Help. I’m trapped

[MamaOl93]

Have posted about my family before but im so trapped and it’s breaking my heart not knowing what to do anymore.

Single mum of my 4yo, dad not on scene at all, never has been. My son goes to pre-school but my hours of work 2 days a week don’t fit in with my son’s nursery hours - tried to change but they’re so fully booked I can only decrease and not increase his hours or change sessions.

My son was off nursery for two months out of my fear of Covid but I put him back in on Monday this week just gone. He developed a cold which turned into a cough, he’s absolutely fine now though, but my family look after my son out of the hours of nursery to help me out. They’ve now told me that if he isn’t better 100% by Tuesday then I cannot work on Wednesday.
I feel so trapped and I’m crying my eyes out cause I don’t know what to do.
Please help 😭

-posted on parenting forum aswell but thought might be better on this due to people relating maybe-

So are your family not wanting to look after him because of the possible Covid risk?

If your son is absolutely fine now, I'm not sure why you are so worried. If he's not then its hardly unreasonable of your family to not want to take the risk.

I appreciate it must be difficult at the moment, but it seems like what you really need to do is source a better childcare arrangement.

Would they be more reassured if you did a lateral flow test?

@unicornsarereal72 I do lateral flow tests twice a week due to me working in the NHS. All negative but my dad says that that “proves nothing”.

If he’s got a cough take him for a test, the result would come back before tue!

How is he now. I agree if he has a cough still get him tested . Early years have very little protection.

If he is fine he is fine.

I'm a lone parent of two OP. Covid has been incredibly difficult in terms of how much time off ive had to have because it's not just a case of poorly-ish child who can go and lie on the sofa at a grandparents house (usually back up plan if school won't accept them, luckily one of the grandparents works from home most of the time and can take a child if they're likely to be quiet abd low maintenance). It's the requirement to isolate alongside the children that has absolutely screwed me and as sympathetic as my team are it still makes me feel very guilty.

That being said, I work for the NHS. This means that if me or my children show symptoms we can go and get tested by my employers the same day. I've never had to wait longer than 24 hours for the result which definitely helps. Do you not have something like that set up in your trust? I know PCR tests aren't nice for little ones but the nurses who do them are old hands by now and they're over incredibly swiftly.