‘School will have to look different from now on’....

[Starrynightsabove]

‘With a mix of home schooling and in-school learning’

So said Nicola Sturgeon.

So how does this work for a single parent trying to work full time from home with a full on job who needs to pay the mortgage. Literally how does this work?

[RigaBalsam]

I have read the thread and it is you who are spectacularly missing the point.

If you say so.

[PicsInRed]

I think men won't be able to ignore it if they are having to work from home too!

Pop over to the relationships board and AIBU...

Unless they can physically shut themselves away from the children

...and you'll find that is EXACTLY what is already happening.

[veryvery]

I can believe it, Pics. It will depend on house layout of course, but I think in a lot of homes it will be difficult for a person to shut themselves away entirely from their children. I think undoubtedly a lot of families are having to spend more time together. Hopefully, in the long term at least, that will increase people's understanding and compassion towards each other. I was thinking of a general trend really. However, undoubtedly this living in close proximity will make life very difficult for a lot of individuals.

[PicsInRed]

I think undoubtedly a lot of families are having to spend more time together. Hopefully, in the long term at least, that will increase people's understanding and compassion towards each other.

Sadly, sky rocketing domestic violence would seem to counter that. And, again, a lot of women are complaining that their partner simply ignores the children and does his work. The woman has to do both or the children are neglected. I remember one commented here that her throughputs were way down and she realised that for that reason she knew and feared that she would be prioritised for redundancy.

[veryvery]

Yes, I agree that's a major problem, sadly, Pics. However, I would say that it will be the problems that are expressed on social media and reported to outside official agencies that can support. We won't hear much of the positive ways this might affect some families so much.

In terms of feminism, I see it as a bit of a sea change. The climate has changed and the results will probably a mixture of negative and positive in terms of their impact on women. We have to learn to adapt to a new landscape.

[The80sweregreat]

Expecting a single parent to home school and work full time is possible. They may have to use grandparents and just risk assess the situation at the time as to if they can still do the school run and holidays etc.

'Wrap around care ' at schools might still continue but with less children! It's hard enough getting places as it is. There's still the big problem of SD for the adults : the majority of school buildings are not designed for people to be 2m apart. Also many people and teachers won't be able to work as they are shielding because of health concerns. Who will replace them?
It's always been a headache for working people with children but this will make it worse:(
I'm sure many private schools might fair a bit better as they have less pupils anyway?
Then there's school buses that are packed out : how will they cope ?
So many problems.

[ChrissieKeller61]

@PicsInRed this is an opportunity for reform to make things better and all you are doing is screaming like a banshee and playing right into the hands of anyone who might think a women’s place is in the home.

[TheMagiciansMewTwo]

Yes two year groups
Aesop I made that point earlier and also about the fact our students are competing against students from other countries whose governments managed all of this better. But that's the government's fault not teachers. Pushing teachers and children and extended family members to put themselves at risk because the government has fucked up, isn't the solution.

[The80sweregreat]

I've been married over 30 years and I've found this hard going ; usually dh works a few hours a week ( he is retired , but found a job last year which he can't go into at the moment ) and ds2 is also wfh so we have to work around him too! We both like going out , so being stuck in doesnt come easily to us , but we've had to get on with it.

It's all first world problems for us , but anyone living with an abusive partner or with small children these past few weeks must be hell. I know I would have struggled with home schooling with my two when they were younger. I'm sure the schools have tried their best , but it can't be the same as a school set up. It's impossible.

I think that divorce and family lawyers will be extra busy this year sad to say. :(

[PicsInRed]

ChrissieKeller61

PicsInRedthis is an opportunity for reform to make things better and all you are doing is screaming like a banshee and playing right into the hands of anyone who might think a women’s place is in the home.

Oh, please do tell this feminist banshee precisely how requiring women to homeschool their children will provide any economic advantage to women and their children? Do tell me how this won't further entrench differences in employment opportunity and pay between men and women?

[TheMagiciansMewTwo]

A feminist critique has to include DV and flexible working but it also has to be more extensive. It has to include the risk to carers, nurses and teachers who are still predominantly female.

It's why I mentioned earlier the groups that are working round these areas. There is a lot of campaigning going on around these issues and steps being in put place to provide support networks.

I do think the best way to progress them is to look at where we are (high death rate, in the middle of a pandemic) rather than pretending that we should ignore that and try to get back to what we had before. What we had before wasn't working for a lot of women regarding DV, EA and flexible working.

[Devlesko]

Maybe she plans to make absent parents pay for their kids, then the resident parent doesn't have to work, or can drop to part time.
It's certainly a step in the right direction, especially whilst we need to socially distance.

[Whatdayisit2]

I don't know how it will work- probably badly but I do know that a sick child in hospital, or a sick parent, or both will be harder. I am lucky to not be a sp but I am terrified of us both being too sick to care for kids

[BelleSausage]

The bigger picture is that society as a whole needs a good overhaul. Lots of things that have become the norm have crept up on us and have create fairly miserable living arrangements for many people.

This is a chance to look again at how we value carers- nurses, carers for the elderly, teachers, social workers, child minders, doctors, mothers. Almost all of these roles are filled mainly by women and are often underpaid and under appreciated, even though they are supporting the most vulnerable in society.

Work lives also need addressing. A system where it is default that you are required to leave your children for eleven hours a day to travel into an office to do work that you like do at home with remote working is untenable and out dated.

A system where people aren’t paid enough to support their families is unacceptable.

More of the same is not what anyone needs.

[Devlesko]

I don't think it's a feminist issue tbh.
It's up to the couple to decide how they split the financial aspect of their family.
If you are married to a neanderthal you need to tell them that you will be working and they will be at home.
If they earn more then you need to work out what's more important, more money or your job/career.
We dropped the highest earner to sahm because that's what I wanted.
Luckily I'd found a man who shared my values and we discussed it before conceiving.
So, no it's a couple issue, not a feminist one.

[MadMadMad]

Longer teaching days - so a typical primary teacher already works from 7.30am to 7.30pm with lesson planning, marking, preparing engaging materials and reports for 9am-3.30pm day (on top of 8 - 12 hours at weekends and most school holidays). How much longer do you expect them to work if they are in classroom for longer hours?

[PicsInRed]

Luckily I'd found a man who shared my values and we discussed it before conceiving.

I had the same conversations.

He lied. 🤷‍♀️

[ChrissieKeller61]

@Devlesko exactly.
The single mums I know including myself have set up our lives to just manage. There’s no poverty I work from home earning £3500 a month on a good day. Plus child support from ex, we aren’t all on the breadline. But having been on income support with 4 children And no child support I can also confirm nobody starved and the kids grew up as expected, as they do and now I have time to work.
Nobody asked for a pandemic, this hasn’t been done on purpose. We need to make things better going forward rather than clinging to the past because that wasn’t a barrel of laughs either

[ChrissieKeller61]

@MadMadMad do they fuck 😂
That literally makes me laugh. 8-5pm tops, you know like the rest of us

[NeurotrashWarrior]

Erm... no madmadmad describes what my typical week was for 13 years till I went part time.

No one with school age children is full time at my work, bar one woman who's husband is part time. Because of this.

Schools rely on an influx of nqts without kids who then break and leave or resolve never to have their own kids

[NeurotrashWarrior]

Nqts are also cheap.

That's how the school system runs now.

[ChrissieKeller61]

@NeurotrashWarrior well god knows what you were doing wrong then because that’s not any teacher I knows experience.

[ChrissieKeller61]

@NeurotrashWarrior and yet in the same breathe we are being told education is so precious the parents couldn’t possibly manage it ... strikes me we couldn’t do a worse job

[The80sweregreat]

In my experience it's the women that get left with most things to do with childcare and running a home.
I know of one stay at home dad and he is mostly viewed with suspicion from other women and envy from some men as his wife earns a good wage and he is always out and about with his two or on exotic holidays ! It works out for them and he doesn't care who thinks it's odd , but the comments from others show that it's not seen as the ' right thing' to do.
Attitudes from women are just as outdated as some men's ones are as well. Many women also prefer to be in control of the home and children and like a more ' traditional' set up of the man being the main wage earner.
You'd be surprised at how many people I know who have this set up and are very critical of women who use wrap around care continually in order to work full time and it's not always older women either!
I don't think attitudes will change a huge amount myself : it'll still be women trying to sort it all out or losing their jobs if they have to home school for longer etc :(

[PicsInRed]

So what will we do that works better for women working that out-of-home school? And which is better for children, for that matter?

What new system is proposed which wont further physically and financially isolate the majority women in the home?

If the new system relies on fathers to voluntarily do a genuine 50%, it's already failed as they could have done that already and the majority have elected not to.