Parents, are you going nuts because your kids can't attend school during the Omnicron outbreak

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I've stopped commenting on certain things parents lament about because...as a non-parent, I think I'm finally realizing that having kids indeed does flip your brain to a whole new dimension. All of my peers who have become new parents say the same things; they finally "get it." But they can never articulate exactly what the "it" is. All I know is that something major happens to people once they reproduce, and it has something to do with neuroticism.

Not everyone can work from home, OP.

And yes I'm including my own parent in that category. Everyone used to tell me how "fun" and "carefree" my mother was in her youth and how she became a different person when she had me. I never met this "carefree" person. I just know the nervous wreck who wouldn't let me do shit. -_-

Breeders miss their free government babysitters.

Omnicron? Oh dear!

I am team parents on this one. The CDC has said repeatedly that if you are vaccinated and boosted, then even if you get Covid, you have no real chance of dying or even getting seriously ill. If that is in deed the case, there is no reason why teachers should NOT be in the classroom.

I taught for a few years and parents were incensed when there was no school. One year school stayed open during a blizzard and two school buses slid off the road and it took hours to get to all the kids, and was mostly done by locals who happened to have plows and heard about the problem and came to help. But when the news reported on it, literally every parent interviewed said, "Yeah, the weather was bad, but kids have to go to school."

I knew that translated to "I don't care that they were stuck in a snow drift for three hours, just as long as they weren't at home."

Please the children (people have children - goats have kids) in real schools are in SCHOOL.

The ones having issues go to the Chicago like schools that just babysit the students, till they knife and / or shoot someone.

Parent here, so I’ll try my best. First, yes it’s true that something flips when your kid is born. It’s not some metaphysical thing. It’s just that for the first time in your life, there is this vulnerable thing that you are in every way responsible for caretaking. If you do it right, there is no way you can experience that without it drastically shifting your worldview. It tips earth off its balance.

As for remote school? Well, it’s just the worst, even under the best circumstances. There is no way to make it real school, so even though you put up a brave front and tell your kids it’s good and wonderful and what they need to do, you know it sucks. It’s not about the parents being lazy or unreasonable or needing “daycare” (even if wanting a break from parenting is certainly a part of it). It’s that you know how much your kids are missing — educationally, socially, developmentally. So much is being taken away from them because of COVID, and you worry that these memories are going to be traumatizing for them.

There is some legitimacy to the mental health aspect. BUT the main thing it has revealed is many parents hate taking care of their kids and look at school as a babysitter. Yes kids should be in school - but schools are NOT babysitters. We forced mothers to go to work and didn’t create day care - so now schools have become day care centers rather than educational environments.

R4 Precisely how I would be as a parent. Precisely why I never had a child. I would drive us both insane.

r10, I believe that's how YOU feel and it's admirable. But this just seems like parents not giving two shits if their kids get sick or if the entire teaching staff gets sick all at once and then there will be no school, even remotely.

This is about parents being selfish, entitled assholes. And just because you are vaccinated and boosted doesn't mean you still can't get seriously ill and even possibly die from Covid or suffer long covid. It's ridiculous to ask teachers to teach in person right now when we are almost averaging a half million cases per day. Just wait until one of their precious sex trophies dies from catching Covid from a teacher or another student and how quickly those same bitching parents will sue for putting their crotch fruit in harms way.

Agree that people who have kids view themselves as more of an adult than those who didn’t. But, can you imagine a world where those who didn’t want kids just didn’t have them instead of going through with it just to check off another box on the “this is what mature successful adults do” list? Because its clear having children makes some people utterly miserable.

R10 I am an aunt and I worry about those things with my nieces. I can’t believe what these kids have been through.

It's also about workplaces expecting parents to still be 100% on the job because, you know, capitalism.

I have no interest in having children but seeing my brother and sister-in-law deal with this... the issue seems to be that they have to go to work regardless so if school is shut down they have nowhere to put the kids (who are too young to stay home alone) while they go in to their jobs. That seems like a very real issue for working parents who can't be at home with the kids when school is closed.

So as much as I do love to shit on parents (no offense), this seems to run a bit deeper than entitlement for the ones who are panicking because of their jobs. My brother has been dumping the kids with his wife's elderly parents, but they are getting fed up caring for them.

If you are not around children you have no idea how much work they are. My niece has two children under 6 and they’re very well behaved. But after an hour with them I’m exhausted. I feel for the parents. Schools need to be open and society needs more inexpensive day care.

With all due respect for the parents' jobs and so forth, there's a reality principle at work here that the editorial-writers are somehow missing. In-person classes in the midst of a highly contagious surge means that tons of kids and teachers will be home sick. Vaccines work, but not enough to prevent a lot of flu-like illness. These parents are grasping at straws and creating false alternatives; it's not "keep them home or send them to school," it's "keep them home or have them (probably at some point) home sick for a week or two and with substitute teachers and chaotic lesson plans the rest of the time."

[quote]Parent here, so I’ll try my best.

being a fur parent isn't real parenting

[quote]And just because you are vaccinated and boosted doesn't mean you still can't get seriously ill and even possibly die from Covid or suffer long covid.

And just because you have a drivers license and wear your seatbelt doesn't mean you can't get into a vehicular accident and be seriously injured or die.

We make risky decisions every single second of every day. The logical thing to do is take precautions that are within reason and keep it moving. In case it's unclear, getting vaccinated and boosted would be one of those precautions that are within reason.

At some point, you have to realize that continuing to worry about this virus to this extent, even after taking steps to protect yourself, borders on being a higher level of neuroticism than many parents have been expressing about having their children out of school for so long.

R11.. well said.. I can kind of see parent's issues with this, but geez, it's not like the kids have been at home, not at school for years and years!...

Reason #129,896,985 I feel lucky that I was born w/o the desire to be a parent.

Hard cheese, parents! You wanted 'em, you deal with it!

Include me out!

OP here. I appreciate the honesty of the parents who are posting here and the thoughtful, respectful nature of these posts. Now another heartless admission: I hear parents talk about students' disappointment and emotional upheaval during the pandemic, and they're speaking solely about remote learning, not the dealth of those close to them. I don't think sending the message "you poor thing, thank you for showing up" is a good message to convey to young people faced with their first of what will become many challenges in their lifetime. I think we should be teaching resilience and not abandoning expectations for young people.That doesn't mean we shouldn't be sympathetic or look for ways to ease their pain or make remote learning better. I think we shouldn't be implanting the expectation that life is going to be perfect and that they've been betrayed when it isn't.

Again. Not a parent, but I imagine having the remote-learning protocol suddenly thrusts upon you in the middle of a global emergency when anxieties are already high can look a little something like this for many parents. Poor struggling mama:

I understand why parents want kids back in schools and are very frustrated with schools that have stayed remote. But all the parents I know whose kids are back to in-person schooling are CONSTANTLY having to go pick kids up and bring them home because of covid exposure and testing.

Honestly I think parents are putting the blame for “covid life sucks and I’m tired of it” on schools when it is more about exhaustion with living under covid generally.

Also, my personal theory is parents can be annoying a lot of the time because they are sleep deprived. We’re all annoying when we’re sleep deprived and parents of young kids almost all are.

As a parent I can say that I felt (and still feel) that it is risky, selfish, dangerous and delusional to put teachers and children in crowded schools and classrooms at the height of a pandemic. My child is triple vaxxed, but I am not in a rush to send her to inperson classes just yet. I can say this with a teenager (13), while I work from home and the nanny is off. However, under different circumstances, I would probably feel very different for different reasons.

Not answering the original question, sorry OP. I'm not a parent. But I am the brother of a teacher, so this is the other side of the equation.

My sister works at a high school. She's the kind of person who loves to teach and prefers to be teaching in person. However, she tells me that it is mayhem at her school. At least 25% of the students are out, either because they are sick or are isolating due to a family member being sick or being a close contact with a sick person. There are also parents who are scared to send their kids to school because the kid or someone in their family can't risk getting COVID. 10% of the teachers are out sick as well. There are not enough substitute teachers, so non-teaching staff are the subs. The school nurse is running all over the place, doing contact tracing and giving rapid tests. If kids need the nurse for other edical issues, they won't find her becuase she's too busy doing the tracing and testing. Every day, more kids get sick, as well as staff and teachers. She knows there are kids who have a someone in their household who is sick, but are coming to school anyway.

She tells me many of the teachers wish that there had been a two to three week shut down, right after the holidays, because everyone knew that a large number of teachers, staff, and students had gathered with family and friends, perhaps travelled, and would come back to school infected with COVID. Instead, they came back to schools that were little prepared to deal with this Covid surge.

I hate how this has become a school vs. family issue. Schools are doing their best in these uncertain times.

Same r23. My desire to be a parent took a tremendous hit when my first younger sibling was born...when I was 8. Three more came after that at ages 9, 11, and 12 respectively. And guess who had to babysit their asses?

Sure, I may have had fleeting thoughts of becoming a parent over the years, but I'd quickly get flashbacks to those babysitting days and immediately snap tf out of it. I swear people who have kids almost want to semi-force other people to have them for some reason. I'm starting to get that from my peers, now. I just send them random comedy clips as my answers, now. Because that's what it is at this point; comedy, lol.

Parenthood is a scam.

Teachers are some of the most entitled, biggest babies out there. They make good money, yet always complain that they are broke. They generally work 5 days a week 8 to 5, and get long summer breaks. When they are given any standards or any oversight, they freak out about being controlled. And now, they act as though they are the only workers who are expected to have to go to work.

The Covid Cult wants to have their cake and eat it too. We are told that getting vaccinated and boosted means that you will not get serious Covid. Yet, we are also told that teachers will put their lives to risk in the classroom. Even though child to adult transmission is low.

Covid is scary but if you are vaccinated then get over it. Children have now been out of school for over two years in some cities. Remote education for younger children doesn’t work. This is particularly impacting low income students. It isn’t about baby sitting, it is about quality education.

In the UK we've stayed open come hell or high water since vaccines. Schools are only allowed to close for massive outbreaks. Probably 75% of the staff at the school I work at have had covid. No one has died, but one older TA was on a ventilator and has long covid / is very frail as a result of it. She caught it before the vaccines came out, though.

[quote] It isn’t about baby sitting, it is about quality education.

Where's the quality education if classrooms are experiencing wave after wave of absenteeism because of mild covid cases, causing constant disruption to the lesson plans, as is the reality?

Moron.

I totally agree, R13, that some parents might be taking a much more self-centered view on it. But regardless of where you stand (and I am 100% in support of the teachers and have always understood when my kid’s school has gone remote), I just wanted to stress that remote school is really not great for the kid, regardless of the parents. And some of us who hate it do so because we see it as having a really crappy impact on our kids, not because we can’t handle being with our kids all day.

Another sibling of teachers. The absences of huge portions of classes means there are kids who are not learning and the resulting disparity in progress at each grade level is causing havoc. It was already difficult to teach to a group of 30 kids at different capacities and learning levels - especially now that everyone, including the learning disabled, are being forced into one class. The banning of “tracks” or different classes for the quick leaning and slower learning is now compounded by the wildly different class attendance of students over the past 2 years.

I don’t have a dog in this hunt except from the political side. This issue is why McAuliffe lost Virginia. If parents aren’t mollified by the midterms, we’re fucked. Eric Adams gets it.

It’s just a situation where a lot of things can be true at the same time. Nobody — not kids, not parents, not teachers, not politicians — expected to have to reshape the school/work/parenting day in this way. There are no easy answers because there are no easy answers.

[quote]They make good money, yet always complain that they are broke. They generally work 5 days a week 8 to 5, and get long summer breaks. When they are given any standards or any oversight, they freak out about being controlled. And now, they act as though they are the only workers who are expected to have to go to work.

You don't know what the fuck you're talking about. Depending on where they live and work, they may be broke. Teachers work longer hours than 8 to 5, often bringing work home and prepping for classes on weekends. Many teachers have other jobs to make ends meet, and over the summer, they teach summer school or work their second or third job. None of them think think they are the only workers who have to work. Your comment is is just hyperbolic and flagrant ignorance.

We need to just stop the testing. Let people get sick and recover Stop shutting down life so the boomers can live longer.

No one cares about parents and their annoying crotch droppings.

[quote] Teachers are some of the most entitled, biggest babies out there.

No need to read anything else you posted. No need to read anything else you ever post, really. You are just a fucking idiot of the highest degree.

I would rather have the kids home than get very sick or spread sickness to other families. I kept my kids home this week (they arent sick but multiple classrooms were shut down due to Covid and one of my kids was sent home due to covid exposure Monday so of course I just kept everyone home). My older kid’s teacher has been out sick all week. I emailed her my number and told her to order Uber Eats and grocery delivery off my account whenever she needed something, and that I could do a pharmacy run for her if she needed anything. Got a text from another parent, only five kids in that class showed up to school yesterday. I am lucky enough to have a flexible work schedule so the kids and I spent the week at home painting, doing yoga, gardening, and cooking. It is like I am running a fancy rehab facility. The kids’ “take-home” work for the week took all of an hour to complete. I love getting a break when theyre in school but it was absolutely stupid to just send all the kids back to school after Christmas break with no two- or three- week quarantine after the holidays. Ridiculously stupid. Would rather just keep them home than bring home covid or unintentionally spread it around. I have so much sympathy for the parents who dont have the option to be home with the kids when there is an emergency.

As someone who worked in the education system later in life, I was surprised at how much elementary schools do for kids--and their parents. Schools are not day care, and ultimately the responsibility for the kids are their parents.

Having kids is a joint effort. It’s exactly why just had the one and she’s grown but that doesn’t matter because you’re a parent for life.

Honestly I failed at parenthood but made the best of it with the help of my mother.

Having kids is not for everyone.

I make so little money at my school support staff job I'd earn more working retail. Teachers aren't earning all that much more.

"So much to unpack here..." (just pretending I'm Anderson Cooper)

It's true that it is a totally different thing depending on how old the kids are and whether or not you work outside the home. My kids are both in their teens (and therefore, they are vaccinated. Appointment for their boosters is in a week) so it isn't a big deal. Also, I have been home for the past two years on mental health leave and then unemployment. So things aren't that hard here. Also, one kid is academically gifted and the other is very dyslexic. So I am sort of seeing two sides.

Honestly, I'm not a great parent. But when I started reading this thread I thought, "self, it is lunch time and your kids are probably hungry as heck. Go make them grilled cheese. So I did. Thank you, Dataloungers, for guilting (sp?) me into getting out of bed. I actually like virtual school because I don't have to get up and drive the kids to their bus stops. Yes, I suck.

I actually liked the time I had with my kids last year. It was like having them as little kids again, but we were able to have real discussions. It was like a bonus year. We went on walks and had fun. We were our own little pod. They had to hang out with each other and with us (their parents).

As for whether or not teachers make a lot of dough, it depends on the state you live in. I'm in NJ and teachers do well. Other states are very different.

I haven't answered the question very well. I don't know what the right answer is. I'm just trying to go with the flow. I can't imagine being a teacher right now and to be forced to work with all these unvaccinated kids. I would hate their parents. I am on a facebook group for the local town. One woman is really riled up because her pre-k developmentally disabled kid can't be at school because schools are closed this week. I feel for her, I'm sure she has to work and it must suck to have a kid that disabled, but geeze. Can't she put herself in the shoes of the teachers who have to work closely with disabled pre-k kids who are unvaccinated?

Everything is a mess.

My sister was a teacher for many years. During her first say 5 years, she wasn't making much but she went back and got a Masters degree and became a mentor teacher to other up and coming teachers and got a bump in pay. She was a teacher for 20 something years and was making close to 100 grand when she decided to become a principal. She makes over 200 grand per year and is retiring this year at 55 and will bring home almost 7000 per month in her pension. Health insurance for life.

She doesn't understand why I don't travel more when I get two weeks off per year and make 70 thousand while working two jobs. I guess I should have been a teacher but it wasn't for me.

I could never be around kids all day. Would lose my mind if I had to be a teacher. I get hives even thinking about it.

Whenever I say that to a teacher they say being around kids is the only part they actually like - it’s the administration and the parents they can’t deal with.

It’s understandable that both parents and teachers are going nuts. But a lot of our problem is a selfish society where everyone is about the me me me. While administrators might be well paid many teachers are not. Their great reward comes out of retirement because of pensions and health insurance. All that said, the damage done to our entire society by not having kids and proper learning environments will create havoc for years. That will require a new kind of patients that I’m not sure than most people have these days.

Patience?

OP, it's not "Omnicron."

Most people would be better off not having any kids. They have them and then they can't wait to leave them with their grandparents or a babysitter for some "me time" and are happy when they can finally send them to daycare, Kindergarten and school. I understand that this situation is difficult in households where parents have to work to pay the bills, but enough stay-at-home mommies complain louder than working moms. If you don't like your kids and don't want to spend time with them, don't have them in the first place.

A lot of schools here in the UK finish between 2-2:30pm (earlier start, shorter lunch break) so weren't much use in terms of 'babysitting' pupils even before covid. Most kids live within a 20 minute walk of their school so they are back home well before 3pm.

When you become a parent you become MORE ENTITLED!!! FACT!

Especially American parents! Fuck you parents who use the excuse "oh, my brain flipped." That's another ridiculous excuse people with kids use. to get away with there anti social bullshit behavior. I'm one block away from a school and I see this bullshit every fucking day. It sucks! Parents view anyone working at a school as their servants. Even people who live around a school are just those who have to put up with what they give out.

NO! Fuck all parents and grease fire to all of you!

Yes, I don't understand people who are triple jabbed and still scared of the virus and hiding in their house like there's a nuclear out there.

A convenient excuse to laze away?

r55, that's because you're a troll, hon.

r55 = the Defacto Stalker troll.

Enough said.

The kids should be in school. I'm a full-time professor. I worked my butt off through 2 years of this crap. There were some positive aspects because on line communication and information resources are thoroughly integrated in my pedagogy and I thought I was a dinosaur. We've been in classroom and online in cycles for 2 years. It's quite hybrid now. A lot of these teachers aren't even trying. They are lazy and stupid, is my impression. Too stupid to adapt their teaching and put some goddamned effort into it. Maybe they are underpaid. That might make me feel more charitable about what I see. I am well paid so I do my job.

R48 this is true of most teachers who stay at it for 2 decades and like the educational exchange - student-teacher. I made a mistake earlier this week with a colleague and felt like crap but I had 2 great classes today with lovely optimistic young people and that's what it is all about. They keep me young and they give me energy. Sounds vampirish but I give them a lot of energy too because I help them learn, I don't babysit or coast.

French teachers struck the other day. They complained the schools haven't got their completely new HVAC filtration systems, and stacks of corona tests everywhere, and yada yada yada. It's the same story all over rich Europe. Very few rich countries broke out the billions to convert schools into highly purified "safe rooms". Come on. Working class people have mostly had to keep working through the entire pandemic. NO HVAC safety nets and endless refills of corona tests. You know who has these kinds of "command" infrastructure management. Police states. China.

I like union politics generally and I'm in a teachers union and a government workers union. But people have to do their jobs.

This would have been the perfect time to start my expensive private school where anything goes as long as your check clears.

Too bad I only seem able to expound on celebrity gossip, the Golden Girls, cock size, and the distinctions between the upper and upper middle class, from 30 years ago. THANKS A LOT, DATALOUNGE! I've learned nothing!

[quote]Parents, are you going nuts because your kids can't attend school during the Omnicron outbreak

I'm planning a series of helpful seminars if anyone is interested.

R54 marry me.

Project that, r 64.

Nobody can stand being around kids for any length of time, least of all their parents. That’s why they dump them off at state-sponsored daycare every day, aka “school.”

Looks like the kids who stay at home are missing out on bullying.