There is an unlovely 20-second gap, in the parenting experience, between any given negative event and a sense of solidarity kicking in: the quick thrill of “I’m all right, Jack”. Toddlers, screaming in the supermarket? Not my circus, not my monkeys. Schools closing down for two months straight, which realistically would mean the Easter holidays rolling into September, the world transformed into one endless summer? My kids are 12 and 10, and I work from home. What could possibly be more clement, I thought? It’ll be like having co-workers, except in pyjamas. This was only fleeting, before the calamity kicked in. The disruption caused by mass school closures would be simply unmatched by any freak event in living memory: no flood, no ash cloud, no financial crash comes close to losing so much of the workforce to childcare, and for so long. We have some experience of multiple schools closing across a number of regions, for norovirus; that tended to be for no more than a couple of days, for deep cleaning. We know what it’s like to have snow days dispersed across a few counties, or for the whole country to seize up after a strong wind (if you can remember as far back as 1987). Few economic effects were observed, and none talked about, because the disruption was absorbed into each individual family, as misfortunes tend to be. Charities preparing to feed children if schools shut over coronavirus Read more There would be no absorbing the prolonged and widespread seizure coronavirus might cause. None of the usual fixes of the regular summer holidays would be available. Families couldn’t outsource to other settings, since once schools have closed, it makes no sense for nurseries, or indeed any hotbed of child-concentration, to remain open. Most other options are completely unaffordable on an average income. Grandparents often step in for the regular holidays – 60% look after their grandchildren after school or outside term time – but to close a school to contain a virus, then send the children to be looked after by the group it most affects, would feel wrong even for the most desperate parent. Currently, the noises emanating from government are that schools will hopefully not have to close, and large gatherings do not yet need to be cancelled. I use “noises” advisedly – none of Boris Johnson’s announcements ascend to the status of explanation or argument. Instead, just an emollient chuntering, that it will be better if we don’t panic. School closures, by definition dramatic, are the opposite of keeping calm and carrying on. Ultimately, though, positive self-talk is not an effective response to a potential pandemic. There is nothing to suggest that the disease will avoid the same trajectory here as in northern Italy. The chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, has already warned that closing schools may be necessary “for quite a long time, probably more than two months”. His credentials put him in pole position to make predictions at a time of unknowns, and it is worth noting his emphasis – he’s not saying this will happen, only that it will be considered. Yet he, along with every known commentator, puts school closures in a category with cancelling major sports events and large cultural gatherings. And every parent is listening to that open-mouthed, thinking there is no possible comparison between eight unexpected weeks of childcare, and postponing the Six Nations Ireland v Italy showdown.