Who is not sending their dc to nursery?

[rolliy]

There has been 1 or 2 threads about who can access a space at schools & how they are overrun as everyone is now a critical worker.

The main concern is that this will not bring the R rate down.

However nurseries, pre school, childminders etc are open. So I presume lots of people are not using that provision?

Keeping nurseries open is a political decision not a scientific one. The government wants nurseries open so parents can work, and so they don’t have to pay for nursery places that aren’t being used. Of course they’re not safe - but safety isn’t the priority here. Money is.

Yup, this. I'm keeping DD off because (with some effort) I can. I am doing my best to do interesting things with her that are a bit closer to what she might do at nursery, so that she doesn't miss out, because she loves the interaction with other kids at nursery as well as painting, messy play etc. So keeping her off is to her slight detriment IMO, but in the context of 1 in 30 people testing positive in London that seems like a fair trade off.

Obviously lots of people can't, but my position broadly is that if you can you should.

I’m at home anyway so we’ve pulled our pre-schooler out. Will see what the local numbers look like towards the end of January...

@SpikySara

Keeping nurseries open is a political decision not a scientific one. The government wants nurseries open so parents can work, and so they don’t have to pay for nursery places that aren’t being used. Of course they’re not safe - but safety isn’t the priority here. Money is.

I actually think it's the reverse. The data seems to suggest that nurseries do not significantly contribute to transmission rates (and I mean data not anecdata) therefore closing them would have limited impact on the R number. Hence it would be a futile gesture designed to appease those calling for a harsher lockdown with significant consequences with little benefit.

@mynameiscalypso we are in our second (and much worse)wave ,with a new highly transmissible variant of the virus. There is no mass testing of under 5s therefore it is absolutely impossible to say that they are not spreading the virus. It is perfectly possible that under 5s would be asymptomatic. I doubt there is any credible up to date data based on the new variant.

[quote missyB1]@mynameiscalypso we are in our second (and much worse)wave ,with a new highly transmissible variant of the virus. There is no mass testing of under 5s therefore it is absolutely impossible to say that they are not spreading the virus. It is perfectly possible that under 5s would be asymptomatic. I doubt there is any credible up to date data based on the new variant.[/quote]
I totally get that but we can only make decisions based on the data that we have - not on hypotheticals. Incidentally, almost every under 5 I know has been tested multiple times over the last few months due to the normal series of coughs and colds they get. Although - clearly - that is just anecdata so shouldn't be used to make any decisions!

myname the Gov coronavirus dashboard has a breakdown by age per area if you want one. In my area (London) 0-5s are testing positive.

@EssentialHummus

myname the Gov coronavirus dashboard has a breakdown by age per area if you want one. In my area (London) 0-5s are testing positive.

Oh yes, of course some of them get it. I realise that. But the numbers are not massively significant and the role in transmission appears - based on what I've seen - to be more limited (although of course possible)

I'm sending my toddler in. I've given up my job to look after my other toddler who is too young for nursery so I don't have to ask my parents to, so in theory I can look after both at home myself. But the little one is still up half the night and sleeps half the day, so the big one ends up on screens while the little one naps. She misses her friends. She did months of staying at home with a baby all summer and now the nursery is open and there is a place for her.
I don't want to be a risk to the nursery workers who I have the utmost respect for. My husband works from home. We have cut our own contacts completely (because we can) so apart from going to the supermarket that's it, we don't do anything else. We aren't in any bubbles or going for walks with anyone or anything like that. I really value what nursery is going for my child and I will make it as safe for them as possible.

There is no comparison between the two situations.
As it stands all children are entitled to continue going to nursery. It is fair. With the school situation some children are being taught lessons and getting to socialise whilst others are forced to stay at home for what will probably be months. This is not fair. If it's ok for 50% of children to be in school, everyone should be offered a place on a rota basis.
Also with nurseries, no one has had to lie/ stretch the truth of their role as a key worker to get a place. And of course the major difference being that you have to pay for a nursery place and there has been no talk of this money being returned if you choose not to send your child in.

My children will be going to nursery. My work doesn't stop and it can't be done from home so how am I supposed to manage- ask my elderly parents to look after them?

Not everyone has cushty work from home jobs or a nice little furlough number. Life goes on. The nursery are glad of my money as they are a private business. If they were forced to close I would simply pay one of the staff to come to my house and look after my children.

I work in a nursery, we have only had a couple of parents decide not to send their children in.

@CakeQueen87

There is no comparison between the two situations. As it stands all children are entitled to continue going to nursery. It is fair. With the school situation some children are being taught lessons and getting to socialise whilst others are forced to stay at home for what will probably be months. This is not fair. If it's ok for 50% of children to be in school, everyone should be offered a place on a rota basis. Also with nurseries, no one has had to lie/ stretch the truth of their role as a key worker to get a place. And of course the major difference being that you have to pay for a nursery place and there has been no talk of this money being returned if you choose not to send your child in.

This ^

And I also didn't see any threads from nursery staff begging for their settings to be closed because they were being sent to their deaths.

My nearly 3 year old is going in, I don't have a choice. I also can't afford to pay for childcare I'm not getting so again, no choice.

She is the only source of the virus coming into the house as everyone else is not going anywhere so we will not be spreading it to anyone else.

From what I can see, everyone else is sending their kid in, I haven't noticed anyone missing.

We are sending our 4 year old and 1 year old in. We both WFH in busy senior jobs and it would be really hard to keep them at home. If we just had one, we would consider it more seriously.

The nursery is small- only about 10 kids. The staff are all well under 40. We don't go anywhere other than for walks so I can't see that we pose any risk to staff.

I am worried about the risk of catching it but I think keeping both of them at home would be so miserable all round that we are happy to take our chances

NC for this.

At our setting there are almost all the DC attending despite none on that list who are KW/V.... Affluent area.

Also most have a SAHP.

Nursery staff are feeling pretty down about it. They adore the DC but don't understand why parents aren't keeping them at home if they can.

My boss has withdrawn her 3 year old.

I’ve kept my 20 month old in. DH and I don’t have flexible jobs and we’re both key workers anyway. If DS has to self isolate etc because there’s a case at nursery we’ll keep him off, but otherwise we’ll send him. He loves nursery and it’s great for his development; this lockdown could go on for months - if we pulled him out now we’d still have to pay for his place and I’d probably have to quit my job as it’s not flexible.

We’re just going to keep sending him for now and will see how it goes.

We're moving this to the coronavirus topic area now.

According to our nursery, they have been told by local authority that they won’t receive any funding for children that don’t attend - was intending to keep mine off but not sure if they’ll even have a place to go back to if I do

@TomQuinn
Are the nursery charging parents who don't send their kids in? If not then I'd say that's why they find themselves with a full cohort. Kind of strange that they should be so surprised by this

Mines in with bells on. I don’t know a single person who’s decided not to send their children to nursery. We all work, we all need nursery. You can’t zoom with a two year old. The angry ‘school isn’t childcare mob’ seem to also think nursery shouldn’t be classed as it either. I saw one angry person stating ‘nursery is being treated as a glorified babysitting service. Ermm, it kinda is. Nursery is the epitome of childcare. If I didn’t work, I wouldn’t pay £56 a day to send my child! Yes pre-school I’d argue is a little different & yes, I think nursery is hugely beneficial to my children throughout from age 1-4. But it is childcare.

I don’t feel we are putting anyone at risk. It’s lockdown. Outside of nursery, we go for a walk every day & that’s it. Food is delivered as normal, we don’t go shopping etc. We are just at home! If anything, nursery is ‘riskier’ to us.

Above all, my daughter loves nursery. I flatly refuse to isolate her again. It is cruel & hugely detrimental on her wellbeing. Maybe that’s selfish but I will be when it comes to my children.

My daughter is nearly 4 and "usually" goes to two settings, a traditional preschool and an outdoor forest kindergarten. During the lockdown she won't be going to the preschool. But I will still send her to kindergarten- its outdoors and they only have 12 kids per session (probably fewer at the moment) so I consider it to be low risk and worth it because she needs social interaction and independence.

We have also been told by our Preschool that they will not be able to claim for the Government funding from the local
Authority if we don't send our child in and we would be liable for the fees instead.
We could give 1 months notice, but we would obviously still be liable for the fees during this period and not necessarily have a place when we want to use it again.
The Preschool have also made it clear that they would be in a very difficult position financially if many parents decided to take this route.
I think the Government have put Early Years Providers in a very difficult position

@planestrains

We have also been told by our Preschool that they will not be able to claim for the Government funding from the local Authority if we don't send our child in and we would be liable for the fees instead. We could give 1 months notice, but we would obviously still be liable for the fees during this period and not necessarily have a place when we want to use it again. The Preschool have also made it clear that they would be in a very difficult position financially if many parents decided to take this route. I think the Government have put Early Years Providers in a very difficult position

Our preschool are the opposite and basically sent an email saying they didnt want too many kids because the safety of their staff should come first. Maybe they are able to claim the funding anyway (does is vary by LA)?

Everyone who sends their children in is putting the staff, other children and their families at risk. That's how it works.

I'm a key worker, my husband is a key worker. I'm also 32 weeks pregnant. We are not sending our daughter in because I know that people who have been breaking the rules (eg organising parties over new year) ARE sending their children in, so it's too risky for me.

I'd much rather be working because we are actually both directly helping address the covid crisis in various ways but the reality is it's not worth the risk of ending up in icu, or putting a staff member there. No one is so important that 4 weeks of not working will change the world