Guilt Free Railing 17

[WouldBeGood]

Happy New Thread, Railers!

@lockdownbear yep I haven't been inside DS nursery since early March 2020 (he started Jan 2020) he's since moved up 2 rooms!

His nursery do their best with video tours etc but yes it's handover at the door masks on, markers on the floor for spacing of parents etc.

DS is definitely a covid toddler and it shows. Anything on his hands he wants them washed immediately not at the end of a activity and will say stuff like I need to get the germs off.

That's so sad @Scottishskifun, not least because getting a bit dirty through play is essential for little ones to properly prime their immune systems. Having everything so excessively clean is really not a good thing, and I can't help but think that this will come back to bite us in a few years when these children are more likely to have weaker or dysregulated immune systems. And for the rest of us too - we're already seeing signs of 'immune debt' through the lack of natural exposure to things.

Personally I struggle with the concept that hand sanitiser is 'good' especially for toddlers / children's skin. It is 70% alcohol and loads of chemicals to combat the stripping of skins natural oils etc. How can this be beneficial, especially when kids put their hands in their mouth (a lot). There is still so much ignorance about Covid - so many people still think you get if off surfaces.

It’s ironic too: 13 years ago they were saying my friend’s child probably had ASD because she liked to wash her hands as soon as they were grubby!!

(This was obviously ridiculous too)

Yeah I find it very sad and its not the nurseries fault they are just having to follow the bloody guidelines. I was told he's not the only one like it.

At home we encourage to wait til the end of an activity or playing outside and often say its just a bit of mud etc and unless distressed will distract him. Qe are definitely not clean freaks about clothes or playing in mud and puddles!

He's due to start going to their forest school soon so I am hoping that will help him.
I get really angry whenever I think about the effects this has had on all children and a large part of that is caused by messages from the govt and the rules they put on places like schools and nurseries.

Not to worry, it’s FMQ’s today, so no doubt there will be incisive questioning about all this, and clear answers….

Oh, wait…. 🤣

Agree with all the sanitiser railing. I think DS has to sanitise going into every single class. Using it too often gives me sore skin. I'm not even sure there's been much evidence of transmission via touching surfaces? Not according to our H&S Director at work anyway, though I haven't fact checked myself.

The surfaces thing was largely debunked a very long time ago (well over a year), but I think no one dare remove it from their protocol because they want to ‘be safe’. Of course the inherent safety of the measures to keep us safe are rarely questioned. To be fair to our nursery they did say quite early on that children’s hands shouldn’t be sanitised because it’s not good for them (still see parents doing it though 🤦‍♀️). I must confess I have largely stopped sanitising myself as it plays havoc with my skin and does little to stop spread of a largely airborne virus anyway (plus I’m not that bothered about COVID spread anymore anyway, now we’re accepting it is here to stay and have protected the vulnerable).

Children & young people are really suffering. In ways that adults cannot imagine and stuff that may not be fully realises for years.

😱 who’d have thought it?

Guilt Free Railing 18

@shouldistop

Oh and only p1 parents are allowed in the playground. Everyone else has to drop kids at the gates. Which is fine in theory but it also means they're collected from the gate. The other day when I was taking ds1 home there was a 6yo we vaguely know standing outside the gates looking lost. I asked him if he was ok and he said he couldn't find his dad so I said we'd wait with him. His dad was 5 minutes late. The boy could have easily wandered off. 6yo's aren't known for their decision making skills.

Wow. Children of that age should never be allowed to leave the teacher unless there is someone right there for them. That's a huge error on the teacher's part. I didn't realise that some schools are keeping children in bubbles and we haven't done that at all this academic year. Doesn't make sense as even children who sit in class together all day long don't need to self isolate if one tests positive . I've only been into my son's nursery once and door drop off and pick up is all I know. A lot of schools where I teach don't allow parents of the older children into the playground for safety reasons ( unless they make an appointment of course). I prefer it. In a previous school, I had a parent tell me they were going to kick my c* in whilst bringing my class in!

Ours re introduced Bubbles just before Christmas. Probably when the nightclubs shut.

Lots of schools do the no parent in the playground thing even prior to covid. A friends DD is now in 2nd year at high school, but the year she started primary school, they introduced this, That meant that even brand new P1s on their first days in school were sent in alone from the school gate unless they were lucky enough to have an older sibling still in infants. Friends older DC was in the senior part of the school so was unable to take their little sister in either.

@StarryEyeSurprise to be fair to the teachers, they can't see who's at the gates. Luckily it's a small school and people know each other so I'd imagine another parent would always spot a child without a parent.

Ours used to allow parents to the line, so they could see the wee ones get to their parent / adult.
But with covid not allowed in the gate which must make the path more crowded.

So glad not to have a school where p1 and p2 parents aren't allowed in the playground, mine would hardly ever have gone in at that rate.