Maximum of 2 people per household - no exceptions for small children at Dunelm - any other shops have this policy?

[JMAngel1]

So I tried to get into Dunelm today with DD10 and DD8 - I was told only max of 2 people per household. No exceptions made for small children - do they think we should leave them outside like dogs? I'm playing tag team with work with DH - we work on opposite shifts for NHS across the full 7 days so there isn't any day that I could leave them with him and vice versa. This seems like a crazy rule.
Are there any other shops with this rule just to avoid me making a wasted journey and also having to crawl away with my tail between my legs?

@BogRollBOGOF

It's not really ideal leaving juniors age children in a car for a shop like Dunelm, especially in current weather. As a PP said, the sun can make the temperature in the car soar and most cars don't have manual windows anymore, so if a thunderstorm comes rolling in dumping an inch of rain in minutes, they'll either get drenched or roasted.

Go back to 2019 and post an AIBU about leaving the kids in the car while you spend 45 mins around Dunelm and it would have been a thorough "you are being unreasonable" and plenty of calls of neglect, police, social services.

There is no decent justification to prohibit children from being supervised with their parents around the shop

It's a fact that the closer to an infected person you the more likely you are catch the virus. A group of 3 in a shop take up a considerable space in the ailses making it more difficult for everyone else to keep some distance from them, slows up the shop for those inside the shop and makes everyone outside have to wait longer.

That's the decent justification, this has been going on for so long I can't understand how people don't get it.

So posters dont consider Junior age young kids? Seriously?

If so then surely one year older at 11 and secondary age is fine to go shopping?

By that logic if 8 and 10 isnt young then would anyone blink if OP left them at home for a few hours. Let's face it, get to the shops, que up, walk round etc wouldnt take under a hour.

These kids will grow up to the ones wiping our arses in the nursing homes 🤣 I'm sure they will remember us old farts fondly them ( yes I am not a young adult by the same logic I have a five year old.....)

If they said one adult and two children are allowed in, you’re going to have people with three young kids complaining.

A line has to be drawn somewhere.

This happened to me too at dunelm and I was shocked

"So posters dont consider Junior age young kids? Seriously*

Well yeah they're relatively young compared to a 17 year old, but the op referred to them as "small children". 8 and 10 aren't small children. I keep seeing these threads recently where children who are fast approaching their teenage years are being treated as babies. They're not babies, they're not small children. Op had plenty of other options, such as shop online or leave one or both in the car. In a year the 10 year old will be going to secondary, but can't be trusted to sit quietly in a car for a little while?

You're doing your kids no favours.

@Lardlizard

This happened to me too at dunelm and I was shocked

Surely you weren't shocked, how could you be anything more than midly irritated that a shop had a rule that pretty much all shops have had for months about multiple people going in together.

Do you not go out?

Maybe the 10 year old isnt responsible enough to baby sit the 8 year old yet?

I dont think the OP would be looked favourably on if they was alone fighting in the car.

When will be ok to go out with our kids and send our kids to school? Once there are no new cases? Because the level of hysteria on MN to risk I bet about five years after there no new cases.

Maybe we need to go back to my mums era where she left school at 11 to bunk off. No one blinked a eye and actually she turned out ok and got a job.

But the 10 year old could either have been left at home or in the car whilst OP took the 8yo into the shop as they are allowing 2 people in. Most 10yo would quite happily look at a screen for an hour, and I am sure many of them are looking at screens for much longer than this at the moment.

I thought it was a bit ott !!

@ineedaholidaynow

But the 10 year old could either have been left at home or in the car whilst OP took the 8yo into the shop as they are allowing 2 people in. Most 10yo would quite happily look at a screen for an hour, and I am sure many of them are looking at screens for much longer than this at the moment.

I think you're forgetting that most posters on here live in a world where if you leave a child alone in a car they will be abducted if they haven't first been burnt to death in a spontaneous car fire.

If a 10 and 8 year old are deemed old enough and sensible enough to stay at home alone or sit in the car for an hour alone then surely they are deemed old enough to walk sensibly beside their mum in a shop and understand not to touch anything.

You cant have it both ways.

I shop alone but I have seen plenty of families of 3 or 4, mum, dad and kids of various ages, grabbing a trolley and being allowed into a shop.
This rule disadvantages women and children, particularly single mums.

It's annoying and frustrating, but understandable. We're just browsing/ ordering online these days.

Fwiw my 10yo (nearly 11yo) won't be left home or in the car without an adult. She hates it and panics. My 9yo is happy as Larry home alone. The two together would end up fighting.

We're trying to view houses at the moment, and can't take them with us. We leave them in (single) BILs garden. Our bubble mostly seems to be for our benefit .

But this shop is stating no more than 2 people so wouldn't let groups of adults in either, it didn't state no children. It is to limit the number of people in the shop

There is usually 3 of us when we go to B&Q or Dunelm.

We stand separately in the queue.

B&q wouldn’t let us all in but if we stand 2m apart they will wave us in.

@Oliversmumsarmy I didn't think B&Q were allowing under 16s in

None of mine are under 16.
We have all been working on an annexe in the garden so each person needs stuff for their bit of work.

Only 2 of us were able to go in after waiting for about 45 minutes the first time we attempted to go in.

The next time we all stood separately in the queue and was waved in

I think B&Q allow 2 adults in at a time just in case you have to lift anything heavy. Could not one of you take a list, why do all 3 of you need to go?

Because I know nothing about plumbing to start with. Ds doesn’t drive and we all like to look at stuff together and discuss what will go where and what goes with something else

We have had to return so much stuff because someone has bought something but it is the wrong size or wrong thing. When they have been let loose on their own in store.

If we could have seen it in the flesh then someone would have spotted the flaw

Because I know nothing about plumbing to start with.

B&Q have staff who can give you plumbing advice. I know nothing much about plumbing either but I have somehow managed to repair a broken toilet during lockdown thanks to youtube videos and reading online. You have to just get on with it and deal with the limitations that you face.

I don’t need to just get on with it. I just need to stand 2m away from dc.

Have you tried to get a member of B&Q to help you recently

B&Q staff seem to have disappeared in my local branch.