Ads have had enough of malakas On July 4, they went crackers.

[TheGreatWave]

Slight tweak to the suggestion, but here it is.

Wish they’d stop bloody implying that choir practices are equivalent to massacres. I really miss singing.

On a more positive note, seeing DD’s joy at playing in the reopened playground yesterday was wonderful. Lots of people there, and not a dementor in sight.

The bbc can do one

The super spreaders were care homes and hospitals.

That's true- they need to lay off their blaming the public and dementing don't they. (and I need to stop looking at it- it can catch you out amidst other news stories sometimes)

@wanderings, another AD who calls tgem muzzles here.

@Mrsfrumble, Hackney playgrounds are all padlocked too except for the Downs where apparently someone did take matters into their own hands. Also, I read the muzzle rules carefully and children under 11 are exempt as is anyone with medical or mental disabilities that would cause them severe distress so don't worry too hard about the sewing .

Good morning , checking in.
It's getting harder to wake up every morning. I get to see family and friends but I am busy looking after dtwins. We can't go anywhere and I feel like I'm failing them.

I'm a sahm so I'm lucky compared. I want to work but with childcare for two, there's no point. Was looking forward to a bit of respite with the childcare for 3-4 year olds but I don't have faith that will go ahead.

I feel like I'm in a huge hole. Friends and family are also going back to work soon so I'll feel even more alone with toddler groups and activities still closed. Feel like noone gives a hoot.

@User8008135

Not sure if I'm AD or not? Been loving the playgrounds all week, couldn't hold off once they were unchained, but wasn't happy when a lady in the park let into my pram to try and kiss my littlest hand.

I wouldnt like that either. Randoms trying to kiss/touch babies and kids is weird in normal times - they're not public property!

My non-AD streak is that I dont agree with pubs opening. I know they're important to the economy and jobs, but I do think they're higher risk than other places which arent open yet and I am concerned that people will take additional risks when they've had a few drinks. However I would never judge anyone who did choose to go to a pub and a I wont be hollering about second wave on social media.

@chocolatesweets

Good morning , checking in. It's getting harder to wake up every morning. I get to see family and friends but I am busy looking after dtwins. We can't go anywhere and I feel like I'm failing them.

I'm a sahm so I'm lucky compared. I want to work but with childcare for two, there's no point. Was looking forward to a bit of respite with the childcare for 3-4 year olds but I don't have faith that will go ahead.

I feel like I'm in a huge hole. Friends and family are also going back to work soon so I'll feel even more alone with toddler groups and activities still closed. Feel like noone gives a hoot.

I know how you feel. I'm a SAHM to 3year old and 3 month old. Eldest preschool decided not to open and no news yet about when our toddler groups, music classes and football tots might start up again. 3 year olds world has shrunk from many fun activities and friends/acquaintances to a couple of friends who are happy to play in the park together for an hour or so a week.

Are there any places opening you can take your twins to? Some of the play areas and petting farms are open around here.

I’ll tell you where the dementors congregated yesterday: on Radio 4’s Any Answers. Some real miserable gits on there. I switched it off after the caller who said “it is how it is.” That one sounded like Thatcher was back from the dead.

Checking in.
For you @chocolatesweets it must be so hard with tiny children.

The dementing about pubs is on this morning with pictures of crowds and Wanksock telling us pubs could close if people didnt behave responsibly. Just wanted to shout "fuck off you ain't my real mum" at the telly.

The scenes in some pubs were ridiculous but they were a few. Out of hundreds of thousands. I'll just fall back on my original point of the chances that someone in the pub has covid are about 1 in 2600. People cant catch it from someone who doesnt have it.
Also there have been mass gatherings and protests for weeks.

I hate that the government dangle these threats around to get what they want, like parents telling naughty kids they'll take their toys away if they dont do as they're told.
I'm sick of being treated like a child.

In Wales so no news yet.

@FrugiFan same , our world has gone too. I was out everyday with them. It was difficult then but at least we could go out.

Morning ADs. I am languishing with a bad cold and haven't been to any pubs or playparks yet, but I did have the joy of a drive-in CV test last night (the result came back neg as expected at 6am). The pubs by us last night were lively but not raucous and it did give me a little lump in my throat.

I also really miss playgroups. I'm hoping they'll return as normal in September and that children's centres might return first as they have outdoor playspace and a mandate for child welfare

@LivinLaVidaLoki

Checking in. For you *@chocolatesweets* it must be so hard with tiny children.

The dementing about pubs is on this morning with pictures of crowds and Wanksock telling us pubs could close if people didnt behave responsibly. Just wanted to shout "fuck off you ain't my real mum" at the telly.

The scenes in some pubs were ridiculous but they were a few. Out of hundreds of thousands. I'll just fall back on my original point of the chances that someone in the pub has covid are about 1 in 2600. People cant catch it from someone who doesnt have it.
Also there have been mass gatherings and protests for weeks.

I hate that the government dangle these threats around to get what they want, like parents telling naughty kids they'll take their toys away if they dont do as they're told.
I'm sick of being treated like a child.

I hate this too!!

It's like behave yourselves or you won't get a playtime. And most of you do because you know, you like playtime, and then there's one little arsehole in the back rocking on his chair and then bam! You've all got to stay in. This is what the local lockdown thing Is like and it's not fair

@chocolatesweets

Good morning , checking in. It's getting harder to wake up every morning. I get to see family and friends but I am busy looking after dtwins. We can't go anywhere and I feel like I'm failing them.

I'm a sahm so I'm lucky compared. I want to work but with childcare for two, there's no point. Was looking forward to a bit of respite with the childcare for 3-4 year olds but I don't have faith that will go ahead.

I feel like I'm in a huge hole. Friends and family are also going back to work soon so I'll feel even more alone with toddler groups and activities still closed. Feel like noone gives a hoot.

Similar here. DH still working from home so no routine or changes in dynamic here. Childcare was our main problem as DS1 hated wrap around care... hindsight tells us that I was right to stop working and at the end of a school day (filled with dyspraxic and dyslexic frustrations) the last thing a child with ASD needs is an after-school club in a densely packed room. My working hours in teaching were bonkers. DH was away a lot and life was on a constant tightope with no margin for error. DH's salary is plenty, and it was better as a package of family life to walk away when my contract ended. That' nearly 4 years ago.

At least I haven't had to worry about work/ children through this. At 7 & 9, they need company in the house and a back-up, not constant supervision. My attention span has never recovered from having children and that bit of your brain always on alert id still active.

I found June so tough. For many families some kind of normality was creeping in and I did feel left behind in lockdown. The realisation that my children won't get school until September was a hard blow. That's our biggest step towards normal.

I'm struggling to connect to people. I'm not a small-talky-chat friend. I honestly don't know what people say to each other umpteen times a day. My good friends are struggling with work or at a distance. My children are quite peripheral at school and I didn't bond at the nursery gates. We don't have local family and we're not on anyone's priorty lists. I don't mean that in a woe is me way, just that when people are being selective about socialising, they all have nearby family or closer friends they can put before us. I normally get enough variety of interactions on the school run, and at things like hanging around kid's activities and helping in school and none of those organised/ incidental interactions are avaliable.

Hopefully now there are more options to get out and do something like go for a bloody walk past a padlocked playground, I should be able to stay on this improved mental state.

Yesterday DS1spoke to another child that is not DS2 fir the first time since Easter as they played in a playground. First, that's brilliant of its own accord. Second, that's fantastic social skill from DS1 who is naturally very reticent. I have been concerned lately that his talk is getting more monotone as it's mainly him monologuing at us. It was worth being pregant with a 2 yo and SPD to have DS2 to freely discuss Minecraft with enthusiasm throughout the last few months

Checking in the new thread and waving to all my fellow ADs. The lack of things for kids to do in the summer holidays is just awful. Normally we'd be at the museums and soft plays on rainy days - now sod all to do but stay in the house. I've got a few days in a sports camp booked for my two at the end of July, then a week away in the Lake District so I'm counting down for that.

This might seem an odd question but it's been in my head a very long time, but what do friends that phone and message all the time actually talk about?

I don't think I lack a particular social skill. I can talk about anything random and frequently do (and I love the random diversions of conversation that we have, my real conversations are similarly winding!)

I've always used phones and messaging as a tool for arranging things not phoning for a chat because you haven't spoken for a day.

I've got old, deep relationships that are the connection of souls. It's not about lifestyle, we just connect deep down. Time and distance doesn't matter and we busy on through life and meet after months or a year slips by and we have a wonderful time and that absence evaporates.
I can't imagingle phoning them up or texting to announce that I had baked beans for lunch for the sake of conversation.

@Mrsfrumble, Hackney playgrounds are all padlocked too except for the Downs where apparently someone did take matters into their own hands.

Really? What a bummer. Thanks for the heads up though, so we don’t waste another day crushing the children’s hopes. Maybe Haringey then...
Seems almost vindictive at this point, when pubs and the like are open. But of course playgrounds are free and children playing in them contributes nothing to the economy

DH and DS both sing in choirs and are really missing them. DS has that Asperger’s perfect pitch going on; he turns heads with the beauty of his voice when he sings in public (which is all the time). I can’t sing AT ALL so I’m in awe.

I knew about the under 11s exemption, and DS is also exempt because of his autism. I’ll persevere now I’m sober for DH and I. It feels like forever since I achieved anything.

Back here again.

I jetwashed the patio yesterday. Then all the wall antlers went. To. The. Pub!

@Lickyicelollies

Checking in the new thread and waving to all my fellow ADs. The lack of things for kids to do in the summer holidays is just awful. Normally we'd be at the museums and soft plays on rainy days - now sod all to do but stay in the house. I've got a few days in a sports camp booked for my two at the end of July, then a week away in the Lake District so I'm counting down for that.

That's lovely. Might look into a short break somewhere but right now it's endless days of same thing day in day out. Nowhere to go and can't take dtwins out on my own. They run off in different directions.

@user8008135 that annoys me at the best of times.

@weedsseeds that looks quite impressive

I think what pisses me off is the inconsistency with so many rules:
Big sporting events have quarantined rules relaxed but nail bars still closed. It makes no sense whatsoever.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53295779

@BogRollBOGOF

This might seem an odd question but it's been in my head a very long time, but what do friends that phone and message all the time actually talk about?

I don't think I lack a particular social skill. I can talk about anything random and frequently do (and I love the random diversions of conversation that we have, my real conversations are similarly winding!)

I've always used phones and messaging as a tool for arranging things not phoning for a chat because you haven't spoken for a day.

I've got old, deep relationships that are the connection of souls. It's not about lifestyle, we just connect deep down. Time and distance doesn't matter and we busy on through life and meet after months or a year slips by and we have a wonderful time and that absence evaporates.
I can't imagingle phoning them up or texting to announce that I had baked beans for lunch for the sake of conversation.

I've often wondered that, and have come to the conclusion that some people just love to chat and nothing in general. DH and I are both like you - we can discuss stuff, because it needs discussing, but we never phone each other during the day to catch up during work. My manager talks to his wife about 3 times a day and they've been married 20 years!

One of the light bulb moments in my career was realising I wasn't going to make it to the top. Not because I'm not good at what I do, but because of my lack of ability to dominate meetings by talking bollocks...

I'm sure the government chose to open the pubs to deliberately throw temptation at us, so they can beat us with it later. They should have opened more "sensible" things like the swimming pools instead.

@LivinLaVidaLoki I know. I'm fed up with the government treating us like children; every time they say something along those lines, it makes me want to break rules deliberately. I remember vividly being treated like this at primary school: the whole year would be punished because of the actions of a few. I found ways to rebel against: I once voiced my displeasure loudly in front of the whole school, knowing it would embarrass the teachers. There was a stunned silence, and they refused to admit it was unfair, but I made sure I had my say when a teacher took me aside to calm me down, even if she then told me I was being rude. Another time, I knew that the dreaded "practising lining up instead of playtime" had been planned, so I asked my teacher if I could stay in the classroom and work instead. Not knowing my reasons, she agreed. Victory!

Struggling today. Nothing of worth seems to have opened near us. DD was counting down days to go to pizza express as it offers her favourite vegan pizza (she has allergies) but it's not opened. No play parks, been told to stay away from the local beach, library said it won't be opening for another month.

I took DD to Tesco to buy popcorn and pick and mix so we could go home and watch frozen 2. They've replaced all the pick and mix with wrapped only sweets (most of which have dairy in so she can't have them) and then we got to the till and the checkout man shouted at DD for not standing far enough behind a yellow line on the floor. We tried to shuffle behind the line and then he proceeded to pass the goods along the till just short of where we could reach it from the line. It just made me feel so upset. Shouting at my 5 year old ffs.

Then we got home and DD opener her packet of love hears and said "look mummy, a coronavirus one" and she held it up and it said "miss you" on it.

No pub here, our local isn’t reopening for a couple of weeks.

to everyone with small children, it must be so hard.