To think the holiday home is my only option?

[Witsendagain]

I live in a different country. I was over here visiting family from the start of March and several cancelled flights/worldwide pandemic later me, my dh and ds(2) can't get home.
My parents are very high risk and don't have enough space for us. On paper my in-laws have enough space on paper but in practice this isn't the case (currently squished in a room filled with storage boxes while dh sleeps on the floor).
No other family can accommodate us BUT my gran has a mostly unused holiday cottage in a tourist hot-spot that she has offered us for the duration and I've accepted. It is literally around the corner from where we were living before we moved abroad 2years ago.
I am now being made to feel guilty by various people because me and my family are 'part of the problem', 'running to our holiday homes and swamping these places', 'overwhelming the medical services' etc.
I'm doubting myself, we can't stay where we are for months, we can't get home, and we are not choosing to be here. We are having to pay astronomical rent and pet care costs in the country we are living in and can't afford to rent somewhere so I really cannot see that we have another option.
Wibu to carry on with our plans despite the naysayers?

I think this thread goes to show the extent to which people are failing to take the situation seriously. You should stay put. I understand your conditions are uncomfortable, but they are not impossible. You have somewhere to sleep. I guarantee there are millions of people across the globe who would kill for your current setup. I get that it's cramped and far from ideal, but this is a life or death situation. If you go to the holiday cottage and you have not adequately self isolated for 2 weeks, you risk taking the infection there. If you don't take it with you, you could easily pick it up while you're there and overwhelm local resources (I assume, like most UK second home spots, it is rural and can serve an extremely limited number of critical cases). Somebody could very well die as a direct result of you going there. Is you having more space worth passing that level of risk to others?

Having said that, as a foreign resident you won't be entitled to automatic treatment.

You are for emergency treatment and infectious diseases (as it protects the uk population). Anything else you have to pay for.

You should go , this isn’t the same as people in London with a perfectly good house fleeing to Cornwall. You could be inside for months and months so need somewhere liveable

Isolate when you get there though.

OP I'd get to the holiday house today. I suspect that the whole country will be in lockdown by Tuesday lunchtime at the latest (just my guess).
It's not going to matter where you are every hospital will become overwhelmed. As for milk supplies not something that will run out its produced in the UK.

The problem is that most of the people using second homes will have a reason to justify why. The locals will not know the reason it will be just another cottage suddenly occupied. Of course the OPs reason makes perfect sense but that doesn’t help villages who have shops and other amenities to match the average population and stock accordingly.

Of course it's the same as everybody else who is fleeing to second homes. The virus doesn't give a shit why you're there. The impact on communities is exactly the same, regardless of the reasons or excuses of the people who are still travelling around the country and ignoring very clear advice.

Gosh people are being mean. You are not leaving a perfectly good place in London to have a better isolation experience in the country - you're leaving an unlivable situation. I would certainly self-isolate for 14 days in the house, even if it means eating pasta for two weeks

YANBU - you are living under terribly crowded and uncomfortable conditions - unless the stored stuff in your bedroom could be out into a garage, perhaps?

Yes- you should go. You are going to live there and have no alternative. That is not the same thing at all as selfish rich twits spreading the virus so they can stay in their holiday home. As long as you self isolate - and you must commit to doing this, its fine.

Go of course that's fine. Self isolate and then stay in for as much as you can. But what's crazy is people are going on holiday around the country at a time like this.
I'm mean to be on holiday right now in Scotland but we cancelled for obvious reasons.

Did nobody here calling the OP selfish see the video of those British idiots refusing to get off the streets of Bendidorm, which is in lockdown, even when police in masks were telling them to go inside? Now that was selfish behaviour.
If you can't get a flight back to Norway soon, @Witsendagain*, could you not try and book one and in the meantime, stock up from where you are now, go to the cottage and self-isolate for 14 days once there and hope you can get back to Norway sooner rather than later?
*from what I can see, the next available flight from Gatwick to Oslo on Norwegian is on 17th April - who knows if you'll be allowed to travel out of the UK by then. Maybe try and speak to or email someone at Norwegian asap, I know they are working round the clock to get people back.

I think they are referring to people leaving their main home and going to a holiday home. Not you who are stuck in the uk. Do what is best for your family - just self isolate to reduce your need for healthcare.

You are stuck here for the foreseeable you can't sustain sleeping in abox room for months ithink you should go.

People are taking campervans to the Scottish Highlands like it's a "world holiday" it is ridiculous.

Great idea to put signs up. Make clear you are self-isolating, used to live in the area and are now living in your grandmas house as you can’t get home. I don’t think people will seriously have an issue with that.

Of course the OPs reason makes perfect sense but that doesn’t help villages who have shops and other amenities to match the average population and stock accordingly.

The ‘average population’ includes people on holiday. Without them many of these villages simply couldn’t sustain the shops they have and are now relying on.

Self isolate for 14 days once you get there and then you are causing no more risk that anyone else there. You are adding to the population so therefore the potential risk of medical needs outstripping hospital care. But I don’t think you have a choice. In your shoes I would go.

Of course you should go. I feel quite sad reading all the people who want to ring fence their little corner of the UK, and sod everyone else. We all know that hospitals in the cities are likely to be completely overwhelmed before too much longer. It is hardly surprising that people want to get to somewhere they feel they might be safer. Everyone is at risk of taking up an ICU bed in an overwhelmed hospital somewhere.

This thread is a clear example of this bringing out the best and worst in people.

Op, YANBU. Stock up the car with enough supplies and quarantine for 14 days when you get there.

People need to stop being so frigging rude to others. Put yourself in their situation and THINK before you type. OP, you need to be in a place that's best for you, you can't stay where you are.

I’m going against the grain here, but I’d say stay where you are. While it’s not comfortable, you have other people with you (which I understand may be part of the problem!) who can help entertain DD and look after you if either of you get ill.

Can anyone saying stay away honestly saybtheybwoukd stay in a cramped room and sleep on the floor for months in end when they have this solution available?

OP is trapped in the wrong country! Is that not bad enough?

Go and live in the house and be as happy as you can be. Are you sure you have exhausted all options to get home though.

Repeated posts advising 'stock up for 14 days before you go' when there's no food anywhere.

I agree with majority - if you can’t get home, yes go and stay in the holiday home. If you drive there, don’t have any contact with anyone, and self isolate for 14 days, then you won’t risk spreading it to the local community.

Good luck - sounds like a tough situation.