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Original poster

If they put a stop households mixing...

232 replies

musicalfrog · 19/09/2020 19:40

What do those of us relying on grandparents for babysitting do? Could those in already restricted areas shed any light on this perhaps please? Thanks.

OP posts:
SoUtterlyGroundDown · 19/09/2020 21:03

@Redwinestillfine

We are not letting grandparents help out anymore anyway due to the increased risk to over 70's. I don't know many who are.
Well luckily my children’s grandparents aren’t in their 70’s. My mum is 59 (and works part time in the NHS, which is where she caught Covid... not from us).
StealthPolarBear · 19/09/2020 21:04

I'm in the North East and stopping grandparent pick up. I'm lucky as that's possible for me.
Gwnuine question, what did people do when select years went back in June?

Nixen · 19/09/2020 21:04

@BikeTyson

This is a massive lesson in why people shouldn’t be relying on family to provide their routine childcare!

Helpful Hmm I guess we should all have used our crystal balls to factor a pandemic into our career and family planning decisions.

My point is maybe after this people should give more thought to their family planning and not have children they can’t afford?

What would all these people relying on family childcare do if that family member dropped dead? Surely most adults plan for emergencies no?

BikeTyson · 19/09/2020 21:04

We are not letting grandparents help out anymore anyway due to the increased risk to over 70's. I don't know many who are.

Perhaps because my DC are preschool age but I don’t know anyone where the grandparents in question are over 70. Many, my own included, still work part time.

Hercwasonaroll · 19/09/2020 21:04

My parents aren't over 70.

Seems like one thing they will turn a blind eye to.

uglyface · 19/09/2020 21:05

And, for those people who piously say that others shouldn’t ‘rely’ on family for childcare, my MIL nagged us for years about when we were going to have children so she could retire and look after them. My DP is older than me, and we had to wait until my career was established/endure years of fertility treatment before conceiving. Poor MIL waited long enough, and she won’t be giving up her days with DD until she absolutely has to.

SoUtterlyGroundDown · 19/09/2020 21:05

My point is maybe after this people should give more thought to their family planning and not have children they can’t afford?

Hmm we can afford alternative childcare. My parents did it as they asked.
I could pay for them all to go into alternative childcare tomorrow... all our local options are full.

Littleguggi · 19/09/2020 21:05

I'm in a non local lockdown area and was also under the impression grandparents weren't allowed to provide childcare unless they were a single grandparent and in your bubble. For this reason we haven't had any childcare support from grandparents since March. Next week however I was planning on resuming this for 2 days per week, as DH will be returning to the office, and I am an NHS employee and have to go to work. Now with all the upheaval, I don't know what to do. Do I pay for an additional 2 days of nursery? Or do a break rules and allow grandparents to provide the childcare whilst we work? It's just so confusing!

EweSurname · 19/09/2020 21:05

littlera At my nursery the staff weren’t happy with grandparents picking up or dropping off as they didn’t want any more risk so only a member of the household or support bubble can do drop offs/pick ups.

StealthPolarBear · 19/09/2020 21:06

No. You assume that the likelihood of parent or in law dropping dead at short notice is unlikely and that if it happened you would be able to call on friends and family to help.
What happens if your nursery closes because of norovirus, or your childminder drops dead?
What a very odd comment.

LittleRa · 19/09/2020 21:06

@Nixen

This is a massive lesson in why people shouldn’t be relying on family to provide their routine childcare!
Why shouldn’t they be? My DD loves getting collected by my mum and dad, has a lovely close relationship with her Grandparents, they equally enjoy seeing her regularly. They can stop at the park on the way home, bring her back to my house, make her tea and play with her, read with her etc. Pre-Covid they also sometimes collected a friend with her to come home for a teatime play date. Plus it saves me money. Can’t really see any downside (present unprecedented circumstances excepted)?
Hercwasonaroll · 19/09/2020 21:06

What would all these people relying on family childcare do if that family member dropped dead? Surely most adults plan for emergencies no?

The point is not all grandparents drop dead at once needing an entire country to access other childcare.
If they did drop dead, I'd take some compassionate leave, and probably fund childcare from the inheritance.

Theimpossiblegirl · 19/09/2020 21:06

@Nixen

This is a massive lesson in why people shouldn’t be relying on family to provide their routine childcare!
Really? Lucky we all have money trees in our gardens then.

You're coming across as a bit of a twat here tbh.

Original poster
musicalfrog · 19/09/2020 21:07

@Nixen

This is a massive lesson in why people shouldn’t be relying on family to provide their routine childcare!
Why shouldn't we? Many people do it because both grandkids and grandparents enjoy spending time together. Not always a money saving exercise!
OP posts:
LST · 19/09/2020 21:07

@nixen can't afford? So if you dont need childcare you have to be able to afford it anyway to be able to have kids? As others have said... piss off

BikeTyson · 19/09/2020 21:08

  • My point is maybe after this people should give more thought to their family planning and not have children they can’t afford? What would all these people relying on family childcare do if that family member dropped dead? Surely most adults plan for emergencies no?*

It’s not just about money though, is it? I can afford to pay for that extra day via paid childcare, but it’s not available because childminders and nurseries are full. For those with school age children, after school clubs/breakfast clubs are full or haven’t reopened. In normal circumstances if my parents dropped dead, it wouldn’t also be the case that every other set of working parents in the region was requiring paid childcare too so I imagine I’d be able to get some. You can plan for an emergency, but people don’t plan for the same emergency to be happening to everyone at the same time.

Have a fucking word with yourself Hmm

StealthPolarBear · 19/09/2020 21:08

Little ra you should be complete and utterly self sufficient apparently.
Part of the reason dh and I decided to have children when we did was we had young, healthy parents who were desperate to become grandparents and would get involved and, yes, help us. So shoot us.

Italiandreams · 19/09/2020 21:09

Yes, we should all thought ahead to a worldwide pandemic!
My son loves being looked after by his grandparents, they love it too. It’s fits our working hours much better and childcare is expensive. Lots of people need to rely on family to provide childcare as it is the only way they can work and and pay the bills.

StealthPolarBear · 19/09/2020 21:09

Oh and weve paid for childcare since I went back when ds was 12 months. But we've also gratefully received regular help from both sets of grandparents

DCIRozHuntley · 19/09/2020 21:10

I hope Nixen has plans for in case nursery burns down, childminder breaks leg etc. You're such a successful adult and those of us who rely on our parents (mine, by the way, are in their 50s and actively want to do childcare for my kids) are just so deeply stupid.

Your smug ittle "no?" reveals you to be a spiteful person.

Hercwasonaroll · 19/09/2020 21:10

Why did you all not plan for a pandemic? Are you really that unprepared? (said no one EVER apart from Nixen).

PhilSwagielka · 19/09/2020 21:11

@musicalfrog

What do those of us relying on grandparents for babysitting do? Could those in already restricted areas shed any light on this perhaps please? Thanks.
That's a very good question. One of my friends relies on her parents for childcare and if they can't look after her kids, she's fucked. Same with my cousin, my auntie and uncle are in a support bubble with him and his family and they babysit when he and his gf are at work.
Nixen · 19/09/2020 21:12

😂 clearly hit a few nerves

SueEllenMishke · 19/09/2020 21:12

My point is maybe after this people should give more thought to their family planning and not have children they can’t afford?
What would all these people relying on family childcare do if that family member dropped dead? Surely most adults plan for emergencies no?

Are people really this stupid bad oblivious to how things are actually working in the real world????

iluvgab · 19/09/2020 21:12

I am in another country and a higher court ruled that the government acted unlawfully when they imposed restrictions on how many people could meet in their own homes. They said that this was an encroachment on our right to our private lives.
This meant that since the ruling the government in this country have not been able to make laws about how many people can meet in their own private property; no banning partners who live in separate homes from meeting and no bubble type laws.
Our country has just toughened up the laws for meeting in public - no more than 10 people allowed to meet but they have stated "except in private homes". They have stated that it is a recommendation that people do not hold gatherings of more than 10 in their own homes and that they hope people will be sensible and considerate for the greater good.

I wonder what would happen if there was a legal challenge in the UK about these rules of six and bubbles etc.