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

And no, you don't all have to work ft, there's plenty managing without, and educating their children.

I don’t work full time, in fact I’m barely working part time at the moment. I can educate my children but it’s not where my strengths lie - my D.C. both have additional support needs, as in special educational needs. I’m not trained to adapt teaching to suit my child’s particular way of processing information so I’m feeling my way around a specialist area of education. I don’t prioritise work before my children, but my work is there in the mix.

Part of educating my children is educating them about discrimination, equality of opportunity and respect which means them seeing me developing my career in my own right - having them right to chose whether to work or not. It’s important that they see that everyone contributes to the household according to their ability, and that their dad and I make equal contribution across the house. It’s important that my daughter knows she has choice, and that education opens doors for her and increases her life chances. All life lessons that develop a work ethic and value base - which schools can’t teach.

Yes I need to house, feed and clothe my children, I pay for their education through the tax system - I’m not then prepared to give up my job and have them live on the breadline because the government won’t meet their commitment to education provision.

Ignore Devlesko she’s spouted this shit before.

Yes, on pretty much every thread. ALWAYS on about how people work FT for fun or to punish their kids, it's hilarious.

I also love how ‘educating our children’ is something we’re now supposed to magically just pick up (on top of everything else of course).

I didn’t train as a teacher. My understanding was that it is a skilled profession, requiring training and experience. So not something I should just be able to ‘do’.

Am I wrong to think that? Is teaching actually a piece of piss that anyone can do at a moments notice? Well that has implications.

Wow, just wow. Wonder what she thinks of single parents struggling on one wage. They must be having a breeze on a 'balanced spreadsheet'!

I can only educate my child because luckily he's KS1. If he was at secondary school I'd be fucked. I did badly at school and have no qualifications. There will be many other parents like me who don't have the knowledge needed to help their children.

We've had a letter from school today that basically says that they're not opening for anybody at all , even R/Yr1/Yr6 this school year and will just keep the keyworker provision going as they have been. They're currently 'working towards' a September return #fml

Is teaching actually a piece of piss that anyone can do at a moments notice? Well that has implications

Teaching your own child in the comfort of your own home using pre-prepared resources that are aimed at their level and understanding is absolutely a piece of piss compared with doing the same job with 31 others in the same room, all at slightly different levels, all with their own quirks, demands, and interests and ability to sit still and where you are expected to meet those demands on a lesson by lesson basis or be held accountable by the Ofsted gods.

Teaching your own child in the comfort of your own home using pre-prepared resources that are aimed at their level and understanding is absolutely a piece of piss

And what if you’re not getting any resources? Or they’re woefully inadequate? And you’re doing it while holding down your own demanding job?

Teaching a child while trying to do your own very demanding job is not a piece of piss.
Try seeing things from someone else's perspective.

carry on moaning about your lot then, no helping some folk.
Don't do anything to change your situation, no skin of my nose, I did something to change mine, which is how you live on next to nothing.
Career wasn't important to me though, so didn't have to sacrifice a good life for the hum drum.

@Flower246

Lots of parents seem to be reclassifying themselves as key workers to get their kids back to school. The definition is very loose so can be interpreted to their advantage. Doesn’t seem fair.

I could well be one of the parents you are talking about, although not sure I'd say I've reclassified myself. Always been covered (in England anyway) just chosen not to use the provision as we've limped along. Now it's becoming increasingly unfeasible so sent my son back into school. Can see it might look weird to some as I might not appear crucial in the short term but long term my job is needed to ensure we can return to normal. I would direct your anger towards the government not towards other parents choosing to use the provision available.

We should radically reimagine childcare and education. Childcare and education should be thought of as two different issues so that we appreciate the importance of both.

We need excellent state-subsidised childcare for young children whose parents need to work outside the home. Grandparents and childminders can also look after children during traditional school hours. Employers must adapt so that parents can be at home sometimes during traditional working hours for their children or children can go to work with them and study where possible.

The educational model of 25 kids in a classroom with a mediocre local teacher is outdated. Children should not have to go to school to study all subjects in person. Some sessions can be taught online and students can follow them at home and elsewhere such as at a grandparent’s house or in a childcare setting or community centre or library or sports centre or at designated site in their parent’s place of work. I read that Eton is providing all their year 10 and 12 teaching materials online to state schools for free. I could see my secondary school kids going to school for a short time each day for sports, music, clubs, art, and science labs but otherwise working independently at home and using nationally available online teaching resources. They could collaborate with other students on group projects without being in a school setting.

I could see children who don’t have a safe and appropriate home environment spending more time in school settings doing a combination of national online courses and small face to face tutor groups. The ratio of teacher to pupil would favour them if many kids were able to study from home/gran’s/a community centre etc.

@Devlesko

carry on moaning about your lot then, no helping some folk. Don't do anything to change your situation, no skin of my nose, I did something to change mine, which is how you live on next to nothing. Career wasn't important to me though, so didn't have to sacrifice a good life for the hum drum.

I mean you've still not given us any helpful suggestions of how we can do that?

And what if you’re not getting any resources? Or they’re woefully inadequate? And you’re doing it while holding down your own demanding job?

Oak Academy? Bite size? Twinkl? Three million other websites that are currently free (and there is a list of them that was made somewhere on here early lockdown, contributed to by lots of teachers). There have been countless timetables produced and shared to social media taking different years through a day with different activities they can find online/on TV. Most have worksheets etc. attached to them. I manage to teach full time whilst making sure my children are educated as well. And I'm a single parent. You're not the only people with demands being made of you, are you? Or are we playing lockdown demanding job top trumps?

No all careers are hum drum.....
Why should women ( and let's face it , we are predominantly talking women here) sacrifice their career because the government has sufficiently failed to consider the impact of keeping schools and childcare providers closed for such a long period of time.

I've always been happy working full-time. I have a career that offers a great deal of flexibility ( I do the school run 3x a week, never missed an assembly etc) but in order for me to continue working we need school and childcare provision....or least to be able to use grandparents.

I'm not moaning about my job. I'm lucky, I'll be able to WFH and flexibly as long as needed - but others aren't so lucky.
Plus I'm bloody exhausted and Ds is lonely.

*failed to sufficiently consider even.

I'm so exhausted I don't even make sense anymore

SueEllen

That's where we differ, I think both parents working shorter hours is far better for women and their kids.
You can't raise your kids to think Mum is the one to give up work, feminism goes out of the window and you end up resenting your partner as they didn't give up.

Oak Academy? Bite size? Twinkl?

None of which is tailored to my child’s class, much less my child.

But if we’re going to talk about all the resources out there, which are for me to navigate and supervise, then I begin to wonder what the role of the class teacher is?

Not my DH earns twice as much as me. Us both working part hours would mean a significantly lower household income compared to me giving up completely.
Plus neither of us would be granted part time hours....it would be career suicide for us both.
Believe me....equality is my thing. My entire career is based on understanding and promoting women's career development. It's my research area and I'm devastated at the impact this going to have fit women in the workplace.

I think it's an individual couples decision that shouldn't be made on financial reasons.
Men usually out earn women because women have the babies, not right but fact.
Nothing is going to change until a woman treats her career as equal to her partners.
It's up to both parents to raise the kids, not just mum in between her career and housework. Family life is important for everyone and kids need both parents to take an equal share. I hardly ever see or hear of this equal share.
We are going backwards, women were faring better in the 80's and 90's.

Laurie

Your child must be a unicorn and you are a particularly disengaged parent if you can't find something suitable for your child with the resources available, especially twinkl. If that's the way you look at it, the national curriculum isn't tailored for your child.

This is actually a chance to set your child work that is specifically chosen for them. In school they have to do something approximately challenging (but not too much) for the class. Half an hour with your child would tell me exactly what they needed to be focusing on and a further half an hour would be identifying resources that would keep them learning and stretching for a week. Actually supervising that takes time and that's a problem but what you're describing as a problem shouldn't be a problem for a privileged parent (with a username like that you clearly have advantages) who is appropriately supportive in 'peace time'.

My career is equal to my husband's ( which is why I'm not quitting or going part time!) despite him earning double my salary.
We share childcare, housework and family responsibilities.
We both do the school run and take share sick days.
We will make sure this situation doesn't impact either of our careers as far as we can.

But as I said...this is my area of research. I'm interested in what's happening across the board and unfortunately it's not looking great for women.

I earn about the same as DH. We simply couldn't afford to loose around 50% of our income. Even if we were to downsize, only have on car and eat cheap supermarket food. We'd struggle financially. And quite honest, been there, done that- never again. Thanks. Get DC back to school, parents back to work and the economy rolling!

@Devlesko

I think it's an individual couples decision that shouldn't be made on financial reasons. Men usually out earn women because women have the babies, not right but fact. Nothing is going to change until a woman treats her career as equal to her partners. It's up to both parents to raise the kids, not just mum in between her career and housework. Family life is important for everyone and kids need both parents to take an equal share. I hardly ever see or hear of this equal share. We are going backwards, women were faring better in the 80's and 90's.

We are equal in terms of childcare etc in normal times. In fact I've probably put my career first but he still earns more than me. It's just the industries we both work in.

We can't survive on one wage full stop. That's not because I haven't put my career first we just wouldn't have enough money to pay the bills.

I mean you still haven't told me how I can so ..

It's all very well banging on about how male partners should be sharing the load equally with mothers here, but in real terms all those of us with primary aged children who are struggling now are more likely to have paused our careers recently for maternity leave/been part-time during the early years, so we are less likely to have equal salaries. In the worst economic crisis in living memory, we're all going to prioritise the biggest wage packet, that's just common sense.