Do teenagers care? Open the fucking schools.

[FreierFall]

All my son's friends are now meeting up in groups. Probably in each other houses. Of course I am the worlds worst mother for saying he can only meet one friend outside at a time. Pretty much everyone he knows is assuming they can do what they want now. Why bother keeping secondary schools shut now? It's pointless. Instead we are going to have groups of bored teenagers roaming around all summer. I am in despair.

Well op, my son is a teenager and he cares. He doesn't meet up with friends as he isn't an idiot.
It's as simple as that.

Well my teen and her friends dont.

But then she's not an idiot and I parent.

How do teenagers do if they lose a parent at this age, by the way? All fine? Crack on?

Can’t remain shut until we get a vaccine that should be

I agree op. I don’t see any reason why teachers can’t socially distance at school. If it’s spreading too fast we can always close them again.

Right, just have a read of this again and think about it.

@Barbie222 - you first. The idea of the lockdown is to slow the transmission rate to stop the NHS being overwhelmed. We can’t “wait till it’s safe” because it may never be safe.

My teen certainly cares. She's struggling and desperate to see her friends but she's not a complete and utter numpty who's willing to risk safety of herself and others.

So we should open schools and put teachers/vulnerable families at risk because of a bunch of badly behaved, poorly parented teenagers? Er, sorry, but I don't get that logic.

And your teenager might not care, but the same doesn't apply to all teenagers. Please don't tar them all with the same brush.

In realty we will likely see waves of this virus which will mean we have to lock down again later in the year.

mother I'm really sorry your son has got to wait for that, and that there aren't any solutions to this.

I agree, I find the faux concern regarding children's wellbeing irritating in the extreme. Before now, political discourse in this country has never centred on the importance of children's wellbeing but instead has focused on three word mantras and divisive mudslinging, because that's easy to do.

The Mail's criticism of teachers on its front page yesterday, on which it vilified them for wanting to be safe and accused them of affecting "children's futures", when it's never cared about those futures in the past, was utterly laughable. Unfortunately many people read it and take it seriously.

Clearly your average mnetter is a teacher with angelic teenagers......on the other take a trip to your local park and tell me I'm not wrong.
Schools cannot be "made safe". We need to live with this virus. A vaccine is very likely but could be a year until sufficient people are immunized. Shall we keep schools closed until then?

One word-Sweden...learn to live with it people.

Clearly your average mnetter is a teacher with angelic teenagers

Completely ignoring the many posters who aren't teachers, and have teenagers who are able to, and want to follow the rules.

But hey any excuse to bash teachers.

Clearly some of you teachers can't read. My son is NOT allowed out unless it's to meet ONE friend......sigh

Clearly your average mnetter is a teacher with angelic teenagers

I’m not a teacher. I do however parent my children, that includes helping them to understand the situation so we don’t get the “worst mother in the world” nonsense.

@theBelgranoSisters doesn't Sweden have the highest death rate in the Scandinavian countries? Schools for 16 and overs are shut. Social distancing is recommended. WFM recommended. Gatherings of over 50 banned

How about parents actually parenting and not allowing them to meet up?

One friend who has potentially been mixing with loads of other friends though, yes?

@GrimmsFairytales
“They are taking in, not just nursery age children, but junior primary school children, as local primary school is completely closed!”

I'm surprised to hear this. Is there not a local hub school for the pupils?”

The local hub school is in the next town! Meaning, it’s basically no use at all for key workers. Many children of working parents (who obviously work more than just school hours) were collected from school when it finished and taken to private nursery, which runs an after school club. This is why the private nursery decided to take in the junior primary school children for the full day, so other key workers (such as nhs, carers, supermarket staff etc.) could continue to go to work.

The local hub school is in the next town! Meaning, it’s basically no use at all for key workers.

That obviously depends on how far away the next town is, and how parents travel to work / school. I wouldn't automatically assume it being in the next town meant it was of no use.

Clearly some of you teachers can't read. My son is NOT allowed out unless it's to meet ONE friend......sigh

Why is that OP? Don’t you think it’s safe for him to mingle with more than one person?

Yet you want schools to open. Weird!

If teachers don’t want to work then they should be furloughed,don’t bother saying they are still at work,only 6 key worker children are in my local school,They post story time on YouTube

@SmileEachDay
Thank you for the lesson in grammar. Unfortunately when I was at school grammar wasn’t really taught (which I think was pretty crap), even in the top English group!!

I am therefore pretty much self taught, but do sometimes make errors, which I don’t mind being pointed out! It didn’t stop my final research dissertation, for my degree, being given an A+ and kept to use as an “Exemplar” for future students! 😀

Why bother keeping secondary schools shut now? It's pointless

Yes, I suppose the health of thousands of teachers and their families is pointless.

Ok. To summarize. My child is following the rules. Many, many teenagers (and adults) are not. So.....if children are roaming around unsupervised, they may as well be in school where they can get back their education.