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Covid

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Original poster

What happens to children of single mums with no support if get hospitalised by Covid?

76 replies

NoviceNewMN · 21/10/2021 16:16

My friend who is a single mum and lives on her own has just come down with Coronvirus and her two children have tested positive. She doesn't have any relatives and her mum lives abroad.

It got me thinking (for which read worrying) what happens if a single mother with no family or other support and totally absent father gets Covid and gets so bad they have to be hospitalised?

If the children are also positive, no one is going to 'volunteer' to have them in their own family so what happens to the children?

Do they get put into hospital too? Even if social services gets involved, who actually looks after Covid positive children without risking getting it themselves?

OP posts:

alexdgr8 · 21/10/2021 17:14

@onthinice

Good question abs one I was worrying about the other night as my two were in bed (with covid) and I was getting chest pains that radiated down my left arm and up to my chin. Fingers poised over the the 9 on the phone, but after a few minutes it subsided so I didn't bother. Really don't know what I would have done.

please contact you GP and tell them about these symptoms, asap. if you were to collapse, in the house, and children in bed, it could become a very serious situation very quickly. best get it checked out. good luck.

Greybeardy · 21/10/2021 18:03

@HumunaHey

It's a horrible scenario to think about. The DC couldn't go to hospital too just because they have covid.

You would need to find SOMEONE to take them. That would make me very anxious.

If there was no other safe option then the children could be admitted to hospital (have been involved in a case where the healthy child of a single parent dying in intensive care was admitted to the paed ward as a place of safety until SS could mobilise).

Underhisi · 21/10/2021 18:31

Social services would provide something if there was no other option. My son's school has a residential care home attached and there were some cases in there and they were looked after by care workers. If both of us ( parents) became moderately unwell then ds would probably temporarily have to go into residential care as no family and friends can manage him.

CloseYourEyesAndSee · 21/10/2021 18:36

There would be a foster carer somewhere who would have them. Personally I'd be fine to look after covid positive kids of friends or family if it happened. My DS has had covid and it didn't worry me for myself at all. Not everyone will be terrified to have covid in the home.

UsedUpUsername · 21/10/2021 18:39

If the children are also positive, no one is going to 'volunteer' to have them in their own family

Big assumption. It’s not like they have leprosy, wow

SeasonalNamechange · 21/10/2021 18:43

taking in kids who are positive is a stupid idea

why willingly put your entire family at risk? would workplaces pay for your absence in that scenario, should you test positive yourself or need time off to care for the ill kids?

UsedUpUsername · 21/10/2021 18:46

@SeasonalNamechange

taking in kids who are positive is a stupid idea

why willingly put your entire family at risk? would workplaces pay for your absence in that scenario, should you test positive yourself or need time off to care for the ill kids?

I mean this holds for other infectious diseases too.

But I’ve cared for relatives with flu or colds. And would do same for COVID as am vaxxed and only have young children.

sunshinerobots · 21/10/2021 18:47

I'm a social worker, this has literally been happening all through the pandemic? We work with parents to see where the children would be best cared for - parents would make the decision - friends and family would obviously be the first choice and many would be fine to take positive children - and foster care would also be considered, many many foster carers have had to take + children throughout covid and isolate their households depending on rules at the the time. Foster carers are absolutely incredible. And then when parents are better, the children return home.

MajorCarolDanvers · 21/10/2021 18:49

If there was no one else to care for the children the social services will arrange respite foster or residential care.

XenoBitch · 21/10/2021 18:50

I would have thought emergency foster care if there is no one else to have the children.

bloodywhitecat · 21/10/2021 18:51

Fostering families would step up for sure lots of us are double jabbed and have had our boosters now in my LA.

Choconuttolata · 21/10/2021 18:54

When my single parent friend had Covid, we told her we would take her kids if she needed hospitalisation as we had all just had Covid and come out of isolation. We also dropped round a sats monitor and anything else she needed.

Social care have to make arrangements for emergency care in these situations if there is no-one else who can take the children.

2bazookas · 21/10/2021 19:01

They'd be taken into care by social services. No guarantee that the emergency provision would be in the same town , or take all the kids together.

gumball37 · 21/10/2021 19:05

You're describing me. Positive test results today, symptoms since Saturday. Currently at hospital for monoclonal antibodies. A friend is masked up and has my friends outside in our backyard. Thankfully she said yes! I've been vaxxed, wear a mask every goddamned place I have to go, while the hillbillies near me all go maskless and claim the vax is a trick... Yet I'm the one who gets it! Just hoping true hospitalization isn't necessary. Likely, my children would be put into temporary/emergency foster care, as I don't see any other option.

alwayslearning789 · 21/10/2021 19:19

@beigebrownblue
"I heard someone say last year 'our normal is other peoples' difficult'

just about covers it"

Indeed... Indeed...

kowari · 21/10/2021 19:30

I'm sure most young (under 50), healthy friends or relatives wouldn't mind that the children had covid. You would need someone who would be able to stay at home as the children would have to isolate.

liveforsummer · 21/10/2021 19:51

I'd volunteer to have my single friends dc in these circumstances.

liveforsummer · 21/10/2021 19:53

@TurnUpTurnip

Not everyone’s has friends who can have their kids many single parents don’t

Tbh I think one of my colleagues would even step up in this situation

liveforsummer · 21/10/2021 19:58

@SeasonalNamechange

taking in kids who are positive is a stupid idea

why willingly put your entire family at risk? would workplaces pay for your absence in that scenario, should you test positive yourself or need time off to care for the ill kids?

Around 50% of DD's classmates currently have covid - I don't really see the difference! If I caught covid they wound t trace back where it came from so I'd get the same as if I caught it off my dd

Overthebow · 21/10/2021 20:01

I would have friends kids if this happened.

Madwife123 · 21/10/2021 20:16

I’m a foster carer and have taken a covid positive child in previously. This was due to removal not parent being ill but there are people who will help children in need despite Covid.

Katya213 · 21/10/2021 20:17

I'm a single mum with no family or close friends nearby. I can't let my mind to to that place if I catch anything and need to go to hospital. I've left myself ill with anxiety over it.

pollywollydoodler · 21/10/2021 20:25

@onthinice

Could be angina. Get yourself checked out please..

MargotEmin · 21/10/2021 20:32

So sorry to hear that @Katya213. If its any consolation the legal framework under which your children would be looked after (s.17 child in need) would be very different to the framework used when children are looked after due to the risk of significant harm (s. 47 child protection). You would retain full parental responsibility and the children would be returned to you as soon as you decide you are well enough to resume their care, the state would have no power to keep them (nor would they want to, foster care is enormously expensive). Short term spells of foster care are a reality for lots of children with a chronically ill or disabled person, and there's nothing negative or shameful about it. In my experience these carers often become like extended family members, and maintain a relationship with the family outside of the immediate crisis.

My sibling had short breaks in foster care (due to his disability rather than our parents) and we're still close with his carers 25 years down the line.

shouldistop · 21/10/2021 20:38

I'd look after any relatives children in this scenario. I'd honestly even have any of my sons classmates to stay in this scenario.

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