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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Can my children go out for another walk today?

541 replies

1278kj · 26/03/2020 14:10

I’m aware it’s episode of exercise today. I have not been out today.

Basically my partner took dc and the dog out this morning before he went to work - he has to go to work. I was waiting in for a delivery so couldn’t go.

Going a little crazy and thinking of going out for a walk myself but that means two walks for dc today!

I live in a rural area. Hardly anyone around. Probably wouldn’t meet anyone and plenty of open space to socially distance anyway.

Aibu to take them out for another walk?

OP posts:
mooboy · 26/03/2020 21:10

I think the Police are taking it upon themselves to enforce a sitution that has yet been un-tested in court - if we assume there are as many nutters in the Police that post on MN - we can expect they'll be getting the handcuff, whips and chains out soon! We are so quick to give up our civil liberties - what is life without them?

1forsorrow · 26/03/2020 21:21

tegucigalpa13 and mooboy, do you think so? It is getting so nasty. Today my grandsons took their exercise by walking to the local pharmacy to pick up med for us and brought it round, they stood at the end of the drive waiting for me to come to the door and pick it up from the step where they left it. I was talking to them, probably 12 ft apart and my husband said, "go round the back, don't let people see you standing there." I mean what sort of world are we living in when two teenage boys have to be hidden like that. I felt like the SS were going to swoop on us as my neighbour watched out of her bedroom window. I thought brexit divided the country but it was nothing on this.

Iminaglasscaseofemotion · 26/03/2020 21:25

mooboy I know a couple of police officers and apparently there has already been talk of them being given the powers to arrest people if they are not complying. Where exactly will they put these people is what I would like to know.

1forsorrow · 26/03/2020 21:27

diddl sorry I can't read that, I don't subscribe. I'm pretty sure govt spokesmen have said you can walk your dog.

1forsorrow · 26/03/2020 21:28

Will be interesting if they arrest us, my husband is a disabled retired police officer, disabled as a result of an injury on duty. We could do a sad faced Daily Mail story.

1forsorrow · 26/03/2020 21:30

I can see it now, the sad disabed mid 70s retired police officer. We could talk about his commendations, how he was injured etc. Might make the Chief Constable squirm a bit.

diddl · 26/03/2020 21:32

Yes, you can walk your dog but then that's it for your exercise-can't also then go for a run.

Didn't really that you have to subscribe, sorry.

OlaEliza · 26/03/2020 21:33

cardibach People with dogs don’t get to do two walks. The dog walk and their exercise are the same walk.

It doesn't say that though, it gives them as two separate reasons for being out. If the exercise and the dog walk were the same thing surely they would say, "If your dog needs a walk that is your exercise for the day." If you have a link that says the dog walk has to be part of your exercise for the day can you post it. As usual with this situation nothing seems clear.

Does that really need to be spelled out? In a pandemic? Really?

tegucigalpa13 · 26/03/2020 21:33

The police are not going to be arresting people who are exercising on their own in quiet places. Nor are they going to be arresting people with disabilities driving to a flat spot to walk. They realise they need public support to do their job and that it will evaporate if they are seen to be behaving unreasonably.

Hopefully they will use their powers to disperse groups of people who have not understood the risks of transmission.

1forsorrow · 26/03/2020 21:34

It's OK, you can do a month free but I don't want to sign up to anything else. Too many people probably have my details as it is.

Namechangedforthisreply7 · 26/03/2020 21:35

We live rural and I take the kids out twice a day, we see no one, no closer to humanity than in the garden but it’s freedom for all of us. We are naturally socially distanced by rural geography. Of course yanbu.

1forsorrow · 26/03/2020 21:37

Does that really need to be spelled out? In a pandemic? Really? Yes. In other countries dog walking is a reason in itself to go out so yes make it clear. My old dog is dead, she was 19 and walking her was definitely not exercise. Actually walking with my husband isn't either so I could do with a walk with him as his carer and then a walk for me.

1forsorrow · 26/03/2020 21:38

Don't blame you for the Namechange, you will get accused of mass murder on here.

Namechangedforthisreply7 · 26/03/2020 21:43

I think rural dwellers staying mostly at home but taking two walks a day miles from anyone else are not the likely spreaders of covid19...

TheSheepofWallSt · 26/03/2020 21:43

Fuuuuuuuuuuuucking hell.
The world has gone utterly mad and people have entirely lost the capacity for critical thinking. I don’t think that the two things are unrelated.

It’s fairly obvious isn’t it? If you live in the middle of London then go out once a day- there are lots of people trying to access the same small spaces and it will be impossible to observe social distancing if you’re all out, all the time.

If you live, like I do, surrounded by fields and no near neighbours and rare pedestrian traffic- then walk to your hearts content.

The reason for keeping people at home is not that the virus can travel in aerosol form across miles of open farmland. It’s because nobody it seems, in this country, can apply the necessary number of brain cells to understand the phrases “social distancing” and what “2 metres” looks like.

Jesus wept.

Justanotherworkingmom · 26/03/2020 21:49

Completely unrelated question...

The motorway near me is pretty empty. Can I drive at 100 mph? I mean, I know the law says 70 mph, but there is no one else around so it doesn’t apply to me does it?

Or... just obey the bloody rules like everyone else!

LotsaDo · 26/03/2020 21:53

The motorway near me is pretty empty. Can I drive at 100 mph? I mean, I know the law says 70 mph, but there is no one else around so it doesn’t apply to me does it?

If you drive at 100mph on an empty motorway you may crash and kill yourself...it's not likely you're going to infect yourself with coronavirus in an empty field!

chomalungma · 26/03/2020 21:54

The rule on one form of exercise a day is a classic example of rushed, ill thought out and badly drafted regulations

I think Gove was asked about how it would be enforced. How would someone know how much exercise someone has done.

It is a badly thought out law.

The speeding analogy is pointless - it's easy to see if someone is speeding.

You can't prove someone has had their quota of exercise.

My car is not near my house. It's 50m away. Is that exercise?

When does exercise become exercise ?

ErrolTheDragon · 26/03/2020 21:54

Yes, you can walk your dog but then that's it for your exercise-can't also then go for a run

If that actually was the rule, I'm glad my 14 yr old dachshund, who can't be persuaded to amble further than the corner if we take him out locally, seems to be content with staying in the garden. In no way, shape or form would that be exercise for a healthy adult.

Littlepeak34 · 26/03/2020 21:55

This thread is ridiculous. Of course it’s fine. If there were suddenly lots of people out (eg too many people were having more than one walk per day in a rural area) then people can use their common sense and cut down!
There are rules yes and most people should abide due to them being in towns/cities.

People can use common sense. God help us 🙄

chomalungma · 26/03/2020 21:56

Or... just obey the bloody rules like everyone else

So why aren't all businesses closed that people have to travel to - the rules state that people should have 1 exercise allowance per day and the same rules state that you should work at home if you possibly can - how many businesses are running because they it's not possible to work from home.

Thekindofwindowsfaceslookinat · 26/03/2020 21:58

TheSheepofWallSt

Yep, agree.

The motorway near me is pretty empty. Can I drive at 100 mph? I mean, I know the law says 70 mph, but there is no one else around so it doesn’t apply to me does it?

Why do people do this? What a completely pointless comparison. Driving at 100 mph carries a risk of death or injury. Going for two short walks in a remote, isolated field instead of one, doesn't.

As TheSheep says above, no critical thinking whatsoever.

LotsaDo · 26/03/2020 22:04

In no way, shape or form would that be exercise for a healthy adult.

No, absolutely. I feel rather the same with my toddler. I'm lucky to have a quiet park across the road and have taken him out there for an while in the morning but that's barely any exercise for me. He'll happily run around for ages but mostly in circles and then a bit of rolling around on the grass. If I only go out once then when do I get some exercise?

chomalungma · 26/03/2020 22:05

It's quite funny.

On this thread, some people are criticising the OP for daring to do 2 walks today in the countryside

On another thread, people are suggesting alternate online retailers now Next has closed down online as they need clothes and obviously don't mind people mixing in warehouses and delivery drivers going door to door.

TreaterAnita · 26/03/2020 22:07

There is a distinction between the spirit of the law and the letter of the law. It is one often used by the police and rarely by posters on this site.

In any event, the actual letter of the law doesn’t seem to limit the number of times you leave your home to exercise, it relies on you to understand the spirit of the law. Your children walking out into the middle of nowhere twice in one day is unlikely to have a jot of impact on the Coronavirus transmission rate. If I were you I’d carry on.

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