Shameful treatment of children

[CottageGardener]

Taster days cancelled, work experience cancelled, sports days cancelled, exams cancelled, fetes cancelled, extra curriculum activities cancelled, end of year school assembly cancelled, transition day cancelled, trips cancelled, proms cancelled, the list goes on....

For a virus that 80% of the population now have antibodies for. The kids will never have a chance to do some of these things again. SHAMEFUL.

@TheKeatingFive

The more people that are vaccinate the lower that risk gets, and until it gets to an acceptable level the some restrictions need to remain.

And you can’t see that the currently unvaxxed adult population of the U.K. is a teeny drop in the ocean compared to the entire rest of the world?

Really?

The rest of the world is catching up, and those countries that don’t will be quite isolated for some time which is why world leaders are being urged to provide vaccinations to countries who otherwise can’t / won’t provide them for their population.

Our responsibility is to stop the next variant emerging from here. we’ve had the Kent Variant, we’ve got the Indian variant which is more transmissible but less fatal… what happens when the next variant has an 80% mortality rate?

@bigbluebus

It was/is all for the greater good. At least their parents didn't have to go to war and the children evacuated to live with strangers in a strange house in the countryside. Children need to learn that shit happens - learning about history will show them that. Lots of those events you mention that they've missed weren't even a thing 20 years ago and guess what - children still survived and had happy and fulfilled lives. Stop focusing on what they've lost and start looking forward to the things that can happen in the future.

Please tell me we're not still comparing it to the bloody war!

That's why we still need precautions.

So what’s the timeframe then? Genuine question. If the vaccines don’t work?

Also... we're having sports day at our school, why can't that happen? It's all outdoors. Only change is that parents can't attend (which I'll admit I'm secretly really happy about!).

School trips are happening, transition days are happening (it IS really sad that they're being cancelled in some schools, that's tough and I'm really sorry for those having to negotiate that with their kids). Prom - that's sad, if it's a big deal to your kids. Graduations - my DSS's graduation has been cancelled and we're gutted obviously. Preschool graduations? Give me a fucking break.

@JeanClaudeVanDammit

I’m in my late 30s. Transition days were absolutely a thing, as were sports days and leaving celebrations. And we had a prom in secondary school. I get that it makes people feel superior to sneer at these things, but they’re not particularly new and they can feel important to children and young people.

It massively varies. I'm mid 30s and other than sports day, we didn't have any of it. To be honest, that's a good thing in my mind! Some children want, need or enjoy these things. Some don't.

Missing Pre school graduation! Seriously! What fresh hell is this that people think their kids (and parents)have missed out on because of a global pandemic which has killed thousands in this country. What about all the University graduates who have worked really hard for between 3 & 5 years who have missed out on their graduation ceremony? Something which would have been a celebration of an actual achievement - not just leaving pre school!
I seriously think I need to leave Mumsnet as I'm finding some of the things that people think actually matter for their children quite depressing. Loss of education - fine, that needs to be addressed - the rest of it matters not a jot in the circumstances.

And some of the things that aren't happening actual could under current rules eg Sports day. I'm pretty sure I saw that residential trips for 30 children can go ahead too. I'm guessing some schools have just run out of steam.

Children were not a priority and things could have been done differently. I know behaviour in my son's formerly Outstanding school has been appalling with young teenagers left to go feral for a year, without supervision/no adults enforcing boundaries. God help those with domestic violence, in that pressure cooker with a violent parent. Schools do so much more than teach. They safeguard.

I wish they'd used the same spirit that they built the Nightingale hospitals with to come up with imaginative ways to keep schooling going - using vacant offices/community centres/paying tutors to take smaller bubbles in spread out locations, or staggered days for different groups. We know that there actually IS a magic money tree when it's needed, would have been a drop in the ocean compared to the furlow bill.

But nope. it was just assumed that parents - predominately mothers would become teachers and to hell with their own jobs. Or the kids would drop off the grid.

To think they charge us 60 quid per day for an "unauthorised absence" - attendance was previously considered super critical, and not just for learning outcomes. Was it always bollocks? Does it matter if children are in school or not? If it does then why wasn't more done to find ways to make this happen? Nothing was done. It was just fuck off home and log in tomorrow morning for more videos you won't watch to the end.

@hamstersarse

The more people that are vaccinate the lower that risk gets, and until it gets to an acceptable level the some restrictions need to remain. Why do people find that so hard to understand?

Let’s face it @RestingPandaFace there is no level of risk that people like you will accept.

There are so few people dying with covid right now, the vaccines work, 80% of the adult population have at least one dose, 50% have two...yet still you are living in a state of anxiety.

You really need to get a grip and quit throwing kids under the bus

Don’t be so rude! People like me? What’s that supposed to mean?

There is absolutely no need to be rude and personal, it’s a discussion not an attack.

I’m actually very relaxed about Covid not at all anxious. I’ve done as much as the rules allow all the way through, holidays, theme parks, family meet ups, pub etc. but at the same time I understand the science and I can see why some level of restrictions have to remain.

If nice things for grown ups were also cancelled - like say, football being played in empty stadiums, no crowds to watch the horse racing, weddings still being only 30, big shopping malls closed etc. Then it would be reasonable to say children should just cope.

But again and again and again, its been OK to take the risk for grown ups (who are most likely to fill up hospitals if they catch covid), but anything that matters to children is treated as not worth the risk.

There is an educational need for transition events for secondary schools for many children, a grown man will fucking cope if he has to watch the football on TV rather than live.

Its shit and more people should be complaining.

The rest of the world is catching up, and those countries that don’t will be quite isolated for some time which is why world leaders are being urged to provide vaccinations to countries who otherwise can’t / won’t provide them for their population.

WHO estimates for when most countries will be have offered their populations vaccinations is 3-5 years.

If we’re concerned about the possibility of worse variants and want to keep restrictions because of that, that’s the kind of timeframe we’re looking at.

@hamstersarse

what happens when the next variant has an 80% mortality rate?

Fucking hell. You are batshit

Am I batshit or are you hard of thinking?

The point is that mutations are random and can’t really be predicated. We’ve been lucky so far that no mutation with a high mortality rate has arisen.

@MargosKaftan

If nice things for grown ups were also cancelled - like say, football being played in empty stadiums, no crowds to watch the horse racing, weddings still being only 30, big shopping malls closed etc. Then it would be reasonable to say children should just cope.

But again and again and again, its been OK to take the risk for grown ups (who are most likely to fill up hospitals if they catch covid), but anything that matters to children is treated as not worth the risk.

There is an educational need for transition events for secondary schools for many children, a grown man will fucking cope if he has to watch the football on TV rather than live.

Its shit and more people should be complaining.

Totally agree! Well said

But again and again and again, its been OK to take the risk for grown ups (who are most likely to fill up hospitals if they catch covid), but anything that matters to children is treated as not worth the risk.

Quite

@RestingPandaFace

Covid 19 mutating to have a IFR of 80% is absolute batshittery anxiety

You keep saying you read The Science. Read more

@AnotherEmma, thank you for the flowers, very appreciated. I'm sorry you are missing things with your DS too.

To some of the poster saying it's to protect others, I am in the at risk group and my husband is in the vulnerable group so we have been taking this very seriously and respecting all the rules. It doesn't stop me feeling sad about the milestones we are missing though.

Plus we are practically everyone we know has had both jabs and we need to start living again!

[quote KillerFlamingo]@AnotherEmma, thank you for the flowers, very appreciated. I'm sorry you are missing things with your DS too.

To some of the poster saying it's to protect others, I am in the at risk group and my husband is in the vulnerable group so we have been taking this very seriously and respecting all the rules. It doesn't stop me feeling sad about the milestones we are missing though.

Plus we are practically everyone we know has had both jabs and we need to start living again! [/quote]
It’s easy to say this when double vaccinated. I am too but I am also aware there are many teaching staff in my school who haven’t even had their first. My own DH, also a full time teacher, has only had one vaccination.

Fair enough it’s a slightly hypersonic example, but the point it solid.

It really sucks for kids I get it. I run a youth group and it’s brilliant to be able to get back to some form of activity even if it’s a million miles from normal, it’s also been great to see DS get back to rugby tots and swimming lessons, even if his transition days have been cancelled.

It’s a balance that needs to be found, and all this outrage and name calling isn’t doing any good. We are close to the end, but we aren’t there yet.

Yes, I don’t know why the government isn’t just letting all of their grandparents, parents and teachers die. Can’t understand why the government is trying to prevent collapse of the national health service that all these children will rely on throughout their lives.

FFS. Grow up. It’s not shameful at all. Get a bloody grip

@RestingPandaFace

Yes we have it under control, but until enough people are vaccinated that Covid can’t spread through community transmission there is a serious risk of a more dangerous variant arising or one that vaccines don’t work for.

Yes we are through the worst but the vaccination programme has to finish before we are safe, and until then the only way to control mutation is to control transmission and that means keeping people apart.

It’s basic science and I can’t believe that people still don’t get it.

This

Absolutely @resting. Balance is needed. The whole point of easing restrictions was to ensure cases didn’t rise too rapidly. We can’t have everything open at once. On the flip side you could argue children have been prioritised as during the ‘second lockdown’ schools were open and they were the first workplace to go back after ‘third lockdown’.

@RestingPandaFace

Taster days cancelled, work experience cancelled, sports days cancelled, exams cancelled, fetes cancelled, extra curriculum activities cancelled, end of year school assembly cancelled, transition day cancelled, trips cancelled, proms cancelled, the list goes on

Versus
Mum, Dad, or Grandma dead of Covid

I know which I’d rather my son had. It’s really easy now that we’re through the worst of it to forget the days when 1,000+ people were dying, and how much worse it could have got. It’s really easy to forget the people like my mate who is back in hospital for the 3rd time due to long Covid.

If it weren’t for the control measures we would have been in the same boat as Brazil or India. Do you really want that for your kids because I don’t want it for mine.

The chances for my children of either me, DH or any grandparents dying of Covid were and are miniscule. Obviously this doesn't apply to everyone and I do understand that children who live with CEV in the peak would have been v high risk. I think the measures were needed at the time. We need to move on now, and make up for that lost time.

Couldn't agree more

Haha, I knew people would jump on my comment about the preschool "graduation", I know how threads like this go, it's a competition to be as scathing as possible about the things people are sad about

My post was clear, I said it's not the end of the world, just a bit sad, and I'm more concerned that there are no school visits or transition days. Why should some children get to visit their new school and others not?

I have been angry on behalf of all children and young people, I think a lot of restrictions have affected them a lot more, and had an even bigger negative impact, than the affect on my preschooler and our family (apart from the first lockdown, he's been able to continue going to preschool, thank goodness - unlike all the children who weren't able to go to school for so long).

Of course missing university graduation is a real loss. Doesn't mean I can't be a little bit sad that I can't attend an event to mark the end of my son's time at nursery (nearly 4 years).

But of course... it's the coronavirus board! I'm not allowed to be sad because attending events would mean EVERYONE WOULD DIE

My son is only 6 months old but it worry’s me the world he’s growing up in.

What are you doing to change it @sunnysideup ?

PS
The current push is for children not to be vaccinated and for the surplus vaccines to be used to vaccinate vulnerable adults in other countries. I can't wait to see how this plays out with the folk currently saying UK children shouldn't be vaccinated.