My 5 year olds future

[JuneMoonstone]

I'm really worried about what the future might be for my 5 Yr old daughter due to coronavirus. Is she ever going to be able to go to dance classes with more than 6 pupils allowed per class, each standing on a circle that they can't move from? Will she ever be able to go swimming without me having to book weeks on advance and without strict, complex rules? Will she be able to complete a whole year of school without school closures? Will she ever be able to go on a school trip? Will she ever be able to go to the theatre or to see a pantomime at Christmas? I'm seriously worried about what her future will be like. Life has changed beyond recognition. Is life going to be this shit from now on, or maybe not this bad but nowhere near like it was pre covid?

Yes things are really rubbish but it’s not going to last forever. Why do you think that?

Turtleshelly
Can you link to those figures please?

Do we not expect children to ever recover from long covid? Does that percentage account for 13 percent of symptomatic children? 13 percent of positive tests? Or 13 percent of all covid infections in children, including the large numbers of asymptomatic or only had a high temp for one evening children? Hence my request for the data, if poss.

This is not our first pandemic op. It's not the worst either by some way. Life returned to normal after the others and will after this.

It's naive to dismiss the possibility that many, many children and young adults will be very adversely affected by this. The stress many locked down families experience at the moment is insane, parents and children's mental health is being pushed to the limit.

The lack of structure and social contact, hours upon hours of screen based passive learning, parents who struggle to meet the demands of home schooling and WFH and lack of meaningful downtime. All this will leave traces and scars in the long run. However, I am believe in looking at the bright side and with challenging situations you often get opportunities. It's not all black and white.

I genuinely believe that we in our society have, until recently been living an incredibly decadent and selfish lifestyle, plus there is global warming and the pollution of our lovely planet to consider. Reduced air travel must surely be a positive side effect. Saying that, by using the internet more than ever before we are also increasing our carbon footprint (apparently one Google search = having the ceiling light on for 3 minutes in term of carbon footprint)

We won't be going back to normal after lockdown but there will be a new normal. The post-covid world will have changed significantly as it has after so many other catastrophic periods.

OP, I also feel sad for your dd and her dance classes. Dance is a wonderful activity please find her a zoom class so she can keep doing her hobbies.

I wonder how many people are feeling more depressed this evening because of the press conference this afternoon? It was so incredibly depressing and did make me wonder if we will ever get back to normal.

But as many have said, kids are resilient and they will just get used to what is thrown at them. We are sad for them because we know what they should be able to do, but they don't and are happy with what comes to them. Especially the little ones.

I agree it is those at GCSE/A level and especially at university that are really missing out.

I agree with @BilboBercow. My great grandparents lived through the Spanish Flu but it wasn't a thing that was mentioned.

But as many have said, kids are resilient and they will just get used to what is thrown at them
Yeah they'll get used to not being in education, not keening, losing social skills, regressing in eBay education they have, developing a fear of going out or being near New people, of not having any physical contact with anyone outside their home. Oh joy

Yes, yes, yes and yes.

It it’s very frightening but in a couple of years Covid will be like ‘flu. It will be endemic in the population, dealt with by a yearly vaccine and dangerous only to the very, very frail.

I think for the young ones it is us, the parents missing out on making memories. My 5 year old memories of dance class are just a sea of older girls legs. Lacing ballet shoes and a waste of a sat morning 🤔
My girls get blue and miss things, my youngest especially as she loves school. But this will pass and ahe will return and appreciate it more.
However, I work with kids who never go to extra Curricular activities or parties because they can't cope or they don't fit in. So I remind my girls it's ok to feel sad but rememver tgis feeling because that's how the kid with no friends feels all the time. Hopefully they will grow up a bit more aware and a luttle less selfish.

@smoothchange it isn't that owls teens, or my teens are suffering more, it's that all of them are. A young child will still have the chance to go to dance lessons, both socially distanced and as normal as a child.
But many teens will never get the chance to go to a nightclub, or a party, or just hang around with their friends, let alone take formal exams until they're in their 20's. Uni students will never get that experience again. The school leavers looking for their first job or apprenticeship will never get the chances they've missed back, or experience living at the hotel of mum and dad and enjoying their freedom. They'll face the worst financially.

Obviously there weren't any practical solutions, but over summer and autumn younger dc did have options, there's been childcare bubbles, extracurricular etc. But my teens, like their peers, don't want to go to soft play, or the playground, or the zoo. Nothing that they want to do has been allowed since March, and on the whole will be the last restrictions lifted. And they can't catch up on their education. 5yr olds haven't been crucified by the media and blamed for killing granny, whilst simultaneously being expected to make the biggest sacrifices, nor are they expected to take on a large personal debt for the privilege of having their education shafted. So if people are concerned about the futures of their none vulnerable 5yr olds, by comparison teens and young adults are fucked.

It isn't about 5 year old V all teens though. It's perfectly valid that both groups are affected.

So if people are concerned about the futures of their none vulnerable 5yr olds, by comparison teens and young adults are fucked. You get that is ok for people to worry about their own kids right and that doesn't in any way diminish the experience of yours or your concerns?

Why does it always have to turn into a game of top trumps?

Maybe a 5 yo will have longer to catch up on education bit they'll also find it harder to do any work alone (taking kids with no SN or MH issues) if two parents are working.
They might get to go out drinking in a decade or so but they also have poorer comprehension skills to understand what's going on, why and how it will ever end.

That doesn't mean my child has it worse than anyone elses but it does mean people are allowed to be worried about their own children

Our children overall will be the ones who suffer the most in all this, long term, its an issue no one seems to want to address

I will try

I think primary schools should be kept open to all as a major priority but the situation would be more serious for children if we relax too many restrictions

The reason for the restrictions/lockdowns are..
To prevent the health service collapsing, if it did collapse then this would impact all people and all age groups. No treatment for anything, including A&E
To lessen the spread to mitigate the chance of even more virus mutations causing a worse variant, potentially a variant that could affect younger age groups, including children

If we didn't lockdown then children would be impacted far worse/potentially far worse, than they are now.

It's simply not a chance worth taking with ANY age group and this is NOT just about the elderly

Yes restrictions are damaging now, no one can deny it, but the alternative would be even more damaging, for all of us

My kids are 5 and 3. I actually think we got lucky and these are some of the best ages for this. Not that it’s not shit, cos it is, but they don’t really know much different. Their lives are quite small anyway, they’re happy playing in the garden and watching a Disney film with popcorn. Yes my DS asks about seeing his friends and grandparents and things like soft play and birthday parties and going swimming, and my heart does break for him, but I don’t think he’s suffering too much by not having them. Hopefully they will be able to do those things again soon cos this will end!

I feel worse for older kids, teenagers and young adults. I think this will affect them for a long time.

It’s horrible for all of us!

@RosesforMama

Of course

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthandlifeexpectancies/adhocs/12788updatedestimatesoftheprevalenceoflongcovidsymptoms

Long Covid sufferers have been pushing for data to raise awareness for ages and this, yesterday, is the first by age data there is. So still not enough answers to more nuanced questions for now. Hopefully there will be soon.

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthandlifeexpectancies/adhocs/12788updatedestimatesoftheprevalenceoflongcovidsymptoms

To summarise the main stats

Prevalence of any symptom at 5 wks after positive test:
27% at age 35-49
26% at age 50-69
25% at age 25-34
18% at >=70
17% at age 17-24
15% at age 12-16
13% at age 2-10
21% males
24% females

Previous studies showed at least half of those with long Covid at 5 weeks still had it at 12 weeks but obviously data is still being collected so that’s a rough guide.

It’s good that it is lower in children but it’s still way higher than I expected with all the talk of them getting a mild case. Although positivity rates for children are higher than positive cases so that suggests that many child cases go untested.

I’m in the 35-49 category.

[quote LickEmbysmiling]@ThursdayLastWeek

My dd could barely read at five, both actually.... One got phonics and flew by age 7/8 to become pretty much the top reader in her class for ever more...
Other dd may have dyslexia and sadly doesn't read books for fun.. It's been a slog to get her to read.

Can I make some suggestions...

Whatever your school reading scheme is.. Order it from '' reading chest '', 3 different payment schemes, its the best thing I did last lock down! Got dd from a really slow... Struggling stage 6 to a flowing stage 9.

You can order your own school reading scheme or choose others...
Along side that get flash cards for the 1st 100 high frequency words... And also print out the writing stuff for them...

Just concentrate on that and maybe two times tables don't worry about anything else.

Reading is the foundation for everything else...[/quote]
Thank you, those are great tips and our school is supporting us as best they can.

I do rationally know everything will be ok in the end. It’s in those times when it’s hard to be rational I see my kid who is only just really starting to talk properly having all that wonderful fun learning taken away from him. No SALT. It makes me sad when I think about the improvement in him from just one term at school.

We’re doing everything we can, and he’s happy. It’s just not right.
I’m really cross that we’re sacrificing the kids educations in this.

And thank you AlohaMolly too. I know it’s a small thing to worry about, and I don’t let it take over my whole life. But it’s there nonetheless!

I worry about this too , but as you can see there is a group on here that will out do you with their suffering.
It's a rubbish time to be a child and a young person

@JuneMoonstone

I'm really worried about what the future might be for my 5 Yr old daughter due to coronavirus. Is she ever going to be able to go to dance classes with more than 6 pupils allowed per class, each standing on a circle that they can't move from? Will she ever be able to go swimming without me having to book weeks on advance and without strict, complex rules? Will she be able to complete a whole year of school without school closures? Will she ever be able to go on a school trip? Will she ever be able to go to the theatre or to see a pantomime at Christmas? I'm seriously worried about what her future will be like. Life has changed beyond recognition. Is life going to be this shit from now on, or maybe not this bad but nowhere near like it was pre covid?

I can understand your worry - you are a generation who grew up without the fear of life limiting illness. In my generation (born in the 50's) children died of measles, I knew people who'd had polio. We knew about diseases like whopping cough, TB and scarlet fever, though they were getting increasingly rare. Friends of my parents had a child affected by German measles in utero. Flu season killed tens of thousands.

None of those diseases has been totally wiped out - but in this country they are controlled by vaccination. I fully expect that to be the case with this virus. Deaths and serious illness will still happen, but rarely. A covid 19 vaccine will be routine, life will return to a different kind of normal.

@Dontforgetyourbrolly it is a rubbish time. A rubbish time for single people, elderly, hospitality staff, parents, NHS staff, small businesses, those who have died and their families, those finishing uni, finishing primary, exam years at high school, teachers, supermarket staff. I don't think 5 year old are especially unlucky. We are all unlucky and in a few years this will be a bad memory, and while it very hard I have also learned a lot.

If we can get through this without losing a loved one and with a roof over my head the rest of it will be sorted out later.

@MoiJeJous

This week alone, I know of 5 people who have died. Thank your lucky stars that the biggest worry about all of this is being able to go to the pantomime.

Sorry for your losses but you are being unfair. A young relative of mine died of Coronavirus and I still have massive sympathy for the OP.

History tells us these things last 2-3 years, we will go back to normal.

@PurpleMustang

Really 5, 5 years old and you are taking like they will never have a childhood. What do you remember from being 5? I remember sod all really. Mine are in seniors, should be having a teenager time of their life. When they get independence and go off and have fantastic times with friends, times you don't forget. Instead the sport they play at national level they have played for almost a year, can't even train properly. One is in GCSE years, yr 10 coursework and exams already being changed. No idea what will happen next year for Yr 11. Their Dad has decided to leave. And one has a friend who is depressed and self harming who they are trying to help over their mobiles, to help them through but can barely meet face to face like they really want to. So yeah do I win?

Ooh is it a competition?

Mine are 5 and 7 and I feel exactly the same.
Even more worrying for us in the financial implications- I run a kinds activity business myself and probably will give up on that soon.
Meanwhile husband is being made redundant. Luckily with a package so we’re not panicking, but we can’t see a way out of this at the moment.

I totally agree.

However, I think there is a limit to how much people will put up with these restrictions and we’re fast approaching it, whether the vaccine alleviate things or not.

I’m already there. My child is playing with his friend down the road. As soon as the grandparents are vaccinated, they will see them as normal.

The other stuff will return in time. Not much use to the 5 year olds I know, but I’m in ROI and shebeen culture is re-emerging with a vengeance. People are taking matters into their own hands.