Essential childcare only in tier 4

[PlumbNormal]

Please tell me that you don't think this means nurseries will be closed? ie does essential mean only open for keyworkers? I can't find clarity in the published guidance

I'm sorry @FourSeasonsTotalLandscaping - I hope they rethink this. I. will be writing to my MSP this morning

@Sleepdeprived42long I also have one in Primary and I agree that they can't just be left to themselves all day. If it comes to it though we will set him up with a laptop and check in regularly to hopefully keep him on track (although I appreciate we are lucky to be able to do this). Our toddler is different though in that she needs constant supervision and we can't just leave her to it while we work (not to mention she then distracts her brother). If we can't send her to nursery this changes the situation from difficult to impossible.

In terms of transmission risk there is a sliding scale - Primary children are much lower risk than secondary children, but nursery-aged children are lower still. I think you could actually argue that Primary children should be in school full time as the cutoff for social distancing was defined as 12 (and I made this point to my MSP). But if they have decided they need to increase stringency in the guidelines, there is another step change between primary and nursery in terms of risk.

It’s on gov.scot now though still not on parent club

'Informal childcare' still allowed I see. Excellent, I'll just tell the nursery staff to pretend they don't have disclosure checks and pay them cash in hand.

Exactly, childminding and informal childcare is fine?! What's the difference? Nurseries aren't generally huge and as a result of the pandemic ours has maintained bubbles for smaller groups of kids and has all kinds of rules in place; childminders can have a significant number of children in a small space; informal childcare is generally provided by more vulnerable people ie grandparents! Wtf?!

I think the document is worded badly. If I remember correctly informal childcare is not allowed in tier 4, unless you are a key worker. But double check the rules just in case!
So unless you are lucky and have a childminder or nanny you are stuffed 😔

The number of children attending a nursery on a weekly basis is huge compared to a childminder?
We have just over 60 children in the 3-5 room alone on a weekly basis. Then there's babies and 2-3's. That's a lot of families, and a lot of potential exposure to COVID. No PPE, no social distancing.

Email your msp everyone! I’ve not had a response yet.

I've emailed mine too

@PlumbNormal

Exactly, childminding and informal childcare is fine?! What's the difference? Nurseries aren't generally huge and as a result of the pandemic ours has maintained bubbles for smaller groups of kids and has all kinds of rules in place; childminders can have a significant number of children in a small space; informal childcare is generally provided by more vulnerable people ie grandparents! Wtf?!

This is the thing; retail and hospitality are going to be closed but most other businesses will still be open. For a lot of companies January is a very busy time so they need their staff to be working. Parents (mothers especially) are going to be torn again, faced with choosing between trying to work and care for kids vs using informal childcare that is often grandparents who will, in most cases, be more vulnerable than professional childcare staff.

@Callisto1

I think the document is worded badly. If I remember correctly informal childcare is not allowed in tier 4, unless you are a key worker. But double check the rules just in case! So unless you are lucky and have a childminder or nanny you are stuffed 😔

It SEEMS to be broader. Looks like if you're working from home, and need childcare so you can do that, you are allowed to use informal childcare even if you don't fit the 'key worker' criteria. But you can't send your children to nursery even if nursery is still open, because that's only for 'key worker' and vulnerable children.

THANKS PARENTCLUB

Parent Club is experiencing delusions.

Listening to the daily briefing but nothing on childcare so far.

It's so exhausting. All these warm words about 'we know how many sacrifices we've all had to make', but the sacrifices that working parents in particular had to make during spring lockdown were brutal, and it was so much worse to feel like nobody even NOTICED that at the time. It was all heartwarming Facebook memes about family time or jokes about haha, kids interrupting Zoom calls just like that BBC bloke a few years ago, bet it's noisy at YOUR house haha! I think a large chunk of the country still didn't realise that not everyone with kids was on furlough/got key worker childcare.

And on top of that, to feel that the people actually asking us to make these sacrifices aren't even really that aware of what they're asking. Just feels like "oh never mind, mothers will do it." Mothers will carry on doing our jobs and wrangling our toddlers and homeschooling their children all at once, with a smile on our face and a fun craft activity about Christmas vegetables on the table, and we won't even worry a thought about how many nurseries and out of school clubs will survive because we're #makingmemories!

Even that ParentClub screenshot I posted there. "Come up with a balance that works for everyone." What do they think that looks like, exactly? How is it possible to get a balance that works for everyone when we have this many contracted hours and this many bills to pay and this many children at home? Do we just look after children/homeschool from 6am-6pm, then work at our paid jobs from 6pm-2am, and write off sleep as a sacrifice we're all making for the greater good, yet again?

And I am prepared to make sacrifices for the greater good. I am not even saying these moves are wrong. But to ask this of us, and then treat it as so unimportant that you can just announce it on Twitter on a Sunday morning and put some pious waffle on ParentClub about 'balance' and leave it at that. Fucking fucking hell.

I am clearly not in a very Christmassy mood right now.

You’ll hear no arguments from me GoldenOmber. I know exactly what you’re saying. It’s not a good feeling.

I hear - and feel - everything that you say @GoldenOmber. 'Come up with a balance that works for everyone' is a fucking insult, a complete dismissal

Absolutely spot on @GoldenOmber. The 'advice' about how we're supposed to manage is just outright insulting (and clearly written by someone who's never looked after a preschooler while trying to do anything meaningful).

Thanks @GoldenOmber I remembered it incorrectly then or it's changed since I checked it a few weeks ago 🤷🏻‍♀️. Can't keep up anymore...

Absolutely with you @GoldenOmber. It's so frustrating and enraging.

Agree with GoldenOmbre.

That parent club site does my nut. It's the same patronising, shitey advice about "make a pattern with twigs and leaves", "go for a walk", "make a cake" that they repackage for every season and festival.

Some more converts.

Don't really support all the wee burnie etc stuff but the point about it starting off as "we" and now it's all "I" that is a good one.

I hope they do this in England too, our children are more important than a job as long as stopping work doesn't mean you'll starve.
Sometimes you have to put your kids first, easily done in families with 2 parents.
just cut your cloth accordingly.

I'm not a convert, though, I don't want to convert people to 'Nicola Sturgeon Destroying Scotland', and I'm not hearing anything from the opposition parties about how they'd do any better apart from Patrick Harvie banging on about closing more schools quicker. I am long past even caring about independence. I just want them to be a bit less shit about childcare.