How the hell are parents meant to work?

[worzelsnurzel123]

With this latest blow from schools and yet further delays, I predict employers will cease to be “ fair” and they will run out of the patience BJ vaguely muttered about hoping they’d have. So what are the options?

1. Resign from jobs? This could have massive impact on income, likely to affect women and the future of women’s’ rights and progress in the workplace, creation of mental health issues and socio economic problems
2. Will some parents be pushed in to feeling the have no choice but to leave kids home alone? Esp those who are borderline age group eg 8-12. Not ideal at all. Clearly this will impact on MH, safety, parental work performance.
3. Leave kids with grandparents who are likely to be over 70 in many cases, shielding or vulnerable. Risks of passing the virus on would lead to guilt , worry on both sides.
4. Wait for everything to fuck up work wise, scrabble for child care here there and everywhere, lose employers good will due to time off needed and eventually get dismissed for poor attendance, breach of conduct and or poor performance

This is a disgrace. An absolute disgrace

I started back work last week, my 9 yr old DS comes with me, I work 2 days in our family business, my 14 & 17 yr old DD & DS stay at home, I have also started looking after my GD 2 days a week because my eldest DD has had to go back to work, I’m lucky I’m a young grandparent!

there was always going to be people who are pushed into pvoerty because of lockdown it was clear from the start, people who lost their businesses will lose their homes too so your problems aren't any more important than whats happening to those who don't have kids.

There was a good article stating that only 1 in 4 children went back to school where they had the option. So clearly alot of parents are not wanting to take the risk

Yet working parents are making it out that it's so unfair to them like they are the ones having to give up so much. If you life might mean no more holidays, a bit more having to cut out some extra luxuries then so be it.

Yep, I work for luxuries. Like paying the mortgage, putting food on the table, Buying shoes fit my kids feet, those kinds of luxuries. We by no means live an abstemious lifestyle, but the impact for my DH or I to lose our job would be much more than a holiday not taken, or a takeaway meal missed.

I'm a single parent of nearly 7 year old and have ended up on full benefits.. work said i have to come back now, school wouldn't have my daugter back as not key worker so.. no, byebye job

@LifesTooShortForYourNonsense that’s good 😊It could potentially work for me too, as I have (so far) a flexible employer and can wfh 2/3 days a week. I’m fully aware that’s not suitable fit everyone/majority though, of course.

I’m luckily part time so am spreading my hour over 6 days instead of three. I’m a key worker but Dd school would only give her a place if both parents were key workers. I’ve been wfh but my employer has run out of patience and they are making people go Back into the office. I am having to go in one day a week. We aren’t allowed to leave the kids (2 and 8) with grandparents due to age. So with school refusing to give a place what am I supposed to do? Last week my husband had to do his conference calls with the kids all screaming in the background because I had had to go to work. We are faced with at least 12 weeks of this. My employer may also demand further attendance at work. What do I do? I have a mortgage and bills. I’m not allowed to be furloughed because I’m a key worker but school won’t provide any care and there will be no childcare over the summer either. Totally stuck!!!

@mummytraveller 😨I’m so sorry.

I’ll basically have to choose between my job and shutting my kids in a cupboard for 3 months

Journalists are asking questions on this issue this evening...thank goodness..

@mummytraveller sorry to hear that. I'm afraid I might be in your position come September.

I totally appreciate teachers will be best placed to know what will/won’t work - but I’ve seen very little suggestions as to how to make things work tbh. The general vibe on here (from most, not all) has been basically, tough shit to working parents

According to NM teachers, parents just want to get rid of their "little darlings" because they are annoying!
Nothing to do with god forbid the need for education. And yep that dreaded child care that was in place until March and people did build their working life around it... Nope we just hate our children and don't want anything to do with them, that's why we send them to school.

Our school - being proactive and thinking they were due to open, rang around all parents in the school years they were going to open up to first. Nursery, year 1, year 2, year 5 and year 6. Taking into consideration the statistics on young children contracting the virus, the need for our child to see his friends and the social contact, we decided we would say yes to him attending. A week later our school announced they could not open to nursery children as a majority of parents had said no to their children going back. How can schools go back when one minute adults are moaning kids can’t go back to school and the next they’re refusing to let their kids attend once they know they can go back?

I’m with you on this. I started my new job two weeks before lockdown. I am therefore on probation. Quite frankly the pressure of trying to maintain a good standard of working so I pass probation and homeschool my eight year old is a joke. I work in Insurance, I’m insanely busy dealing with business all day long that are frantically trying to claim on their policies for the financial difficulty imposed by lockdown. I can’t sit and teach my DD at the same time. Subsequently she’s hugely behind and I fear will really struggle when she goes back to school, whenever that may be.
I also really worry that children from single parent families who’s parent may be working from home will be severely behind when they go back, through no fault of anyone’s.
I must admit seeing my daughters school friends posting all their completed work on google classroom all day is really starting to get me down, I feel like a total failure but putting food on the table and a roof over our heads has to come first.
This is all such a mess. If absolutely necessary For me to return to the office I could put my daughter with our childminder but I haven’t got the £800 a month it would cost me to do so!!

Considering the latest comments from science types that kids who catch it without underlying health issues are extremely unlikely to be very ill or worse, it's ridiculous
But the issue here isn't the safety of kids, it's the chronic and continuous under funding in schools, the fact lots of teachers have left the career due to shit wages and conditions, lots of schools have huge numbers in inner city areas and lack of class space to put Social Distancing in place.
The lack of foresight is shocking, and not with a pandemic, in general the birth rate and population is and has grown year on year, so the fact they've not invested in key public services has really come into focus here, eg, NHS, housing, schools, etc.

Kids need to go back and those teachers who are low risk should be found and teaching them. If they need to ask staff who quit just like they did with the NHS then they should.

This is an absolute disgrace! The left wing Unions are to blame, and on their heads be it, when many poor women have to either leave their jobs voluntarily or get the bullet. I can't sympathise enough with everyone that is in this situation where they need to get their children back in to mainstream education, not just for their own sanity, but for the childrens too. What sort of life will they have if Mum loses her job! I think the risk is overrated, so am completely with getting the kiddos back to school and resuming their education. They will be so behind, the poor little loves, I feel so sad about all this. Sympathies to all concerned!!!!

If you have been working from home for the last few months there is no reason for that to change as it has been working it is a reasonable request to continue to do so at least most of the time.

This has nothing to do with saving lives and everything to do with saving the economy before that is added to BJ's list of failings

If you have been working from home for the last few months there is no reason for that to change as it has been working

Have you asked WFH parents of young children whether the situation "has been working" for them for the past few months?

I agree, especially when they say only part time child care. How’s that going to help with my full time job. Bloody joke

@Clearaschristal

This is an absolute disgrace! The left wing Unions are to blame, and on their heads be it, when many poor women have to either leave their jobs voluntarily or get the bullet. I can't sympathise enough with everyone that is in this situation where they need to get their children back in to mainstream education, not just for their own sanity, but for the childrens too. What sort of life will they have if Mum loses her job! I think the risk is overrated, so am completely with getting the kiddos back to school and resuming their education. They will be so behind, the poor little loves, I feel so sad about all this. Sympathies to all concerned!!!!

Sorry but "left wing unions" Unions exist to ensure their membership is well respected. There has been no respect shown to teachers and schools, the conflicting info given to our kids secondary has been ridiculous, it changes daily. Every time they think they're ready, they change again. Also if you have people in the at risk group, where do they stand? If hospitals had issue getting PPE then God knows how schools will source it. It's also very difficult to police children too young to understand why they can't hug their mates let alone sit next to them

I agree kids need to go back but as with the government's entire mismanagement of this entire situation, the fault lies with them

Bonus how do you know it has been working?

@cyclingmad

Tough shits to working parents...well I think everyone needs to realise lots of different people are having to make sacrifices some have lost their business or jobs already, some are going to stuck with no opportunity to move upward in their role for some time, some might have to take a pay cut, unemployed will find it harder to find jobs. Yet working parents are making it out that it's so unfair to them like they are the ones having to give up so much. If you life might mean no more holidays, a bit more having to cut out some extra luxuries then so be it.

I couldn't agree less with this. My situation is unspeakable, as I lost my job overnight mid March, thanks to the sodding, bastarding, stupid lockdown.

However: I still believe working parents who are trying to do their jobs and educate their children are having the most horrendous time of all.

When I think back to what life was like during the "Mummmmmeeeeeee" years, and what my job was like, there is no way on Earth that the two would have been compatible.

In fact, I became a SAHM until the youngest went to school precisely because I couldn't do my job and look after the children.

It is not possible to be your child's working parent and also be their full-time teacher. I am absolutely furious about this issue.

infections so low and seemingly track and trace in place why would schools remain part time?
Because infections arent that low in reality, they are lower then they were though. It would work IF we had a workable track and trace in place, but as it stands currently there isnt a workable and effective track and trace. If theres one by september things might look different. But it also depends on people willing to interact with track and trace, which unfortunately I've seen a scary amount of people all claiming they would absolutely refuse to engage with it.

Another issue is that it seems generally parents arent getting their children tested which means there isnt a accurate picture of how children are implicated in the spread of Covid. Of all the schools that have reported staff or parents having Covid, none of the news articles mentioned the kids being tested. Long as children are not being tested, the less we know about children and spreading Covid the more we have to act on the side of caution when dealing with hypotheticals

If you have been working from home for the last few months there is no reason for that to change as it has been working it is a reasonable request to continue to do so at least most of the time.

It really has not been working here. Both my husband and I have full time jobs in industries that are much more busy due to the pandemic. I have cried almost every day because of the stress, I get chest pains when I think about us trying to do this until September. My work are unbelievably understanding and so are his but the guilt that we are failing our primary age children is huge.

@Clearaschristal

This is an absolute disgrace! The left wing Unions are to blame, and on their heads be it, when many poor women have to either leave their jobs voluntarily or get the bullet. I can't sympathise enough with everyone that is in this situation where they need to get their children back in to mainstream education, not just for their own sanity, but for the childrens too. What sort of life will they have if Mum loses her job! I think the risk is overrated, so am completely with getting the kiddos back to school and resuming their education. They will be so behind, the poor little loves, I feel so sad about all this. Sympathies to all concerned!!!!

Please place the blame were it squarely lies... at the feet of the government.

The reason these threads go round and round in circles is that the government are the only ones with the power to change the situation. But frustrated parents shout at unions and teachers and schools, frustrated teachers get defensive and shout back, but absolutely no one in any of these roles can do a single thing about the situation. Teachers and subsequently schools do not have the power to change things. They are fully dependent on the government. Frankly the unions are probably trying to get the government to actually move and do SOMETHING as the government otherwise seems utterly content to forget about the school issue. Unions may not be in favour with working parents right now, but there priority is the safety of staff and students within schools. That's the point of any union dedicated to a singular sector/profession. The only reason unions have had to get involved is due to the government being happy to do frankly sod all thinking behind the issue.

Individual schools, teachers have absolutely no control over the situation. From what I've read on numerous threads, teachers are as frustrated as parents with the whole situation.

As a PP said prior, this is really the culmative effect of years of underfunding and neglect of the education system in the UK. And the governments clear and blatant disregard for working parents and "state education".

If you cannot work from home, then I suspect schools officially have to let your child attend, whatever year group they're in. Please don't all shout me down on this. Schools are open for children of key workers, vulnerable and SEN. They've begun to open for students who can't work successfully from home for whatever reason. If you are under pressure to return to work, I would be working with the school so the child can go into school.