Children in lockdown

I don't think anyone is suggesting that schools should never have been closed. During the first wave of vovid, when there was no vaccine available, of course they should have closed. What is being said, is that the later school closings right into March 2021 were, unnecessary and detrimental to children. I know the second strain of covid was equally dangerous, but by then those who were more vulnerable were better protected, and probably more used to shielding etc.

Neither is anyone showing no consideration for teachers, nor suggesting they should have been thrown to the wolves! DD2 went into school as a keyworker teacher. DH set up systems for his school to operate online lessons and carried on with all the non academic work, visiting the premises on occasions.

This is not a teacher bashing thread at all. It's a bit dramatic to say that anyone here is suggesting they should have been thrown into the firing line.

I am not retired, I am in my fifties, I work in early years and did at the time. I didn't work jn first lockdiwn but did in the rest. As people are saying some other countries did things differently in terms of education. Personally I think we should have supported those with vulnerabilities to isolate, or I think we should at least be able to talk about that idea if we are ever faced with a similar situation. Not that I think lockdowns would be achievable if/when we are faced with another pandemic.

Luckygirl - But it was ok to send shop workers to work, throw them to the wolves? The government knew healthy people should have carried on living their life reasonably normal. If you believe the government did not know this, then you must think the government did not value the lives of shop workers. I do not believe this for one minute!

But keeping schools open would have thrown teachers into the firing line and they too had their vulnerabilities and vulnerable relatives, just as we all do/did.

I do not think this thread is teacher bashing, but I do think it is retrospective wishful thinking. The lockdowns were essential.

In your view, not in mine.

And I would be very interested in how the general public would respond to the suggestion of another lockdown. I suspect it would be very different.

My grandchildren were fine. We had 2 years of it but they attended a lot of online classes and even had to wear their school uniforms. One of them was told off for not wearing her full uniform! They were lucky because there are 3 of them and they had each other, they have always been close. Their days were quite structured with scheduled breaks for lunch etc. We were only allowed up to 5 km outside the home but they used to walk round the block, luckily they live in a pretty area with a lot of trees. The worst thing was that there were no celebrations allowed when the eldest finished his school years, no valedictory or any of the usual graduation formal nights. He was upset about that.

As soon as I heard Boris say shop workers should continue to go to work, I knew it was nowhere near as dreadful as they made out. Hence, we lived our lives as normally as we could. I repeat, not for one second did I think Boris thought shop workers lives meant nothing!

This is a graph to show the excessive time the UK schools were closed compared with other European countries. Sorry, it's in French, but self-explanatory - green being open, red being closed.

Then factor in the high UK death toll to see we might have got the later 2021 closures wrong.

Thank you for that graph.

The reason I think the school closures were necessary is because the UK government did not deal with the pandemic with speedy lockdowns to nip things in the bud. It allowed all sorts of crazy super spreader events to continue with our leader joking and messing about.

If we had got on with lockdowns straight away as other countries did we would have been in a far better position.

Thank you for the graph escaped.

I think some people are forgetting the air of fear which the Government was producing with their solemn messages and soundbites. Older children, teenagers, were bound to pick up on that and to think it wouldn't have affected them despite the best efforts of their parents, especially those of a more sensitive nature, is surprising. I remember phone chats with youngest DGC when she cried and said she missed us, and trying to cheer her up. A few weeks seems longer to a child than an adult.

Had we known that, behind our backs, the Government and their advisers were having jollies and laughing about it, would more people have rebelled?

I think some people are forgetting the air of fear which the Government was producing

I think it was the virus itself that produced the air of fear - and entirely reasonably so. It was/still is a virus to be feared by the vulnerable.

It is entirely normal that anyone (teenager or not) would feel unsettled by it all. The presence or not of lockdowns could not change that. Fear was an entirely reasonable response.

It is easy to forget what the virus was doing to people and the young hospital workers who died.

Until the vaccines arrived and had high coverage in the population lockdowns were inevitable and necessary.

The fact that members of the government were larking about and behaving irresponsibly was one factor in their tardy response - but then they were a stupid lot and the worst possible bunch of people to be heading the nation in such a crisis.

Their stupidity lumbered us with more deaths and more lockdowns than would have been necessary had they behaved responsibly.

I think Johnson somewhere in him understood the risk of lockdowns, I think he resisted putting one in place for the last variant if I remember rightly. This doesn't negate the fact that he was and is an idiot but I do think somewhere in him he knew the risks of lockdown.

How have your grandchildren fared during the past five years

They've done well.

Lessons at home occupied, introverts are still introverts, extroverts are as outgoing as ever. No problems. Very distant memory.

I think we all knew the risks of lockdown, but sometimes needs must.

Certainly the medical advisers knew and must have been tearing their hair our trying to deal with the buffoon.

My daughter was 8. She had Zoom lessons. Her bestie was on FaceTime a lot, just in the background as they did their separate things or played together. She got through it just fine. What has adversely affected her mental health is secondary school.

Luckygirl3

*I think some people are forgetting the air of fear which the Government was producing*

I think it was the virus itself that produced the air of fear - and entirely reasonably so. It was/still is a virus to be feared by the vulnerable.

It is entirely normal that anyone (teenager or not) would feel unsettled by it all. The presence or not of lockdowns could not change that. Fear was an entirely reasonable response.

It is easy to forget what the virus was doing to people and the young hospital workers who died.

It is easy to forget what the virus was doing to people and the young hospital workers who died.

No, we in this family will never forget the further effects of Covid from being to unable to access GP appointments and the neglect that resulted from that.

However, this thread was about what effect lockdowns had on children.

It is - but, as part of the discussion, some people are saying the lockdowns should never have happened - I believe they were right - in fact too little too late.

Vulnerable children suffered under the lockdowns and school closures. They already were suffering disproportionately due to the withdrawal of family services that would have helped them - covid exacerbated this. We can only hope that some of these services might return - but no sign yet.

But I do think that most families managed well helping their children during lockdown, and those children learned flexibility and computer and other skills as part of this. It was/is not all gloom and doom.