Told to isolate - can i collect children from school?

[petitdonkey]

Apologies if this has been done! I’ve just received a notification to isolate for eight days (I went to the supermarket on Saturday and was at work- no other contact!) - my children are at school, perhaps a stupid question but am I allowed to drive to pick up and drop off this week?? I have just emailed work who I guess won’t be thrilled...

What a PITA!!!

All ability to apply common sense and perspective has gone out of the window during this pandemic/lockdown. I despair some days I really do.

Yes, you're not meant to leave the house at all, BUT if you need to get kids to school (which lets face it is important) and you won't be coming into contact with anyone at all by dropping them off/collecting them, then surely that is what you should do. I would.
Especially as this notification has come from the app and you haven't been contacted by T&T.

When my 6year old's bubble got sent home to isolate, I had to take her with me some days to drop off/collect her sister. School made arrangements for collection at an alternative time so as not to come into contact with others. There was never any suggestion that the older one also revert to home-learning, in fact I was told she must still attend!

I genuinely don’t get why a taxi and a lift with a friend is better than you getting them OP?
Are people sharing lifts at the moment in lockdown? We’re not. It’s close inside contact. With two more people than they would be in contact with normally. That is not sensible. Don’t listen to people on here who claim Covid spreads outside the car. It does spread in close contact indoors though. So in a car with a taxi driver for example

If you’re going to split hairs over the OP leaving the house then by not collecting her children she is now exposing her friend and the taxi driver. Well done! The power of Mumsnet eh?

How on Earth anyone things it’s better for the teens to be in close contact with a friend’s parent, so an additional third party, than to be in the car with their own mother, who they live with and got a lift with this very morning, is fucking beyond me.

*thinks

But your children presumably do?

Not really. Not well enough to say "My mother might have covid, so can you please give me a lift in your car"

It would be a no from me.

@petitdonkey

Thank you for the kindness and rational thought. A friend has kindly offered to get one child but I’m genuinely thinking that will put her at risk whereas I drove them in this morning so would probably be safer to get them this evening. My other child gets the train so I will transfer him back to online learning for the rest of the week.

I really want to delete the bloody app!!! I’d put my hands up if I’d seen anyone but really can only think it was the supermarket on Saturday.. where I didn’t have prolonged contact with anyone.

I realise there are tons of threads on this and I resl

So delete it.

It's not legally binding from the app.

@WaterBottle123

Hang on OP - you got this notification through the shitty, bugged SERCO app not even proper track and trace?

Didn't realise anyone still used that let alone listened to its usually wrong notifications. Just another waste of public money handed to Tory donors.

The app is nothing at all to do with Serco, it's an app made by the NHS. It's NHS Test and Trace which is run by Serco.

It would be a no from me

Before anybody jumps on me, obviously in an emergency situation I wouldn't leave any child stranded. But to be honest, I really wouldn't ask anybody else to have my child in their car if there's the possibility of having covid in my family. It's pretty presumptuous.

Can I politely ask if your children have received their Lat.Flo test kits yet?
If so, maybe you could use one of the tests?
I know that there are varying opinions on the efficacy of them but it might put you mind at rest if it is negative.

So far better that the teenagers to get on public transport or get a lift with someone else (really??). So it’s better that they get in a friend’s car in close contact with them than the Mum stepping out of the house, getting in the car, driving them. Not leaving the car. The Mum would not come in to contact with anyone else

Christ almighty. The children don't have to isolate. OBVIOUSLY its better for them to get a lift or public transport than it is for the person who is meant to be isolating to pick them up.

If you're not leaving your car at all, then just drive them.
They dont need to isolate unless you develop symptoms. There is no difference for them in being in the car with you or living in the house with you. They're allowed out to school. You will still be isolated in the car. Just drive them.

I was on the phone to my good friend and she offered (we went for a walk yesterday) - our daughters are in the same class at school. I did have the conversation with her that it was potentially putting her at risk but she insisted. Taxi driver is a lady we use regularly with help on school run (well we did, haven’t yet this year!) - I had the same conversation with her and she said she’s happy as she’s had her first jab.

Again, I reacted because so many people on this thread told me not to be an idiot and I mustn’t leave my front door....

I would agree that common sense says it’s safer if I take them to and fro but the rules don’t allow that...!

I agree that, after all this time, we should all be clear as day as to how to respond to this situation yet here we are...

@ladymalfoy45 - I have my own tests as I am a teacher. I normally test myself Wednesday and Saturday. I was negative on Saturday so will test again tomorrow to check nothing has changed.

And there we have two side by side posts, both written by informed and intelligent people both with good points. Makes me feel less stupid for asking the question in the first place!

Fwiw - I veer towards thinking the latter post makes far more sense from an infection control perspective but I guess I have to consider what would happen if I broke down or was involved in an accident which is why I have chosen not to collect them and won’t drive them for the next eight days.

@UserTwice

And yes, some people really do have zero support and absolutely nobody else able to collect or look after their children.

If they have children at school, then they have other school parents to ask. They may not want to, but the option is there.

And would you be volunteering to take someone else's teens in your car, when you know that their parent is isolating due to a positive contact? Especially at secondary school, plenty of people won't know other parents enough to ask that kind of favour.

@petitdonkey. If you share any common walls with any neighbours - I would also check with them if they have had a postive test. The app really is a very blunt tool (hence why it was not made enforceable.) Does pick up things through walls, and also doesn't take into account other measures that may have been in place eg mask wearing, plexiglass etc.

@FullofCurryandparatha

So far better that the teenagers to get on public transport or get a lift with someone else (really??). So it’s better that they get in a friend’s car in close contact with them than the Mum stepping out of the house, getting in the car, driving them. Not leaving the car. The Mum would not come in to contact with anyone else

Christ almighty. The children don't have to isolate. OBVIOUSLY its better for them to get a lift or public transport than it is for the person who is meant to be isolating to pick them up.

How is it more dangerous for someone to drive a short distance (and then not leave home again for the rest of isolating) than to put two teenagers with higher risk of covid in someone else's closed car? The rules are there for good reasons but doesn't mean they're aren't common sense exceptions.

Surely if you have tested positive your children shouldn’t be going into schools. They would have to isolate as well?

She hasn't tested positive.

And yes, it does make more sense for children to get public transport. That's what half the children in the country are doing today anyway!

I've had to take a taxi a few times over the past few months for essential reasons. A lot of the taxi drivers seem to have pinned a transparent plastic sheet between the back and front seats and have the windows open to reduce transmission risk. Is that something you could do if you end up having to drive your children?

💐

Personally I'd have picked them up. You wouldn't have been near anyone else.

If I got a notification from the app I'd have done a PCR test. The app is crap

Any possibility that your phone was near others at school while you were not? That seems the most likely option.

I wouldn't be keeping the kids at home based on the app contact for you.

I would not isolate if notified by the app. I mean my dm got told to isolate as it said she was a contact with a neighbour as picked up as being close contact.
My dm that particular day had left her ohone at home in her kitchen. And said she was a contact. She's not seen the woman for months.

@PurpleDaisies

I don't see the difference between staying at home with your teens and staying in the car with your teens.

You don’t see how a tiny enclosed space is different from a house?
The isolation guidance is to avoid contact with your other household members. You can’t do that in a car.

It is not even slightly practical for mothers to avoid contact in any useful way with their children even when they are teens. I'm sure there are a few exceptions to this. I fail to see how you could expect it would be, in general, frankly but I think you would rather self righteously tell people off than consider the realistic practicalities.