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

@TragedyHands

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.

ah yes, as long as we pay our food bills with magic beans rather than the money we earn, we'll all just be absolutely peachy.

Have you considered a job writing for ParentClub?

@poppet31 if that does happen, he would almost certainly count as a vulnerable child (would fit the criteria that school use) so you could probably get him into lockdown school?

@TragedyHands

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.

Thanks for this. Luckily I and my DH just work for shits and giggles and not for the money to house, feed and clothe our DD, so I suppose we can just jack that it. Also there are absolutely no mental or physical health impacts on her from being largely confined to a garden less flat with two stressed out adults and no peer interactions. Obviously by being upset about nursery closures I haven't been putting her first.

As with the first lockdown, there are a lot of people who are welcoming the opportunity to tell women off for selfishly working in the first place.

@GoldenOmber

As with the first lockdown, there are a lot of people who are welcoming the opportunity to tell women off for selfishly working in the first place.

Do you not think men should cut down and prioritise the woman's work. I've found the women stop because their dh earn more, they don't go for the cheaper wage, or the dh could cut hours to accommodate their partners work.

Well I've received a not very helpful reply from my MSP which is basically a reiteration of the Scottish Government's Twitter feed and The Parent Club. In short: it's your problem, you be the one to negotiate with your employer and hope they're supportive. Relevant excerpts:

"The Scottish Government has indicated that it intends to publish further guidance on this ASAP: twitter.com/ELCScotGov/status/1340578376000552961

"I would encourage you to discuss the potential challenges with your employer to establish what support they are able to provide to those affected."

Do you not think men should cut down and prioritise the woman's work.
I've found the women stop because their dh earn more, they don't go for the cheaper wage, or the dh could cut hours to accommodate their partners work.

Most families are not in the position where either parent could simply 'cut hours' enough to care for small children full-time.

And even if we all magically could afford to do that tomorrow, what do you think would happen to the jobs we do? Me and my colleagues work on services that are really, essentially important to a lot of people right now and 75% of my team have small children. If we all just merrily jack in our jobs, what do you think is going to happen to the services we provide?

@PlumbNormal

Well I've received a not very helpful reply from my MSP which is basically a reiteration of the Scottish Government's Twitter feed and The Parent Club. In short: it's your problem, you be the one to negotiate with your employer and hope they're supportive. Relevant excerpts:

"The Scottish Government has indicated that it intends to publish further guidance on this ASAP: twitter.com/ELCScotGov/status/1340578376000552961

"I would encourage you to discuss the potential challenges with your employer to establish what support they are able to provide to those affected."

I am fascinated to learn what kind of 'support' they think employers could or should provide to those affected.

That’s disappointing from your MSP Plumb. I wonder what the additional guidance will be.

In our house it's not because it's 'women's work' that the homeschool/work from home juggle (hell!) falls to me, I'm the bigger earner. But dp works in a hospital so he has no option but to go out to work. He does what he can when he is here but we all end up exhausted with it. I think I was close to a breakdown last time. I'm not sure I can do it again for an extended period of time. For now I'm just focusing on the Christmas break.

Has anyone else noticed the SG/LA wording has now changed to 'home learning until at least January 18th'. So it's not the quick sharp firebreak that was originally outlined, it could go on for a while...

In my house DH did more of the childcare/homeschool work than me over Lockdown 1 because I was working on crisis-crisis-Covid-crisis stuff. But I am still well aware that nationally, this overwhelmingly fell to women to do.

@GoldenOmber

As with the first lockdown, there are a lot of people who are welcoming the opportunity to tell women off for selfishly working in the first place.

This.

I'm not sure if this is the same elsewhere, but the definition of Key Worker parents is still to be set for this new lockdown according to my nursery /local authority (South Lanarkshire). They are currently compiling a list of parents job titles/industries and analysing it before making decisions... Although they did only ask for one parents info

DH and I both work in essential industries but last time our nursery didn't have enough key worker children to justify opening so closed anyway. Surely there should be less risk to the general population having nurseries open vs people having to rely on grandparents for childcare? And thats only IF they have that option.

“I would encourage you to discuss the potential challenges with your employer to establish what support they are able to provide to those affected."

Hello to all fellow self employed, contractors and freelancers for whom ‘discussing the potential challenges with your employer’ is not an option.

I think the wording for online school was always 'at least until 18th'. I nearly cried when I saw it.

A week is arbitrary and serves no purpose from an educational POV, especially given the isolation period is 10 days.

So, has anyone else just assumed this to be a mass pilot scheme to test how everyone will work if you have to isolate, as a class, family or individual pupil level?
Many of us haven’t been impacted by this yet, so we have no idea how robust the process or the resources available.

The expectation in isolation circumstances will be that you have a process in place for your work/domestic arrangements, hence why they aren’t making it their concern and couldn’t care less what your employment situation might be. If it is a pilot, it makes sense to tack it on to the end of Christmas holidays, with the worst of the winter still to come, but I don’t necessarily agree with it, of course.

Can't believe they are doing this. It's so important for primary age children to be in school and parents cannot effectively care for certainly preschool children and realistically under age 8 and work, kids need input not ignored. Again this will massively exacerbated existing inequalities. And for what reason. Excess deaths are not above the 5 year average. Hospitals in London are very busy but this is the case every single winter. If ambulances queuing outside A&E never meant we needed to properly fund the NHS before why does it suddenly mean we need to destroy society now. If we don't shift this paradigm we're in big trouble. The vaccine will not take cases to 0. We need to properly fund the NHS vaccinate all we can and accept that COVID is a virus we will all need to live with for a long time.

I'm almost in tears about this I can't cope. I'm a single parent and nearly had a mental breakdown last lockdown due to my 3 year old. Her behaviour has got even worse now and the only thing that keeps me going is her nursery hours. Unemployed, I'm alone with both of my children all day. Was supposed to become a keyworker on January 4th which is no longer happening (was supposed to also start in November but my checks didn't come back on time so was on the next group intake which isn't happening anymore). My 9 year old isn't too bad but the screaming. My god the screaming I can't cope with the screaming. 3 year old screams from she wakes up until she goes to bed. 9 year old screams back at her. My nursery has just sent out a text to fill in a form for keyworker spaces. This is going to go way beyond the 18th isn't it. I love her so much but I can't cope with her. I'm already hanging on by a thread and just last week I said thank God she wasn't as bad as this during lockdown. Now here we are.

My DC nursery say they still haven’t been given any information about what’s happening and will be in touch about what the guidance is as soon as there is any. 🤷‍♀️

Mine similar. They were trying to gauge numbers just asking parents verbally if they consider themselves to be key workers.

@PivotPivotPivottt I’m really sorry that sounds extremely stressful. I wish I had something to suggest. It’s really shit.

@ATieLikeRichardGere

Mine similar. They were trying to gauge numbers just asking parents verbally if they consider themselves to be key workers.

@PivotPivotPivottt I’m really sorry that sounds extremely stressful. I wish I had something to suggest. It’s really shit.

Thank you, I'm just feeling sorry for myself but I should be grateful as so many people have it worse. The saving grace is she goes to bed around 6pm although the last week or so she's been playing up a bit and waking through the night but at least I get some peace at night for a bath, tv etc.

Just read this hoping its a positive sign.

www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/18959422.swinney-schools-safe-stay-open-despite-covid-fears/

@PivotPivotPivottt

I'm almost in tears about this I can't cope. I'm a single parent and nearly had a mental breakdown last lockdown due to my 3 year old. Her behaviour has got even worse now and the only thing that keeps me going is her nursery hours. Unemployed, I'm alone with both of my children all day. Was supposed to become a keyworker on January 4th which is no longer happening (was supposed to also start in November but my checks didn't come back on time so was on the next group intake which isn't happening anymore). My 9 year old isn't too bad but the screaming. My god the screaming I can't cope with the screaming. 3 year old screams from she wakes up until she goes to bed. 9 year old screams back at her. My nursery has just sent out a text to fill in a form for keyworker spaces. This is going to go way beyond the 18th isn't it. I love her so much but I can't cope with her. I'm already hanging on by a thread and just last week I said thank God she wasn't as bad as this during lockdown. Now here we are.

I can relate to this so much. My ds is 3 and i'm a single parent studying full time. He's well behaved but having his 24/7 with not one day of rest for this whole year and trying to do essays and exams has been so so hard. My heart sunk when his pre school called today to say they were deferring his nursery place until further notice. I said would this be the 18th and they said they would have to wait and see if the government stuck to the date. It's so depressing and feels like the end is never coming. I feel so sad for you as it must be so hard with tricky behaviour to deal with too. Praying they open on the 18th for us

What is the criteria for key worker status? Do they define jobs or industries?

I wasn’t working during the last lockdown but I am due to start in the new year in banking and OH in supporting retail IT systems. He said he is deemed key worker as without his role if a Asda stores IT goes down they won’t trade.

My role is supporting bank payments.

Which doesn’t feel key worker but might be. I have no idea.

I would absolutely love Nicola sturgeon to trial the working whilst caring for a nursery child. She should try and stand on her pedestal at her podium with my daughter in the background. Then deal with the guilt and tears when she is ignored.

Key worker status is I think getting left up to councils to define, but last time mine said that for 2-parent households, both parents needed to count as keyworkers and both needed to be working out of the home. No WFH job qualified no matter what we were doing.