If they open up schools all at once, I'm done with every other precaution

[BettyBoomerang]

If the 'leak' is true and they are stupid enough to open up all schools to all kids at the same time (thus leading to uncontrolled transmission of variants and increased risk of vaccine escape, further lockdowns and a redo of the vaccination programme) then I'm done with any kind of compliance.

I'm not staying at home like a fucking stupid sitting duck, waiting for my kids to come home with Covid anymore. The kids can see their friends, have sleepovers and we'll go out and about and visit friends and relatives and do the maximum we can.

You can pile in and call me selfish or whatever - I genuinely don't care anymore. I'm not putting my life on hold just for the government to fuck the recovery up again. I'm the most compliant of pretty much everyone I know but this is it for me, and many others I suspect (most of whom are already doing way more than me). If it's safe for my kids to go to school, then everything is safe.

@minipie

I just 100% don't believe that if I stay at home, like I have so far, that everyone else will do the same.

Well I’ve seen quite a few people driving very dangerously on the motorway, so I’ll do the same and so should everyone else.

Or would that just result in a massive pile up?

The motorway is safe. It's safe to drive at 100 miles an hour. The government said so.

It almost seems lunacy to then sit at home and not have seen my baby niece more than once since she was born and just wait day in day out to see if any of them bring Coronavirus home to me.

Sorry, but am I missing something here - you keep saying how you're waiting day in and day out to see if anyone brings home coronavirus, and mentioned wiping down groceries earlier, but you're talking about going out and about yourself as well therefore making yourself even more at risk if you really are that worried?
Surely you're at least trying to understand what posters are saying on here, that it's about minimising risk?

Here we go again. Open wait for NHS to get overwhelmed again to close again. Oh and sadly 0.2 million to go before their time.

Lessons should be learnt but when safe and sustainable so not short sighted cyclical. Schools will only be fully open until cases detected anyway.

Common nonsense, unbalance, short sighted, as you were risk and repeat let mutations beat the vaccines. Following no science.

The motorway is safe. It's safe to drive at 100 miles an hour. The government said so

Eh?!

Are you trying to not understand on purpose or what lol

The motorway is safe. It's safe to drive at 100 miles an hour. The government said so.

No - in this analogy, the school returners are doing 70mph which is objectively still risky, as any road travel is, but legal and an accepted risk. The 100mphers are the ones who say "if you can drive at 70, why not at 100"

Maybe but some are coping better. I get tired of this idea that all children are suffering. My DS is coping so well with online learning. Prior to the pandemic, he was missing so much school due to anxiety. He’s a smart kid and his attitude has really changed during this. He is contentious. He is focussed. Going back to school will take all of that away from him as he battles panic attacks all morning. Yes yes I know he “could be homeschooled” but he is coping so well with having live lessons from his school. Obviously, I want schools to go back (safely) but not all children are suffering because of this. School isn’t always a great experience for everyone. He is going to really really struggle with this. Btw, I have 2 others desperate to be back and one who is finding it really difficult. I just get tired of the narrative that every child is suffering when they are clearly not all suffering.

Agree with all this from @lifeonhardmodept2

The 'wont somebody please think of the children!' battle cry is a popular one but I don't believe it's always particularly genuine.

Especially as any kind of reckless 'all back to school' unlocking will just lead to bubbles bursting, kids isolating, more lockdowns etc.

@Mockolate

The motorway is safe. It's safe to drive at 100 miles an hour. The government said so

Eh?!

Are you trying to not understand on purpose or what lol

No they really said it.

They said that every member of my family can drive at 100 miles an hour and without due care and attention, alongside 10 million others, but that I must drive extremely slowly and carefully. The end pileup will inevitably involve me too but in the meantime I'm supposed to pretend that I'm 'staying safe' by crawling along, even though I know the pileup is coming because it keeps coming over and over again due to their bad decisions.

Someone has just posted leak on another thread. If dk schools really are opening March 8th.

Thanks table - I want schools to be fully open but all at once is asking for trouble. All would have been solved if all teachers over 50 had been offered the vaccine over half term as suggested by some politicians.
Sadly I am not alone and there will
be teachers like me who will catch Covid and be ill or worse. Social distancing is impossible in a school.

@snowballer

The motorway is safe. It's safe to drive at 100 miles an hour. The government said so.

No - in this analogy, the school returners are doing 70mph which is objectively still risky, as any road travel is, but legal and an accepted risk. The 100mphers are the ones who say "if you can drive at 70, why not at 100"

Meh, you can spin it any way you want to be honest. I'm a pretty careful driver too anyway.

You could say that 70 is a gradual, phased return to school with some risk but enough time to brake, but that everyone back at once is 100 miles an hour.

@Pieceofpurplesky

Thanks table - I want schools to be fully open but all at once is asking for trouble. All would have been solved if all teachers over 50 had been offered the vaccine over half term as suggested by some politicians. Sadly I am not alone and there will be teachers like me who will catch Covid and be ill or worse. Social distancing is impossible in a school.

I agree it would have been a good idea to give teachers (vulnerable ones particularly) the vaccine already.

Where will you be going to live this amazing fast paced “best life”?

Life doesn’t start up again until the boss says go.

England will still be shut on the 8th so like it or not I will follow the rules.

I can’t get worked up any more. I’m not terrified. I had covid, I was bearly ill at all but I want my kids back and I want to follow the rules going forward knowing covid didn’t kill me.

I can’t summon up strength to give to get into a froth about going clothes shopping, coffee with mates, lunch out, nights down the pub and it’s not possible even I was gagging to go. It’s not going to be possible to live life to the full come 8th of March. We can not go back to normal while life is shut.

@BettyBoomerang

Well that would be stupid because if everyone does that community transmission will rise. Therefore school transmission will rise. Then we will definitely have a problem. So unless your plan is to flue the rise in both stick to the rules for a few more weeks

All kids in school means community transmission will rise. Research showed kids being far more likely to be the index case in households. And everyone (ok most people) will do it anyway, but this time I won't be the muppet at home wiping my groceries while friends gather for a 'socially distanced coffee' in someone's living room or a 'socially distanced curry' round someone else's house and everything else that goes hand in hand with schools being open.

Wrong. You have been reading to many mumsnet threads. School transmission and community transmission go hand in hand. One fans the other. That is why some schools had no cases September to December. There were none in the community.

@Mockolate

It almost seems lunacy to then sit at home and not have seen my baby niece more than once since she was born and just wait day in day out to see if any of them bring Coronavirus home to me.

Sorry, but am I missing something here - you keep saying how you're waiting day in and day out to see if anyone brings home coronavirus, and mentioned wiping down groceries earlier, but you're talking about going out and about yourself as well therefore making yourself even more at risk if you really are that worried?
Surely you're at least trying to understand what posters are saying on here, that it's about minimising risk?

Yes you are missing something (sorry, not meaning to be rude but that's my whole point!) You're missing that I have been massively careful - not to protect me as I'm youngish and have no underlying conditions but to protect society, the NHS, all the things I was told to do. I've made as sure as I possibly can that I haven't caught it. But I've realised it's actual lunacy to sit at home to be 'safe' and then have the kids around hundreds of others. My risk from seeing a few friends will be minimal compared to them bringing it home from school. And more importantly, THEIR risk from seeing their friends after school and at others' houses (which they've missed out on despite it being common because I was such a rule follower) is negligible.

Schools should be back first but not like this. A cautious big-bang return to schools is an oxymoron. Uttered by morons. I’m with you OP.

Wrong. You have been reading to many mumsnet threads. School transmission and community transmission go hand in hand. One fans the other. That is why some schools had no cases September to December. There were none in the community.

Bit chicken and egg that though isn't it? But regardless, rates were highest in young people and school age groups. They were absolutely soaring when the variant hit.

Meh, you can spin it any way you want to be honest.

It's not a spin. It's just rock bottom basic common sense that if kids are already raising the level of mixing, the rest of the community would be better off not further raising it with their own mixing if they don't want everything to be shut down again. Schools have to open. Other migrations therefore have to take place for that to happen.

I hope to see all the politicians sitting shoulder to shoulder in the Houses of Parliament, without masks on, to show solidarity to pupils and teachers on March 8th.

I don't get it. Are we saying that if all schools/year groups go back at the same time, the infection rate will go up just as much as if there were no restrictions in place whatsoever? So we might as well just do whatever we want?

@Violetlavenders

Plenty of other posters have pointed this out but in order to prioritise schools, the rest of the restrictions have to stay in place. FFS if everyone says "fuck it, if my kids can mingle then so can I" then that's where we'd be in trouble, and that would be the one and only time I'd support the government saying to the mingling general public "it's your own stupid fault, you colossal fools."

This. And I don't see why that's difficult to understand!

It’s not, but these threads are an almost daily occurrence and all say the same thing. “I’m fed up and so I’m not doing it any more”

It’s nothing more than petulance and either a lack of understanding, or wilful ignorance

If all the kids go back, then it’s all the more reason to keep to the rest of it.

I despair of any adult who doesn’t realise that children’s well-being comes first.

@Zandathepanda

I hope to see all the politicians sitting shoulder to shoulder in the Houses of Parliament, without masks on, to show solidarity to pupils and teachers on March 8th.

Absolutely. Sounds totally safe to me and government is probably as important as 4 year olds cutting and sticking.

There is absolutely loads of data that shows schools aren’t driving the pandemic and child-to-adult transmission is not very common, but some people are determined to believe that children going to school is as bad as coughing in the faces of grandmothers. I don’t get it

Is schools are safe so are the Houses of Parliament

Personally I’d have had them all on blended learning - so they all got some teaching and seeing friends etc, but not all in at once - but that’s just my opinion.