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

What pisses me off most about lockdown is that it was never about saving lives and all about not overwhelming the NHS. Well that time has passed and it is time to open up.

I say this as a Nurse who is wary of a second wave happening. At this point with every day policy changes in the NHS, BJ changing his mind every 5 minutes and mixed bloody signals with the instructions he does give I think it is time we moved forward.

I dont understand why If theres concerns about schools increasing community spread if fully opened alongside all the other relaxation measures...
Why schools couldn't be opened while keeping all non-essential businesses shut?
By doing that it reduces the risk to teachers and school staff as children and their parents are less likely to mingle with people outside the home who are potentially Covid positive, it always allows for a much better picture of the implications of schools and spread to be gained, whereas due to all the other relaxation of lockdown I imagine it will be difficult to gain a accurate picture of how schools opening influence and fit into the wider picture.

I too agree with a previous poster that I wouldn't want a teenager that I don't know and trust look after my kids. I read with interest an earlier reply about the creation of support network/bubbles. This in principle sounds good, but I can't see it happening fir the same reasons as to why hav8a random teenager do childminding. In my neighbourhood, I don't know most of my neighbours not out of choice, but purely because that is our society today, very isolated and lacking in community spirit. I also don't think they share my values as I see how they choose to live their lives and wouldn't want my kids to be minded by them and I wouldn't want to mind theirs either.

It is an awful dilemma but I'm not sure what options there are if schools can't be deemed safe.

It is nothing to do with teachers whether schools open. Please be aware that schools are not autonomous. They do what government guidelines tell them to do. A huge looming problem is summer childcare. This is because the usual clubs will not be open. Again this is not due to schools or teachers. Many teachers are in the same position of not having a bloody clue how they can do their job out of the home when they have no childcare either.

You been from the government ... not from schools!

Teachers with primary age kids need wraparound care too. How are they supposed to get to their teaching schools on time? Then how do schools function if they can't get staff because their staff's kid's school is only open part time?

I'm currently really frightened by what's going on around us. I'm a single parent, currently working from home but with a pay cut, so I have lost around £500 a month. My ex has decided to stop paying child support - not because he cant afford it but because he knows that CMS aren't chasing arrears at the moment, so we've also lost £350 per month in child support. The kids are eating me out of house and home, I'm sure they couldn't possibly have eaten this much when they were in school. I'll never moan about paying £10 a week for school dinners again.

I've cut back any bills I can and my company has just started talking about restructuring which will mean some redundancies. I'm trying to home educate 3 children, and luckily one of them is 14 so she's bearing the brunt of sitting with the littler ones while I work. Not so lucky for her but we're doing what we can to get by and I'd be lost without her.

Every day I'm up at 6am printing off lessons for the day - the school is sending as much material as possible which is really helpful but goodness knows what hours they're working as I get emails at 1am! My younger children are nursery and year 1 but still couldn't go back this month as keyworker children needed the spaces. I work all day and then the evenings are spent doing all the usual housework/cooking, plus more homework and checking what they've done in the day time. Then reading before bed because that's important too.

Then once they're in bed I'm back at work for the evening because with 75% of my company on furlough the remainder of us have to pick up extra work. I sometimes during the day (like now) get a chance to browse social media and some groups and get to see pics of all the wonderful walks/pictures/baking that some mums out there seem able to manage, and I repeatedly kick myself for thinking that keeping us alive is an achievement.

I'm living on 5 hours of sleep a night if I am lucky, and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight. I'll never take school and wrap around clubs for granted ever again. I just give thanks for the fact that my company hasn't yet started getting people back into the office.

Everything I hear from people I know indicates that women will unfortunately bear the brunt of this - facing the challenge of trying to work with schools still closed to most children, and limited options for working from home long term :(

Did anyone actually believe years 2,3,4 and 5 would be back in school this academic year? The problems just reintroducing the others made it obvious that wouldn't be happening.

I dont think its surprising that school wont open for the full years now I think many were prepared for it with a lot saying they wouldn't send them back until September anyway.

What needs to be done now is to be given exact plans and dates from September onwards so we can all plan and prepare the not knowing how long this will go on for it what is frustrating the most.
Plans for September must be made now and stuck too not delayed and last minute like it is now. If its going to be part time schooling or home schooling we need to know now, and if when the time does come and the full school can re open then thats a bonus.

I actually worry for the company my DH works for.

Hes in a department of two, his manager and himself (hes retraining and isnt technically qualified yet). If schools dont go back to normal, then his manager will not be able to come into the office on the days schools are off (lucky the company are as flexible as you can get), but this is concerning as if they decide they need to hire someone to cover his managers work from home days (as theres a lot that cant be done from home), they may potentially get rid of my DH to cover the costs of hiring someone who's already qualified?
Likewise my DH as part of retraining also has times hes required to attended education (think apprenticeship), so isnt able to plan to work in the office on opposite days to his manager, meaning the office will potentially be a dept down for a few days a week, and this means that things that require in person work will be unable to be completed. Which again adds worry as to whether they will need to hire someone else and thus make my DH redundant.

So the childcare issue come September also has larger consequences then just parents with young children, it could potentially have big knock on effects to entire companies, departments and coworkers.

If the government are thinking only 8% of employees have children which require childcare so we can forsake them.. they are utterly wrong, as the impact will go beyond just employees with young children without childcare.

@schoolsoutforcovid no, I wasn't surprised but it's the talk of only part time schooling in September that worries me.

'I wouldn't want a teenager that I don't know and trust look after my kids'.

Firstly, I don't think anyone is suggesting that you employ anyone that you don't trust to look after your kids! Teenager or not. Obviously, you choose someone you DO trust!

Secondly, of course it's your choice, but if the schools stay shut and people need to go back to work/employers stop being flexible/working is no longer possible with kids at home, being more flexible and creative with childcare solutions will be the only option.

It certainly isn’t about teachers not wanting to work, we are working - every day! It would be so much easier for us if schools were open, we could teach our normal classes and our children would be at their own school with wraparound care.

Interestingly we could have had 60 children returning to school yesterday (not including the 10-20 children we have had throughout the closure) 23 children were expected to return (5 of these were already part of our essential worker group) the other parents choosing not to send their children back to school due to not feeling confident that the risk is low enough to allow it.

Message your SMP, my husband did. It seems they are collating information.

It's so stupid. Let open pubs, riot and god knows what else. But you can't go to school.

I'm a swimming teacher so go back July I work for a leisure centre and also self employed teacher. We got told we may be given other jobs to do and are required to be flexible in regards to working hours upon their reopening. I'm not sure what I'm going to do, I only work 8 hours over 3 days as a top up and I do this around my self employed hours and my husband as we work back to back. I initially applied for the job because the hours advertised suited me however it's not financially feasible to put 3 dc in childcare especially when they need to be home schooled. I've sent a questionnaire off if it would affect my returning to work but ultimately I will have to leave if they cant accommodate. Theres many woman that are going to be in this situation.

And there it is, in the House of Commons just now, Gavin Williamson says the Government is 'working towards' getting all children back to school in September. WORKING TOWARDS!! #fml

I just cannot see how women can effectively home school and wfh . It’s literally doing two or more (depends on how many DC) full time jobs - only one of which most are familiar with. Plus generally speaking doing most of the housekeeping stuff. These women must be on their knees and it cannot be sustained.
I know schools aren’t a childcare service but our society has structured education which normally requires parents to ensure their children attend school.
Not all childminders are working, places are reserved for key workers children and vulnerable children.
I’m reasonably happy to home school my DGC but I’m early retired. However, I’m doing a lot with and for the DGC but no time for me. Part of my early retirement was so I could run, exercise and read every day. I can no longer do that. I’d never cope with wfh as well.

Every day I'm up at 6am printing off lessons for the day - the school is sending as much material as possible which is really helpful but goodness knows what hours they're working as I get emails at 1am! Yes I was checking GSs work this morning (I'm a naughty GP doing childcare for single parent frontline NHS worker) looked at what feedback he's had and for some work he submitted yesterday his teacher posted feedback before 6 am this morning.

I blame the unions and government for this. The unions have not directly made the decision but they have whipped up hysteria over safety and set the mood of teachers, parents and local authorities. It's a good job nurses, doctors, supermarket workers, delivery drivers and all the key workers didn't take the same attitude or the country would have ground to a halt. Teachers need to accept that their job comes with a small risk factor (as does mine and most other peoples) and that they're going to have to live with it in the short to medium term. The government is also completely dysfunctional, if they'd come up with a more robust plan they could have pushed this through and our children would be heading back to school now or in the near future. Where is the common sense?!? Where is the planning?!? What annoys me like many had said is that women will be adversely affected by this more than men.

We are Grandparents and if we don’t step up and help look after our grandchildren, then our son and daughter in law will end up losing their jobs. It’s not for the want of trying to organise other options.

@scunner completely understand. In the absence of any common sense from government it seems that we need to take decisions in to our own hands. You could create your own bubble and be insulated from the wider infection risk. I am a very compliant person but I'm considering all the options whilst balancing the risk to others.

I agree the Govt needs plan for Sept and that means giving education money to hire extra space. It wouldn’t work everywhere but locally we have enough unused conference and function rooms, sports and church halls etc to accommodate kids in small bubbles. Schools would need hire extra staff or recruit volunteers to man each venue alongside a qualified teacher. Lots of schools here have outdoor space where portacabins could be used to make extra teaching space. Schools have been given no extra money and told to deal with this from existing budgets. Councils should have been given much greater role from start as they have experience of this for eg in areas with severe flooding it’s councils that coordinate temporary venues. It would also provide an income for venues like conference centres or gyms which are currently shut. I would be surprised if some private schools don’t start hiring extra space for September. David Blunkett was on radio 4 1 o’clock news saying it’s a lack of political will to make it a priority and he would have expected extra funding and extra venues to be found to get children back. It will cost the Govt more if millions lose their salary and go onto benefits. There’s also a risk we will see unregistered schools and childcare arrangements springing up to fill the gap which are potentially unsafe and off the radar. If Govt can rent out large conference centres to build unused hospitals then why can’t they rent the same spaces to make temporary classrooms. Even in urban areas there are probably empty office spaces that could be used.

I agree, I’m lucky H isn’t back at work until July. I’m back next week. Our childminder can have our D.C too, otherwise we’d be stuffed. A lot of people that work with me cannot return due to childcare. I don’t know what the government is expecting everybody to do. No guidance for employers or employees

Women with partners will need to tell them to go pt, then both working pt, would be fair.