Are your teenagers still meeting up with their friends?

[Rollergirl11]

I know that you can meet one person from another household for exercise but it is apparent that a lot of DD’s friends are just taking that as an opportunity to meet up with each other. Then meet up with someone else new the next day. I see that as completely bending the rules and is just unnecessary mixing of multiple households. Luckily DD doesn’t agree with it and hasn’t asked to do the same. Obviously lots of parents are allowing this (DD’s friends parents that I know included) so please can someone who thinks this is okay explain their reasoning?

I encourage my kids to go out. I really don’t understand how being cooped up inside helps anyone.

@MrsDThomas

I encourage my kids to go out. I really don’t understand how being cooped up inside helps anyone.

I think anyone who is meeting up and not social distancing at the moment is selfish and ignorant. Teens or not.

Oh dont be ridiculous. They are old enough to know social distancing. Are your kids cooped up inside? If they are, I truly feel for them.

There’s more chance if catching it at the supermarket than on a walk .

@EBathory

Meh selfishness = survival

You really come across as the most unpleasant person

@MrsDThomas

Oh dont be ridiculous. They are old enough to know social distancing. Are your kids cooped up inside? If they are, I truly feel for them.

There’s more chance if catching it at the supermarket than on a walk .

They go outside for walks either alone or together. They speak to their friends on their phones. They aren't pathetic about having to meet their mates every 5 minutes.

I live in a county with only 1876 confirmed cases. One of the lowest in the UK. Approximately 1.51% of the county’s population. (In blue, BBC NEWS website today). So we pretty good at keeping our distance. Lucky enough to be able to go for a walk and not breathe on paranoid people.

So we will go for walks, and enjoy them

Front page of the Telegraph tomorrow.
Headline Ministers consider tightening lockdown.

Key points:
People from different households exercising together, top of the list of things under consideration as its being used as an excuse for people to go for a coffee in the park.
Introduction of wearing masks in offices
A focus on supermarkets after fears some had relaxe the rules putting customers at risk (they will be reminded about one way systems, customers wearing masks and customers properly distancing)
Expanding rules on mask wearing to outdoor queues

I thought you could only meet one friend outside your family, not a different friend every day?
Happy to be corrected!!

I thought the same too

@SnoozyLou

Surprisingly, they aren’t - in any other aspect of their lives. I don’t understand them ignoring the rules - makes no sense.

Remember about 9 months ago, with all those pictures coming out of Bergamo, and everyone cried for Italy?

We are in as bad, if not a worse state now, and yet so many people are in complete denial. Not the majority, thankfully, but still far, far too many.

I agree entirely. We need to abide by the lockdown rules absolutely - no bending of the rules to suit ourselves, no caving into pressure from our relatives etc.

@MrsDThomas

I encourage my kids to go out. I really don’t understand how being cooped up inside helps anyone.

Really? You don’t understand how not socialising with others stops the spread of the virus? Well done for encouraging your kids to do the exact opposite of what we have been asked to do.

No, neither of my teenagers have done so in months. There was a couple months in summer where my 13-year-old went for walks in the park with her younger sister and they would chat if her friends showed up, there was one socially distanced picnic in August, and that's pretty much it. My 16-year-old went out maybe twice socially during the same time to meet one other person from college that he's since lost touch with.

My 16-year-old has kinda given up with socializing with those he knows, really. It's disheartening as part of starting college in Sept 2019 was to meet people, but his course this year has 7 other people and now he's kinda like he'll try new friends when things are 'normal again'. I can tell he's really lonely and he keeps trying new ways of trying interact with people online - gaming discords, roblox roleplaying games - but he hasn't really found his space yet. He wants to go back to cadets so much.

I'm also a bit worried about my 13 year old, haven't seen her reach out to anyone since schools let out in December. She and her sister are leaning heavily on each other socially. Not sure if the 6 hours on live lessons is helping, she seemed shattered with people afterwards, but it's not really the same trying to guess why your peers put an emoji reaction on what you said.