Sir Keir Starmer calling for nursery closure!

[Boogie5678]

Sorry I’m not sure how to link this but it’s on BBC news.

Good to see that Anneliese Dodds has raised the issue of how working parents are expected to manage:
‘We’ve had more guidance about how to play tennis from the government than what working parents should be doing with childcare for their kids and protecting their incomes. That’s really got to change now.’

www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jan/10/labour-asks-for-more-help-for-working-parents-in-england-lockdown

Notwaving thanks for pointing that out.
Nurseries are already closed in Scotland but any help would be good.

I have no clue what parents who work outside the house are actually meant to do. But my youngest was definitely neglected last week. I pray that Scotland reopens nurseries soon. It's totally unfair on young kids to be raised by Amazon cartoons.

I tried to WFH with a homeschooling 8yo and a toddler. We made it to lunchtime before I quit. Toddler climbed onto furniture while I was bobbing backwards and forwards between invoicing and sorting out big sister's maths problems. Toddler fell and bruised her face on the sliding doors. I emailed my clients and quit for two months. I was very lucky in that I was in a position to do this. I am not doing this again. I have hired a babysitter. A lot of people cannot afford this and I do not know what they are going to do.

@Suzi888

Good. If we had a stricter lockdown from the start we might be in a better position now.

Exactly!

I can't believe anyone would whine about extreme measures given how dire this situation is nearly a year in!!

I think it will happen as the story has been
leaked to newspapers as a way of testing public reactions before its announced.

Tanith

Go back and read what I said. Properly.

I did. And you were advocating leaving toddlers in a playpen on their own - these are your words:

Strapping a child into a chair certainly isn't ideal; do you have a playpen or travel cot? It's not ideal either, but it's how parents (mothers!) managed to keep children safe a couple of decades ago.

Since this is how women worked in the home years ago, why do you find the idea so preposterous?

Why do you think playpens were invented?

A play pen is only really useful up to 12/18months tops. Depends on the child, mine could climb out by age 1. We had one of those big travel cots, not a classic play pen but did the job. By job, I mean put her in it if I had to answer the door, feed the dog... do something that involved not being able to react with 2 hands immediately I mean, never out of ear shot and rarely out of sight. Didn't even risk leaving to go upstairs to the toilet, I'd use the bouncer seat on the landing for that.
Hopefully that outlines how much supervision an early years DC needs for those that don't know???

Taking selected comments out of context is hardly the "Gotcha!" you think it is.
I had thought you simply hadn't read the thread properly; I couldn't imagine that anyone would believe it better that a small child should be strapped into a chair instead of using a playpen, but perhaps I was wrong. Why else would people be making so much fuss about the playpen suggestion and not the child strapped into a chair?

Still, it's been fun watching them all pile on when they don't really care a jot about playpens.
Other posters mentioned them earlier in the thread and they didn't raise a murmur then

@Carryingon

An 18 month old drowned while his poor worked from home. What on earth do people expect working parents to do??)

She wasn’t just trying to work with one toddler, she had twin toddlers.

I can’t imagine the guilt and pain she is feeling. Devastating.

"Hopefully that outlines how much supervision an early years DC needs for those that don't know???"

Yes, I think you're right. As I said earlier, this is such a horrible situation for everyone and none of the solutions is ideal

Mine could climb out of his playpen by 18 months. And viewed it as being a baby cage so whinged when in it.

I have to say I'm not hopeful though from the newspapers. I've spent this morning drafting my leave request. Going to sound out colleagues about covering my commitments for the next couple of months later on today, I think.

Sen schools are fully open.

Many staff including me have preschool children.

I only work part time but Dh is full time.

I'd have to give up any attempt to homeschool the oldest and Dh's work would be severely impacted.

I'd be doing minimal prep for school; unfortunately I'm also setting some home learning too.

The issue is the trend towards 2 kw places.

For many families (my colleagues's examples) the male partner is the breadwinner and the mother is a ta at school as it fits with school hours.

TAs are being heavily relied on at the moment.

Tanith
Taking selected comments out of context is hardly the "Gotcha!" you think it is

I can add context if you want. A poster asked you:
-----
InTheFamilyTree
Tanithare you seriously suggesting that parents can work merely by putting their babies in a travel cot??

And you said

Since this is how women worked in the home years ago, why do you find the idea so preposterous?
Why do you think playpens were invented?

[quote notwavingbutdrowning5]Good to see that Anneliese Dodds has raised the issue of how working parents are expected to manage:
‘We’ve had more guidance about how to play tennis from the government than what working parents should be doing with childcare for their kids and protecting their incomes. That’s really got to change now.’

www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jan/10/labour-asks-for-more-help-for-working-parents-in-england-lockdown[/quote]
This is true but it's common sense surely? You cannot look after a small child and work at the same time. There's no way to sugar coat that. You can barely go to the toilet in peace and quiet when you have young children around!

If nurseries close the options are : split shifts with your DP so one of you can always be with your child, form childcare bubble (pay someone the money you'd be paying for nursery to form a bubble if you have to), hire a nanny, take unpaid leave or resign.

There are a huge amount of child development students and nqts etc looking for childcare work at the moment.

A senior source told The Telegraph the Government’s strategy is to be stricter about enforcing the current rules instead of introducing tougher ones

Just googled nursery closures and found this statement.

@TrashedWarrior for some it will be needs must and depends on your income. For me id rather do it myself and leave my job. It would be right but my part time role is not worth just finding any childcare for an2yo. The environment is important, nursery is key because DD is seeing other children and has delayed speech. If it was just one student providing childcare I'd rather leave work and do it myself. There's still some choice, even though for me I'd feel backed into a corner.

*would be tight I mean, money wise

@TrashedWarrior

There are a huge amount of child development students and nqts etc looking for childcare work at the moment.

Which on the face of it is an obvious solution. But if you are having to pay someone to come to your home to work what would the tax and NI implications be for you as an employer (albeit a temporary one)?

I don't know about the ins and outs; I'm looking at childcare.com in a slight panic.

I'm expected at work to teach sen kids. I'm an experienced teacher. Dh runs a company employing 12 people.

@TrashedWarrior

There are a huge amount of child development students and nqts etc looking for childcare work at the moment.

Yeah and everyone just happens to know a student, they can pay cash in hand. Without worrying about tax, NI, employee rights or insurance. The answer has to be small bubbles in nurseries. Which also helps the issues of socialisation of these very young children. It's not natural for young children to be kept isolated from other young children. They've had nearly a year of their lives in restriction. Let's put that into perspective for a 3 year old that's a third of their lifetime or a quarter for a 4 year old.

What's the long term impact on that for these little children? Nobody knows because this has never happened before.

Even in days before preschools there were mother and toddler groups, playgroups, informal play with other kids in the family, big families were the norm not only children.

I need to add that we've had rates of between 400- 1000 per 100k during the autumn. Now about 200.

No one gave two hoots about the north.

I would be thinking differently if those were the rates locally plus the new variant.

Those rates could change dramatically in a week of course.

Yeah and everyone just happens to know a student, they can pay cash in hand. Without worrying about tax, NI, employee rights or insurance.

No I'm looking at childcare.com. Mix of professional child care and students who've registered themselves and do nannying to support studies.

Kier Starmer can say whatever he wants cos he’s not the one making the decision or how to pay for them to survive.

Of course closing nurseries would help limit the spread but what are the parents of the 1.6million children going to do? You can’t work and look after an