I didn't do anything wrong....did I?

[Funkyslippers]

DD desperate to see her friend who lives a few streets away. She made brownies and we dropped them on her doorstep, went back onto the pavement around 12 feet away, DD called her and she came to the door, took the brownies and said thank you.

They then call each other while we're walking home (social distancing all the way but not many people around) and her older sister shouts in the background "her mum let her do that? That was stupid!!!" meaning we shouldn't have brough the brownies round to her house. I couldn't see anything wrong with it. I mean, the postman delivers mail to houses each day. Am I missing something? Or is she worried about eating contaminated food - we washed our hands thoroughly during the process.

MN at its finest .
Even a kindness by a child is fair game to the baying mob.

At the moment the guidelines are all about minimising risk. Unless you live in a bubble with no contact with the outside world, there has to be some risk. Personally, I am trying to keep it as low as possible to protect my family and to try to not pass Covid on to anyone else

This. Perfectly put.

I can't figure out if people are taking the piss, or if they really ARE that obtuse

It's quite terrifying if it's the latter

Yup!

@Permanantlypuzzled

Words fail me. This thread just gets worse by the minute.

I'm an NHS nurse. Theatre based and we are closed and setting up for ventilated covid patients.
I made cakes and brought them to work today.
The drs & nurses there scoffed the lot. Just saying.
I also dropped some of the cake in to some elderly neighbours. They were delighted and maybe binned it.
You are allowed out for a walk.
Take aways near us are open and busy.
I think what you did was totally fine and within guidelines.

I’m not invested in this tbh but surely the blindingly obviously difference is that in taking them into work you are unavoidably with them physically anyway? So you could make them a cake and they might as well eat it because they can’t possibly avoid all your germs because, well, you are right there?

In the OP case there was no essential reason for interaction therefore to send items (and the possible contamination) between the two houses wasn’t advisable.

It’s not about the cake itself, It’s about contact and transfer. Meh I don’t really care but that really confused me that you didn’t see that point

Wow. The nanny state is alive and well.

PleasePlease all you have done for the last several pages now is repeatedly insult everyone who disagrees with you, without adding anything to the discussion.

Exactly the baying mob approach the PP referred to.

I posted this earlier but again...

Let’s say that the risk of passing the virus on by touching something that someone else was immediately about to touch was 0.001%. Low, right?
Now let’s say that, in one form or another, 100,000 people in the UK engaged in similar behaviour (bearing in mind this is roughly only 0.15% of the population so it is extremely likely) then you have at least one household infected.
This has two knock on effects:

1. People in household all getting ill and maybe needing to use up desperately scant NHS resources in 2 week’s time
2. The risk of passing the virus exponentially grows because the more people who have it, the more it spreads.

Now let’s say that 5% of the population took a similarly low risk activity... (plausible after reading MN) that equates to 35 households..

Bearing in mind if they all do this every day - at the end of the month that’s 1050 households...

Are people this obtuse?

Yes. I actually think so. Very scary.

Someone just said my decision not to leave the house was ‘mad’.

If anyone who can stay home (and I am very fortunate that I can stay home with my children) then surely that is what to do?

@Cissyandflora There were some fresh fruit and veg that I touched myself and put in paper bags. I don't remember any guidelines telling us this wasn't ok when delivering shopping for people. Were there any?

I have had enough, I'm off. I can't believe people are actually THIS ridiculous in real life. People HAVE to be taking the piss.

I'm gonna pop round all my neighbours houses, lick their door handles, shake their hands, blow my nose on their curtains, and cough up their nose.

That's alrite innit?

Hiding this thread now.

All that is needed to prevent the spread of any contamination on the wrapping/container is to wash your hands after handling and avoid touching your face. There is also ZERO evidence of covid 19 being transmitted through the consumption of food so the brownies themselves would have been fine.
This situation is shit enough without armchair scientists' constant scaremongering and the apparent determination to sap what little joy people are trying to find.

Do some of you not watch the news? The numbers are going up and up and up - and it’s going to get A LOT worse.

Doctors speaking to newsreaders on live links begging and pleading for people to stay home as much as possible - they are scared of what is heading towards them very very soon.

Yes, take your daily walk/run etc if you can do so safely.

But doing something like this is just plain bonkers. Minimise/eradicate contact with other households. I am scared of how fast this thing is moving, and I’m even more scared by those who seem to think that a tiny kink/bend in common sense is ok.

Come back in a week and see if you still think that tiny rule bending is ok. Jeez, this is just a small sample of all the people bending rules, we are fucked even if only 1 person in every street in the UK thinks this is ok.

The more this mentality continues, the more parents are at some point going to have to explain to their kids why someone they know in their lives is no longer alive. Not because of something the kid has done, but because someone else thought it was ok to find a pointless reason to find a way to do something unnecessary.

stay safe, stay home, exercise within safe parameters once a day. We are not being asked to do much to help fight this.

I don't think it was a bad thing to have done, provided the 2 metre rule was kept to during the Brownie Handover.
COVID-19 is a respiratory illness and not known to be transmitted by exposure to food or food packaging (that is info from the Food Standards Agency website). Restaurants etc are only closing because people eating out are too close together. Takeaway services are still allowed to operate.
And the advice about 'inessential travel' relates to driving out of your home area, not to taking exercise in your neighbourhood, which is explicitly permitted once a day.
This is a time for supporting one another. It feels sad that we are sometimes being a bit too harsh to one another in our interpretation of the social distancing rules.

I'm gonna pop round all my neighbours houses, lick their door handles, shake their hands, blow my nose on their curtains, and cough up their nose.
Sorry, who's being ridiculous?!

@Eckhart again it’s this need for specific guidelines about everything. Can you imagine a news briefing where every single instruction was given to every single person? You have to use your own intelligence. Do the best you can.

No Cissy it's not 🤦🏻‍♀️

Of course you can stay at home if you wish - like you can any other time, pandemic or not!

Telling everyone else that they should is mad. (And I used that word). It's also dangerous. It will increase other illness including mental health issues. It is also not sustainable and as this will go on for months, it's really poor advice.

In Ireland, the latest Government announcements focused on humanity as well as restrictions, and that is very sensible. Ireland has been really compliant in how we've responded to the situation - as the Government has appealed to our community spirit, compassion and common sense. It sounds a bit naff, but really I think it brought people on board in a very natural way.

@Whatevah I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the work you're doing, I really do but please post more responsibly. You know more than anyone that the general public should be following government advice. You're working, not subject to the lockdown but most of us are subject to it and as such, do not need to be going around delivering and eating homemade cakes.

Cissyandflora

You are arguing against even the specific guidelines, that is what I dont get

stay safe, stay home, exercise within safe parameters once a day. We are not being asked to do much to help fight this

Well said

When I next go round to drop food on elderly rellies' doorsteps, I'm going to leave some homemade baked goods too. Thank you for the idea, OP.

PleasePlease

Hiding this thread now.

Thank God. 👋👋👋👋👋

It obviously was an U thing to do because people in the house who received this ‘gift’ you just had to give strongly objected to it!

Maybe people should check it’s wanted before bestowing things on other people.

Can anybody tell the different between necessary and unnecessary risk?

I know the difference. Unnecessary risk for me personally, would mean not helping more vulnerable people with food/medicine supplies and not considering going back to work early from maternity leave because I'm needed in my role. In doing so I'm putting myself at unnecessary risk but I'd be helping others.

It's not necessary for coffee chains/fast food to give away free food/drinks to nhs workers but it's a nice thing to do.
Op you did a nice thing, if the other family don't want to take the risk of eating the brownies or even taking them in the house that was up to them and all I'd say is don't be offended if that's the case.
I think we can follow the rules and also be kind to our fellow humans, although being kind seems to be lost on a lot of posters at the moment.
A elderly neighbour over the road posted a letter to my house commenting on the rainbow my Ds has painted and put in the window. Was it essential, nope and my Ds doesn't really understand it, so it doesn't benefit him. Did it maybe make a lonely elderly woman feel a little more connected to her neighbours, I think maybe it did and I'm ok with that.

Excellent post Random

Especially this:

This is a time for supporting one another. It feels sad that we are sometimes being a bit too harsh to one another in our interpretation of the social distancing rules.