CLap for our carers tonight at 8pm

I will clap, bang, whoop, smile and wave on Thursday evenings for everyone who is working the frontline doing whatever is necessary to keep the wheels turning.
I will not be criticised for taking part in what I believe is a show of solidarity.

Well, you may be criticised Miss A but am sure you will rise above it.

I'm with you missfoodlove
I'll clap and whoop and ring my little bell until I'm blue in the face for everyone who is out there doing what they can whilst the vulnerable are at home doing what they can. I'll do it every Thursday along with my neighbours or alone if I have to and couldn't give a flying duck who criticizes me. ???

May7, Thank you!!?. Lets all be positive.

missfoodlove I m a shouter, clapper jumper up and downer I m with you all the way

????BlueBelle, loud and proud??

I think people are missing the point of the Thursday nights
It is about a big thank you, first to the brave NHS workers, then last nights to all key workers who are working so very hard, the drivers, the bin men, the shop assistants, the bus drivers the postmen and then I think it will take new legs to be a ‘Thursday night coming together’ in such awful dismal times a time when neighbours who would never normally speak to each other will come together for five minutes to show a solidarity that has been so sorely missing in the last three years
It will become the highlight of my week i have seen nothing but praise and happiness for it on the social media I go on

My son, a doctor, has told me he'd rather I didn't clap at all

Not sure that it's hugely popular where he's working

But it's harmless and if it makes people feel good about themselves then clap away!

oopsminty did your son say why he didnt want you to clap?

I'm not nit picking I really am intrigued as to why he wouldn't want you to join in?

He probably said what my son in law said, that’d he’d rather have the right equipment. I go out and clap anyway, as both my daughter and son in law are doctors, and I know how hard it is for them. They’ve been asked to work longer hours, and they’re struggling with three little children, one only two years old, who we normally provide childcare for, but obviously can’t at the moment.

Yes, I think that more practical help would be appreciated. The coming together does serve a purpose though in helping everyone feel part of a community and being positive about health care workers.

Sodapop
You’re right about the community feeling, I feel that when I go into front garden on Thursday, but I’ve just had my daughter on the phone as she’s about to go to Waitrose and wanted to know if we want anything. She’s really upset because both our daughter and her husband (both doctors) have been asked to work extra time for no extra pay, and she can’t utilise the key worker shopping as it’s at 7.00a.m just as they are going to work or getting the children ready for school. She says it would be better at 6.00 a.m when they’re not working or with children. On her part time day she had a horrendous experience at Morrisons when she did manage to get to the key worker shopping slot, I did actually write about it on another thread, where she was in the middle of a rough, pushing crowd, who were let in on the minute the key worker slot finished, who pushed her out of the way and were grabbing things off the shelves. She was frightened for herself and her two year old child. She can’t get a delivery slot or click and collect slot for love nor money at any of the stores, because they are all booked up. We had a click and collect slot booked so we’ve given it to her so she can get food for her family of five. She has now said she can’t use the key worker slots either because she can’t shop then, or because she’s afraid. She’s afraid of the people she’s trying to help. And I’m afraid for her. Clapping appreciation is wonderful, and I know that people of our generation really do feel that appreciation but others might be clapping who are greedily snapping up all the online shopping slots or pushing my girl out of the way.

Incidentally they have been told they will have to pay for the childcare they need for their two year old. We normally do their childcare or the other grandparents do it. Now out little sweetie will have to go to a nursery, he’s only been to parent and toddler groups up to now, and no one will be with him, and they need the childcare because they’re doing extra work which they’re not being paid for, but the LA won’t provide the childcare unless they pay for it. He can’t go to the nursery at his siblings school, where he’s due to go in September as it has closed. Obviously his siblings are going to their usual school as the children of key workers. When you’re all clapping for key workers please remember the difficult situations that our key workers are coping with, this awful additional stress on the top of an already stressful situation for them. We feel terrible because we’ve always been there to look after grandchildren, mend things for them, do a bit of gardening or housework, just generally supporting them all (we have three adult children) and suddenly we can’t do anything at all. I know many of you are in the same situation.

Sorry for the rants, but I feel really strongly about this. We’ve had to abandon our girl when she needs us the most.

That’s outrageous Maddyone.
I hope the BMA will do something about it.
People are heaping praise on the NHS at the moment but they should distinguish between the frontline workers and some of the managers.
Some NHS trusts are ruthless in their dealings with their employees.

Maddyone, sorry to read the added pressures you daughter and son in law are facing. I read a suggestion that the hospital shops should be run by a supermarket chain, Tesco/sainsbury whoever, stocked and staffed and only available to hospital staff. Doctors, nurses, ancillary staff shouldn't have to try and fit shopping around their exhausting and demanding work.

I understand her anxiety about shopping in supermarkets. I'm in a vulnerable category, we did a 7a Sainsbury shop which was nightmarish because it was so busy, appropriate distancing not maintained etc. I felt unsafe.

Can the BMA/Nursing unions influence so that staff can either shop in the hospital shops or be given those slots for home deliveries. I have spent hours trying to get one-impossible.

maddy you haven’t abandoned her - you just can’t be there for her but that’s not out of choice. As for your little dgc, again I know you’ve always looked after him and he’s very lucky to have had that but again, please try not to dwell on that either. Please be a bit kinder to yourself - but I know it’s easy for me to say that. What really shocks me is not being paid for extra work and the shopping difficulties. I’ve been ranting about the supermarkets for what seems like weeks now. They have been a disgrace. It just seems hopeless doesn’t it ? I wish I could come up with a magical solution. It’s good you could give her your click and collect slot but that’s hardly a longer term solution.

Thank you for such kind and caring responses jean, Iam, and suzie. It does mean a lot to me that Gransnetters read my long posts and responded. You’re right Suzie, we haven’t really abandoned our daughter, it just feels that way, when we, like many grandparents on here, did so much to help them. At least we don’t have to worry about the other two, our eldest is married but no children (by choice) and he and our lovely daughter in law are helping us with shopping. Our other son is about three quarters of an hour away, so can’t help, but we are keeping in touch by FaceTime, which is important as their seven year old is very used to seeing us every weekend. Our son is working from home, and his partner lost his job as soon as we went into lockdown. So little grandson is at home with them and the dog.
Our daughter did manage to get her shopping in Waitrose without difficultly, by shopping on Saturday afternoon it seems the shop was quiet. She refused to go to Morrisons after her last experience there. Her husband had the children as they weren’t working yesterday during the day time.
The not being paid for extra work is disgraceful isn’t it? This is the doctors, I don’t know how nurses and others working in the hospitals are faring. It’s particularly disgraceful when we consider that they have been told they must put their child in a nursery and the LA have found a nursery for them, and then on top of not paying for extra work, they’re told they must be out of pocket because they must pay for the nursery place!
I hope that all this will be remembered when the Chief Medical Officer and the like are inevitably rewarded later on with honours etc.

Our self employed family members still have expenses for buildings etc but no income. They’re expected to pay for nursery places which they can’t use.

Iam that’s another injustice isn’t it? And if key workers are being given these empty places, it means they’re being paid for twice.
There’s a lot of help being offered by the government quite rightly, but inevitably there are people who slip through the net one way of another. My next door neighbour is self employed and having difficulty getting financial support because he’s been treated for cancer for two years, and now he’s better, and only just started up his business again, he doesn’t have evidence of earnings for the last year, as he wasn’t working. I think a lot of people will fall through the cracks one way or another.

This situation hit the country with speed. The Chancellor responded with a financial support package quickly, with measures any described as Marxsist. I wouldn't go that far but I do feel it's been generally ok. There are bound to be problems, lets hope these are worked on

It would be great if Universal Credit was replaced by a benefit system that helps rather than punishes those in need.

Iam one unintended consequence of this crisis has been exposing the fault lines in our benefit system. I had to smile grimly at radio presenters and journalists shock that SSP was only £94 a week and not paid for the first 3 days. Before this most of them couldn’t have cared less

My brother worked in a job which only paid SSP. Every time he was ill he had to give up his rented house and move home to mum. His job was very low paid and didn't allow him to save. How could the government think it was enough?

anne it’s not that they thought it was enough but that they accepted this group of workers should bear the economic, personal and social costs of the economic model that underpins our society.

Agree totally. That is the attitude of government.
One can only hope that this crisis will make people think differently and perhaps care more in future.