Will you Christmas isolate if your child is sent home?

[DBML]

I was just wondering...

If your child is sent home from school to self-isolate in the last week before Christmas, will you stick to the isolate period even if it interrupts your festive plans?

I am a teacher and so I’m never required to isolate no matter which year groups we send home. Therefore, I’ll be ok to mix with family and friends over the Christmas period.

My year 11 son is halfway through his 3rd isolation period right now and the last time, he was back in school just a few days before being sent home again.

He’s spent months cooped up in the house, unable to see his grandparents or cousins and only socialising via online games.

He goes back to school next week and I’m hellbent on him having a Christmas to look forward to, more so because he’s so excited (and he hasn’t been this excited since he was about 9) So, I am not sure I would stick to any self isolation period. I work at the same school as my son attends atm, so if I don’t have to isolate it seems ludicrous that he should.

My parents are young and fit, but I do have grandparents in their 80s who are also insisting on being involved this Christmas. They are depressed, fed up of not seeing anyone and damned if they are not joining in the festivities. They will not be told no. So I’m leaning towards keeping my son off anyway, though as a teacher I’m despairing at how much school he’s missed compared to other year 11s nationally.

How are others going to manage the sensitive issue of year groups/ classes being sent home in the last week?

That should be ‘I’ll be “OK” to mix’ according to my school.

If he’s sent home we’ll isolate for the 2 weeks. We are planning on seeing grandparents after Christmas when we have isolated for 10 days but we wouldn’t put them at risk.

Dd finishes on 11th December and although ds isn't due to finish until 18th he's in on a one week on, one week off basis at the moment so 14th-18th is totally online for him, so it shouldn't affect Christmas.

@Comefromaway

That’s very lucky! I hope you manage to have a lovely time!

I'm very impressed with how his college has handled covid. (much more so than dd and dh's schools/college) Mind you I can't see them making it til christmas so many teachers and students have it.

My eldest finishes on the 11th, so would be just about ok for Christmas Day anyway, the other two on the 18th. If any are told to isolate than we will, the risk of it happening was a factor in us deciding to have Christmas Day alone. I think we may try and see the ILs on the 27th, but at worst we would have to cancel. My parents are local so it is easy to be flexible on when we meet them outside

Yes.

Yes we would as we’re only planning to see GPs and wouldn’t see them if there was any reason to think any of us may have covid.

But in that situation we might well have an alternative Christmas meet up across new year/early Jan once isolation period was over - I know that’s not the official window but as long as we are only mixing once does it matter which exact dates it is?

We won;t be doing much. Fil has decided it isn;t safe to come for xmas dinner despite hism being eleigible to be a support bubble with us (he is a lone carer for mil with dementia) and I can't see my parent's agreeing to only see us and not my brother and his family and my brother's wife will want to see her parents.

There’s such a lot of pressure. Mum has gone nuts as usual and ordered a feast for everyone. My grandparents live with my parents anyway. To just ‘cancel’ would be such a waste a time and money.

I think I’ll have to send DS back next week and then not send him in the week after.
Meanwhile, I am always going to be the risk carrier as I’m not entitled to isolate. Short of tucking myself away on my own just in case, I suppose I’ll just get on with things.

It is difficult because if they send the whole year group home to isolate then he probably has more chance of picking it up in a supermarket. But the rules are there and I would never forgive myself if I passed it on to a family member.
I am worrying about needing to isolate over Christmas but it is what it is.

Yes, they send the whole year group.

Yes, I discussed with DM this morning, we will isolate and will have Christmas Day once isolation is over

If one of DC have to isolate then we don't have Christmas day with grandparents. It's that simple. Before we meet up on Christmas day we're all taking our temperature that morning. We're quite prepared to change plans at the 11th hour.

We finish on the 11th so we'd be fine anyway. If we finished later and were told to isolate though then I would definitely isolate. I'm not mixing households anyway, just seeing my sister and her husband and child who are my support bubble. But we wouldn't see even them if we were isolating.

I am a teacher and so I’m never required to isolate no matter which year groups we send home

This intrigues me. Why not? I'm a teacher too and, although we haven't had any real cases of Covid in school so no isolations required, we've had a couple of 'Covid drills' where we've pretended certain children or staff had it and traced their contacts. I would definitely have had to isolate. For one of our Year 8 test cases, 21 members of staff would have had to isolate. I don't understand how you would never need to. Are you just really good at distancing?

@DBML

There’s such a lot of pressure. Mum has gone nuts as usual and ordered a feast for everyone. My grandparents live with my parents anyway. To just ‘cancel’ would be such a waste a time and money.

But we are in a pandemic? There will always be an element of risk. Could your mum drop food round to you if you end up isolating?

Yes. Of course, it’s not hard for me to say that as we’re not planning to see anyone over Xmas anyway.

I think you would need to be 100% clear with everyone, especially so those who have the most to lose can take a rational decision. or something approaching rational in this crazy season and situation!

@manicinsomniac

Apparently we should be 2m away at all times, so no need to isolate.

@Hugosmugo

You clearly don’t know my mother.

@stovetopespresso

I have been clear. Everyone knows what I do.

Both of my Dc are currently isolating (1 week over lap) if it happens again before Xmas then we won’t be seeing anyone

Yes, of course. Xmas is just one day, we can do it in February or April if we need to.

To me, making sure people are safe is more important.

There’s such a lot of pressure. Mum has gone nuts as usual and ordered a feast for everyone. My grandparents live with my parents anyway. To just ‘cancel’ would be such a waste a time and money.

Just risk killing your grandparents then. I'd much sooner kill my grandparents at Christmas then waste £150 on a food shop. Besides, I've already made the pudding.