don't even know if she still works there or really did fall off the face of the earth after our first meeting.

@Swayingpalmtrees

toomuch You could not have been on here when we had thread after thread with pp demanding schools close, and stay closed.

You obviously missed the massive arguments on here between parents and teachers. No one was calling for 'mitigation'!! Our schools would STILL be closed no doubt if they had their way. We have record numbers now, so I am guessing that would have been another perfect excuse...

I am sick and tired of being blackmailed that teachers will leave education - well the door is that way>>>>> plenty of people willing to take new jobs in teaching with some real enthusiasm and genuine care for children. We don't need militant teachers that disregard children at the first opportunity thanks all the same.

We see you, we are paying attention.

Only there aren't loads of teachers replacing those leaving, it's a real problem that's only getting worse. The only way to avoid a really catastrophic shortage is if teachers were treated better, that's not going to happen though so yes I hope they do all leave and find better jobs.

I saw many threads where posters couldn't obviously read what teachers were actually saying .

Teachers are already leaving education, there really are not enough and funding is dire. I'm not a teacher by the way.

@Swayingpalmtrees

patch you are one of them! I refuse to speak to you.

Ah you mean you refuse to acknowledge that factors beyond lockdown are more of a risk to children and have even less chance of being addressed whilst people are blaming lockdown for it? Cool I'm not that upset about you not speaking to me.

@manysummersago where do you live where everything was shut for 6 months straight? Wasnt like that in Sheffield and weve always had high rates and been in high categories of restriction.

@Howeverdoyouneedme

The fact that report mentions children not hearing stories or singing? That's a parenting issue, not a lockdown one!

Not if people were working full time and usually the signing would be in nursery.

Eh no, did anyone ever tell you 3 into 1 doesn't go ?

Job, educating one child, while entering a preschooler it just doesn't work. And that's before you consider the additional housework created by everyone being home 24/7
People were shattered and finding energy to sing was very low on the priority list.

@Swayingpalmtrees I too will never forgive and forget.

@BeforeGodAndAllTheFish

Everything in that article is just bad, lazy parenting. Nothing to do with lockdown. Everything to do with bad, lazy parents not doing what they should have.

My children thrived during lockdown. They returned to school way ahead of where they should have been. Because I actually made an effort.

Wow.

[quote Porcupineintherough]@manysummersago where do you live where everything was shut for 6 months straight? Wasnt like that in Sheffield and weve always had high rates and been in high categories of restriction.[/quote]
Scotland schools closed in March 20 and didn't reopen until August 5 mths, and even then nurseries were encouraged to be outside as much as possible.
They then closed again Dec to March 21

@manysummersago

Someone will say ‘teachers weren’t furloughed, they were working’ I bet.

I would imagine thousands and thousands of people will say this because it’s true.

No state school teachers were furloughed.

Playgrounds closed for what purpose?
No picnics allowed, why?
Benches taped and police patrolling parks.

Why was this ever okay?

It wasn't.

The only thing that made it slightly less horrendous for teenagers than for young children (and don't get me wrong: it was monstrous for teenagers) is that the ones with parents who were able to exercise the tiniest amount of critical thinking did at least not stop them from meeting up "illegally", because the alternative was far worse for them. My DC had friends to stay and went to stay with friends. There was absolutely no way I was abiding by that diktat.

Strangely, MN deleted a thread I started on this at the time, on the grounds that it was "triggering". So HQ swallowed the paranoia, too.

@gogohm

Most of the negative traits mentioned are due to neglect not lack of preschool. Kids need interaction with other humans, it doesn't need to be preschool it can be parents, my kids didn't go to nursery until 3. The talking in cartoon voices is because they were left watching tv - something that's usually observed in certain circumstances where kids are left to their own devices. Plenty of kids have thrived, my niece and nephew really benefited from having both their parents home, and sil still works from home so can do the school run (makes up hours in the evening)

What the heck were parents meant to do - that is the point many children were neglect while their parents were tearing their hair out trying to do a job at the same time as educating children Good for your neice and nephew 👏 to have done well I'd bet they are either secondary or had a furloughed parent.

I knew it was being cruel to children when outdoors play parks were shut and people on MN were referring to children as disease vectors and not considering the impact..

DH and I were in jobs directly affected by covid, I work in DV and child safeguarding and DH in the police. I was online working by 7am, continuously till 9PM or 10pm during that first lockdown.

I was dealing with horrific cases (that I have gone into on here before, so wont again) so you'll excuse me if we didnt have the time to do singing and school issued Twinkle sheets whilst we worked our butts off protecting other families.

My kids did eventually end up back at school when they allowed key worker children back, but due to various issues this wasnt until June 2020.

Lockdown one I can almost agree with, but we one very early on what the effects of covid were on people and children. By May 2020 we had a pretty decent understanding of the effects. The subsequent lockdowns were an abomination and should never have been allowed. The nonsense tier system, ditto!!

And now we're in a cost of living crisis, needing to recoup funds and our childrens children will be paying the cost of furlough. So yes, we absolutely failed the children and putting a 98yo needs before a toddler was and always will be despicable.

The BBC article is just clickbait and doesn’t go into the detail behind the study / article. It is specifically about children who were at home until 2 / past 2 and didn’t go nursery at all. It doesn’t apply to preschoolers who did access some form of formal childcare like nurseries / childminders (most of whom were fully open except for specific periods). There has been an overall reduction in children’s MH / SEN support but this was never adequate even before Covid & many trusts / LEAs are blaming Covid unfairly.

@CornishGem1975

I had a lockdown baby, he thrived. Of course, there will be children affected but there will equally be many that sailed through. I have more concern for my teens than my toddler to be quite honest.

The fact that report mentions children not hearing stories or singing? That's a parenting issue, not a lockdown one!

I was working full time. Yes, from home, but I couldn’t really sing nursery rhymes to my toddler while on a conference call. I was also homeschooling 2 primary aged children. Anyone who wants to criticise my parenting when they weren’t in my situation can get to fuck, basically. You callous twat.

Well said @ReadyToMoveIt