Three mothers considering legal action over impact of social distancing on children

[Fantasisa]

I have to admit that I hadn't even thought the long term impact through of social distancing on children although it has made me so sad when my DC have seen their friends around and only waved sadly at each other from a distance.

My DC's primary school hasn't reopened today and no words from the headteacher to update us on their plan.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8374849/Three-mothers-considering-legal-battle-Government-school-closures.html#comments

Iwalkinmyclothing agreed

It’s the comments of “enjoy time with the kids” and “lazy parents that don’t want to look after their kids”

Well, I would like to enjoy time yet I work FT and am on calls most of the day not even having a lunch break

Ffs it may be some holiday heaven for many people but it is shitty working FT from home without childcare with your DC watching endless amounts of tv and not being able to potty train as you will miss their accidents

Where has empathy and understanding gone in all of this?

Tbh the sooner the schools just reopen normally without all the nonsense the better. If it's not safe enough to do this, the schools shouldn't be reopening.

Exactly this.

Tbh the sooner the schools just reopen normally without all the nonsense the better.

Yes, agreed.

If it's not safe enough to do this, the schools shouldn't be reopening.

No, that's not reasonable. Education, like all sectors, is going to have to adapt and work differently for a while. Schools cannot reasonably remain closed to all but the children of key workers until LEAs/ Heads/ whoever makes the decisions feel it is safe to return to 'normal'. Things have changed. We have to change with them.

There is some event in every generation with 'upsets' or 'frightens' children - this is the current generation's 'event'. I am sure they will get over it.

When I was at school, we were given the 1 in 5 lecture by the WVS, which told you all about nuclear bombs and how best to protect yourself in the event one detonated near to you. Really useful stuff (!) like whitewashing windows, and making a room inside the house with internal doors so you and your family could camp out with a few tins of food and a bucket for the loo for at least a month! We lived under the scary threat of this for YEARS - imagine that.

I understand your point thats why i am going to wait till september i am concerned that my autistic child will love the social distancing but from a social aspect this might put him back years more thought into the planning needed

I hope COVID remembers to attend court while it's busy killing people in the UK.

Highly doubt these women want to sue the government- typical sensationalist DM headline. It is very striking that there has been almost no discourse whatsoever about how these measures are going to affect children in the short or long term. I suspect this story is a blunt instrument to actually take the conversation in a different direction.

@Saucery not about parents that 'cba to look after their own children'. Socialising is vital in a child's development. My daughter has taken quite a setback since the nursery closed and I'm anxious to get her back as she thrives in that kind of environment. I love her and have enjoyed the time with her but she has struggled, it's the very young children I feel sorry for.

@NoseHair

I think they are being ridiculous. The government can’t win. If they let all the kids pile on in, they’d be attacked for letting it spread. If they do it bit by bit as they are, they’re attacked for keeping children out of school.

This. x 1,000,000.

Another pointless waste of taxpayer money defending this nonsense.

One school locally hasn't opened but two teachers have died (one from the virus and one from something else) and one other has had a mother who has died (don't know what of) and that's just what I know about. So -you know what, they shouldn't be reopening. Just contact the school and ask for an update if yours haven't.

This is American but it is kind of what it was like in the cold war.

timeline.com/nuclear-war-child-psychology-d1ff491b5fe0

At school, we used to practice hiding under the desks or crouching like mushrooms if we saw the flash and the mushroom cloud.

We all thought we were going to die.

Maybe I should sue.

The thing about "the misery children have experience is nothing compared with what people would have experienced in the past!!!" is that this argument sort of cuts both ways.

I mean, quite honestly, no previous human society would have considered quarantining society en masse for a disease with a fatality rate of about 0.5%, with most of the dead being elderly people. In fact, previous societies probably wouldn't even have noticed the arrival of such a virus at all. Because they were already busy dealing with endemic diseases that had fatality rates many times higher, and dying of a respiratory type disease in your 70s was just considered part of the landscape of life, not a Bad Societal Event that needed fixing. "There seem to be more bad chests around this winter than usual, don't there?" people would have said in the event of COVID19 coming to the UK a few generations ago.

I'm not saying that we should have just ignored COVID19 and let it wash through the population killing half a million people or whatever. But the whole reason why that wouldn't be considered acceptable nowadays, is because nowadays we have much higher standards for human health and welfare. So not surprisingly, most parents also apply the same standards to their children's welfare, and don't find "Well, the child evacuees in WWII had it a lot worse!!" to be a terribly convincing argument.

Christ!!
So what should the government do? Let it be as before?

Then they would sue over the first wave of kids who got sick and died I suppose

Selfish attention seeking women! What would they prefer dead teachers/kids. As someone has said First World problems. Does anyone ever stop to consider that disease hits third world countries all the time yet here we are moaning about slight adjustments we need to make to our very comfortable lives in comparison. Should be ashamed of themselves!

Nobody knew how covid would pan out..... it was necessary at that time

Now we can see no kids got sick/died so can readdress as the government are doing

BUT taking teaching staff etc into consideration too

It’s called balance I believe

There is no tight or wrong choice here. As evidence builds to support children as not spreading or as being spreaders then we can look to fully opening schools again. At this time there isn't enough evidence to support this at the infection rates we have. However as it gets lower and we look at how other countries are doing we can say we are safe to reopen with no social distancing.
To state we are damaging our children is hopefully an exageration, if not, then this generation will have raised the least resilient generation who will struggle to cope with adapting in the future. Whilst some children will not be thriving the best they can, some will be and some will be struggling. The same as when schools are in normally. The vast majority will bounce back happily. I have a socially anxious child, life isn't the easiest just now and we will take time to settle and reestablish relationships, most wont need that long.
If people are reall worried you can now meet up with others so do that and let your children play together.
As for the school work, ypu need to spreak to individul schools. No one on here can say why or what you should have. Yes all schools should provide stuff though.

Tbh I think it has as much validity as any other Daily Mail sad face story. The 'sad' mums are being wildly inconsistent. If they want DCs to be able to play with soft toys and ignore social distancing then the only way to do that is to keep them at home for longer.
The undercurrent seems to be that they're unhappy that they each have one DC going back to school and another that has to stay at home. They would be better trying to argue about the practicalities of that than pretending it's fine to ignore all the research about DCs and Covid19.

I'm pleased these woman are asking the government to consider the physical and mental impact on children of lockdown and social distancing
The 'new norm' that children are living would have been considered abuse only a few months ago. The NSPCC defines isolation as a type of abuse which includes putting unreasonable limitations on a child's freedom of movement and putting restrictions on a child's social interactions.

@Kokeshi123
What a fantastic post and so balanced.

it is shitty working FT from home without childcare with your DC watching endless amounts of tv and not being able to potty train as you will miss their accidents. Where has empathy and understanding gone in all of this?

ODFOD. Where has the empathy been for the teaching profession? I am sat at home with 3 children, a single parent, and have been teaching, marking, planning, adapting resources since day one. I have also had the issue of a vulnerable child to manage, my own vulnerabilities and that of an elderly parent I care for as well as be in school on the staff rota. I have seen my profession absolutely denegrated by people who have not one fucking clue about what it is to teach, let alone what it is to teach online with no real notice and without the training for that. I have fielded irate parent email after email about lack of teaching where colleagues have sick, dying or dead family members or other issues going on in their lives beyond covid. Because, you know, other shit is still happening. One of my children should be in school today but the risk assessment says no. Am I kicking off? No. Should the school have sorted it? Probably. But then their staffing situation means that the staff member with the training to take care of my child is shielding. So that's that. My child singled out for a condition they played no part in contracting.

You want empathy and understanding then start to recognise it's a fucking two way process. We didn't start this, we are doing the best we can. We face the same shit in our lives as everyone else. The schools that can be opened have been opened. The rest will follow.

Hope my colleagues in school today across the country are having an enjoyable day, seeing their students and reconnecting with them. I hope the obvious stresses don't feel too much.

Lost you are a perfect example of misreading what I wrote

As you are doing it you know it is hard

Everyone is so angry all the time on here, think I need to take a break from the madness and connect with real people

What would they prefer dead teachers/kids

Dead teachers and school staff are just collateral damage. Dead kids - and there will be some as a result of the opening I'm sure - will be the Government's fault for opening too soon. However, if the school's don't open, children are going to die anyway, apparently, so let's watch school staff keel over one by one and make a decision then, eh?!

Lostmyshit Well said.
What this lockdown has shown is just how little people think about society as a whole. This cult of individualism is getting out of hand so you get people like these women (and many more on Mumsnet) continually wailing 'But what about meeeeeee'.
The idea that schools needed to close, that education in this country is underfunded, that state schools are not set up for online learning, that teachers are doing their best in a difficult situation, simply doesn't occur to them.

There'd be a lot more legal action if we hadn't taken the actions we have, when almost all other countries were doing so. Like everything else the vast majority of children have been safe at home during this crisis. Maybe not learning as much as before but safe and well - and I'd go so far to say that in real life most of these children have been absolutely fine from a mental heath standpoint too. These anxieties and fears are adult, and when we ascribe them to children we are projecting. It is the adults who complain of "missing out" and "being behind" as they are applying their usual yardsticks. Of course, there will be some children who are not ok at home but we are being disingenuous if we say this is a majority. In any case these children have been welcome at school throughout.

@Lostmyshityear9 I am standing up and applauding you. Well said!