I'm sick of refraining from going to the kindergarten and closing the kindergarten ... Nursery school Actually everyone is worried February 9th 19:15
"I don't know the reason for the closure"
"I want to cooperate in refraining from going to the kindergarten, but I have a job ..."
While the number of nursery school closures is the highest ever, SNS is tweeting such parents one after another.
On the other hand, the number of children's infections has increased rapidly, and the gardens and governments are in a difficult situation where they cannot take thorough infection control measures without the cooperation of their parents.
This time, the team of dad and mom reporters who are raising children listened to the anguish of parents, gardens, and the government.
(Network News Department, Murahori et al., Mariko Noda, Chiu Hirooka)
Finally to "myself"
On the night of the 6th, I received a notification email from the garden where a 4-year-old child was taken care of by a reporter who worked together in the interview team.
No, it has arrived.
One of my classmates was confirmed to be infected, and the park was closed for a while.
I'm a little worried while thinking that this infection situation can't be helped.
The parents of the classmates had previously been confirmed to be infected by PCR, and the classmates were still in the park on the day when the results were known.
that?
Certainly, the garden told me in a document, "I want you to stop going to the park as soon as you get the inspection."
But if you think about it, isn't it a rule that parents have to rest their children while waiting for the results of the test?
I also work together.
I don't know how difficult it is to tell the garden.
I felt a little complicated.
Due to the closed school following the closed school ...
Isn't there a lot of parents who are worried about the decision to go to the nursery school?
With that in mind, we decided to have two mothers talk to us first.
Miki (pseudonym) has three children, a third grader and six and three years old.
Of these, 6-year-old and 3-year-old children go to different nursery schools.
Last month, the nursery school where my 6-year-old second son attended was closed for a week because another child was found to be infected with the new corona.
The second son did not become a close contact, but the eldest daughter, who was three years old, also refrained from going to the kindergarten.
During the park, she bought clay and other play equipment at the 100-yen shop, and when she was asked to go out, she took her lunch with her to the park.
Nevertheless‥.
When she tried to go to work at home, she was unplugged from her computer, and during an online meeting, she cried angry when she couldn't get the other person.
In the early hours of the morning and at night, after the children went to bed, I tried to concentrate on replying to e-mails and creating materials, but the work did not go as planned and I was cornered.
The day when the school was finally resumed.
Further trials struck the Miki family.
Due to the rapid increase in the number of infected people, public elementary schools and junior high schools in the city have been completely switched to online classes, and nursery schools have also become "self-restraint".
I can't go on with my work while watching the children at home anymore.
When I consulted with the nursery school, I got the answer, "I would like to ask as much as I can cooperate with each family."
Miki also consulted with her husband and decided to leave the 6-year-old and 3-year-old children in a nursery school.
Miki (pseudonym)
"There was a conflict in entrusting children. I also want to cooperate with a nursery school to reduce the risk of infection. But I can't delay my work anymore. I feel frustrated. I decided not to refrain from going to the kindergarten this time because it would be connected. "
Nursery center is a "lifeline"
Even if you refrain from going to the kindergarten, it's a series of days when parents are forced to make a tightrope walk.
The next person I spoke to was Kayo (a pseudonym) who entrusted his eldest son, who was three years old, to a children's garden.
He had just experienced a closure.
From the 7th of this month, the children's garden contacted me for a three-day full closure on the previous Friday.
However, there were no positive children or close contacts in the eldest son's class.
Mr. Kayo (pseudonym)
"The first thing that came to my mind when the park was suddenly closed was, after all," What should I do with my depository? "
Kayo-san is a so-called "one-operator" for raising children on weekdays because her husband works far away and can only come home on weekends.
Her mother-in-law, who lives in her neighborhood, cannot take care of her eldest son because she works during the day.
Mr. Kayo (pseudonym)
"I was confused by the sudden response because I couldn't understand the reason why the class of my eldest son, who had no confirmed infection or close contact, was closed. It's a "lifeline" to keep going. Also, for my son, the age of 3 is a time when it's a very fun and valuable time to interact with friends, and it suddenly stops and I'm alone with my mother all day long. I was confused and anxious about the changes in the environment. "
After that, the garden switched to refraining from going to the park because there was no new infection of the staff during the latter two days of the three days that were originally scheduled to be closed.
While listening to the stories of my mothers, I didn't know when the closure or refraining from going to the park would come to me again, and I was reminded of what I would do at that time.
(Related article) How can I survive working from home when the park is closed?
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Isn't it different depending on the kindergarten, the response to the closure of the kindergarten and the refraining from going to the kindergarten?
And again, there is a new moyamoya ...
In some cases, the entire garden will be closed if even one infected person appears, and in other cases, the park will be partially closed on a class-by-class basis.
Or there are places where only close contacts are rested.
Apparently, the response to refraining from going to the kindergarten differs depending on the location.
Why?
I visited the nursery center directly.
It is a licensed nursery school located in Yachiyo City, Chiba Prefecture.
Late last month, a 1-year-old class was confirmed to be infected by a kindergarten child.
A cluster occurred a year ago in this nursery center, when health center staff entered the nursery and were able to identify close contacts.
However, due to the increase in the number of infected people, the work of the health center is now tight.
This time, the health center did not come to investigate the close contacts.
In that case, the garden has no choice but to consult with the staff of the local government and decide the range of close contacts and closures at their own discretion.
There were some conflicts when deciding to close the park.
Of course, not spreading the infection is the highest priority, but if the range of closure is too wide, it will drive families who have no choice but to leave their children.
However, even so, the kindergarten children who can't stay still.
It was difficult to wear a mask in the class of a one-year-old child who was infected, and at this time the entire class had to be closed.
"Prevention of infection" and "Mission as a nursery center".
In the meantime, I was forced to make difficult decisions.
Daini Katsuta Nursery School Director Jun Maruyama
"If an infected person appears, it is very difficult to make a decision on how much the park should be closed and what criteria should be used to resume it, depending on the local government. There is no unified standard for when to refrain from going to the kindergarten. I feel that the nursery schools have different responses and parents are confused. "
Voluntary "request" for each municipality
I reconfirmed what kind of situation is required to refrain from going to the kindergarten.
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has shown the following two cases to local governments as "requesting to avoid going to the kindergarten".
(1) When the child is identified as a close contact
(2) When the child has cold symptoms such as fever and cough
In other cases, the local government is calling for cooperation on its own to refrain from going to the kindergarten depending on the situation of the family living with the child.
For example, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo wants you to voluntarily refrain from going to the park in the following cases.
"Family is in poor physical condition"
"Family undergoes PCR test"
"Family is identified as a close contact"
According to Shinjuku Ward, there are many cases in which the spread of infection in the park could be avoided by the cooperation of refraining from going to the park in such a situation.
What if the park is still closed?
If the park is still closed, is there a place to leave my child?
As of the 8th, in Shinjuku Ward, of the 96 childcare facilities in the ward, 2 are closed and 7 are closed only for specific classes.
The ward is asking children who are included in the closed or closed classes to spend their time at home, saying that the possibility of infection cannot be ruled out even if they are not identified as close contacts.
Shinjuku Ward Childcare Division / Childcare Guidance Division
"We believe that spending time at home after determining the range of closures will minimize the closure period and reduce the burden on parents. I think it is unlikely that children who have been closed due to infection will be taken care of at another childcare facility, so if parents wish to continue childcare, they should take care of them at the original facility. We are taking continuous measures. "
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare requires local governments to provide childcare trays as much as possible as needed by parents, even if the park is closed.
In order to expand this measure, we announced on the 8th a new measure to reduce the burden on users by raising assistance to local governments when temporarily taking care of children at other nursery centers, public halls, home visits, etc.
In order not to interrupt "what you need"
I interviewed parents, nursery centers, and government officials to answer the questions about the pros and cons of going to the kindergarten that I felt when my child's kindergarten was closed.
I haven't completely resolved the feeling of sickness, but I found that I'm still searching every day to continue the childcare function while preventing the spread of infection.
Today, I can't expect the new coronavirus to disappear tomorrow, so I asked the last question about how to deal with parents with children and what is required of nursery schools and government.
Aki Fukouin of the "Parents' Association for Nursery Centers", who is facing the voices of parents, spoke to us.
Makoto Fukoin described the current situation surrounding the closure of the park in her own words.
"It's not that someone is bad, but everyone is in trouble."
Even in this difficult situation, parents, the garden, and the government need to work hand in hand so that children can continue to attend nursery schools, which can be said to be lifelines.
Aki Fukouin, a group of parents who think about nursery schools
"I feel that the voices of various parents are completely different, such as the situation at home and whether or not I can take a break from work. It seems that they are desperately holding up under the circumstances in which they are placed. While the perceptions and feelings of infectious diseases vary greatly from person to person, "everyone must act in the same way." I feel that it is important for parents and gardens to reduce the risk of infection in society as a whole by doing what people can do now, rather than creating conflicts and divisions with the idea of "don't do it." I think that the government is also very much asked whether they can communicate with each other and cooperate with each other to tackle infectious diseases. "
The feeling of not wanting to spread the infection anymore is the same for everyone.
However, what you can do for that is different for each person.
As Mr. Fukoin points out, this crisis cannot be overcome unless we remember to think and act on "the attitude of doing what people can do to reduce the risk of infection in society as a whole."
Through this interview, I strengthened that feeling.