to remind you that we are actually allowed outside?

[Pishposhpashy]

I am following social distancing guidelines.

I am not seeing friends or family.

I am getting nearly all my food delivered online.

I am going out once a day for my allowed daily exercise. Yes, to my local park, because I live in London, in a flat with a 4 year old and no garden.

I am constantly seeing threads on here berating "idiots" for "flocking" to parks and suchlike. But the thing is, if I go to the park for my walk, and see other people there - they aren't "idiots", they are people doing the same thing I'm doing - their ALLOWED daily exercise!

I mean, if you have a garden, bully for you. But I don't, we are allowed out, and I will continue to take my son for a walk in the fresh air once a day.

I don't understand people here frothing at the mouth about "twats" and "idiots" in parks and beaches.

They are doing their daily exercise. What is the problem? And all the shots of "crowds" at Brighton Beach are overzealous reporters with long-range lenses that makes a sparse number of people social distancing look like a crowd. I know people there, it's empty.

Lots of posters have been snotty about people taking up walking or jogging. I really don’t understand why.

I think because some believe their right to exercise in open but empty space comes first. Lots of posts have said "I've gone for a jog every day at X time for the last 2 years & never see a soul, now its packed". There seems to be a lack of understanding that if loads of people who live in your town aren't in their work environment or gym or other social place then there will be more people about.

@Palavah
I got abuse today from a neighbour for sitting in the garden, alone.

lol, sounds like he/she just doesn't like you. Nothing to do with lockdown

& some are just bitter, because they are not leaving the house they think no one else should.

Although again they don't seem aware that in order for them to stay indoors & not go out, others have to.

I saw pictures of people "flocking" to Brighton. There was hardly anyone in the pictures.

I am sure if everyone in Brighton who lived within a couple of hundred yards of the beach went for a walk along the beach it would look busy.

I am also amazed at how many couch potatoes have suddenly discovered a love of exercise.

Well yes....normally I would get the bus to work, go for lunch, go to evening classes, go for brunch and coffee and mooch around the charity shops and see friends. Now that's been taken away, the one thing I can do that helps my mental health is go for a nice walk in the countryside.

What on earth is your problem? This country has a massive issue with obesity, which is more likely to make someone die of Corona. Surely people taking up exercise or discovering a love of nature is only a good thing. Exercise outside has so many benefits - fitness, vitamin D, lowering stress, which all helps the immune system.

If the government had made the fecking 'daily exercise' compulsory they could have solved a lot of problems that we have now with people flocking out and congregating in public places.

Barely going out at all except to walk the dogs in a deserted field. Dh is shielding so trying to protect him. Only problem I'm having is no luck with online supermarket delivery so having to go there as have a family of six to feed.

Personally I haven't seen anyone "flocking out" or "congregating", everyone is either alone or with partner/kids and being very respectful to each other.

Totally agree OP. We are fortunate to have moved out of London and have a garden now but I can’t imagine being stuck inside with tiny children in a small (as the vast majority are in London) flat.

Our last flat was 2 small bedrooms, a combined living/kitchen about the size of our hall now (not a big house!) and a tiny bathroom.

For many families in London, both parents will be working full time, their kids are normally tearing around at nursery. At the weekends they are out and about or visiting relatives. Rarely would they all stay home together because their simply isn’t enough room.

I feel even more sorry for single mums in emergency bnb accommodation.

Gestapo style reporting or naming and shaming (often for things that are actually allowed!) seems to have become the national pastime and it doesn’t reflect well on us as a society.

The reason parks and carparks have been closed is because people were going there and staying there in high numbers rather than walking about and going home again. Picnicking, sunbathing, fishing, playing sport in one area increases the number far more than those walking through.

It is a shame everyone is not walking like you OP as if people could spread out a walk every day the numbers grouping together would not be significant for the police to have to move people on.

The thing is, even people who don’t normally do lots of exercise will find being in the house constantly means less everyday activity than normal. Less walking to shops, walking to and from school so logically people need to go out for a walk to up their steps which is perfectly allowed !

I also am fed up of our local social media being filled with photos of people ‘in groups’ ie a family. As a result our family of 5 are not now going out on our usual dog walk for fear of being filmed doing something that is perfectly reasonable to do !

Being fit and healthy both physically and mentally will stand you in much better stead for fighting off a virus. I’d be questioning why people (who aren’t vulnerable) aren’t getting out of the house for 1 hour out of 24 hours each day to try and keep healthy.

Yes I agree - realistically we're not having total lockdown for 2 years, most of us will get it at some point, hence them getting all this extra capacity. If we get in, we will have a much better chance if we are slimmer, fitter, have better lung/heart function and higher levels of vitamin D. Staying inside and looking like Gollum for months won't do you any favours.

Gollum is my style icon!

I suppose it depends how long we want lockdown to last. If too many people are in the park at the same time to have their daily exercise then social distancing may be too difficult. Perhaps avoid the park.

The alternative of not using your common sense is stricter lockdown as in other countries. If I lived in London I wouldn’t be taking my child to a busy park.

If and when stricter lockdown comes I'll observe it happily.

If people were following social distancing guidelines
If people were only accessing parks to exercise

then places like Brockwell Park in Lambeth wouldn't have had to close.
It's such a shame it had to close, and so many other places like it.

The news headlines on Saturday didn't help. They were all saying "stay indoors" when what they should have said was stay at home. It implied that people with gardens shouldn't be using them which is ridiculous. Completely see where you are coming from OP on needing to get out of a flat. I think there's a perception that most people have a garden in the UK but I think that's really far from the case nowadays.

Agree with you op.

I go out most days, usually to one of my local parks. I've yet to see anyone sunbathing or picnicking. Just other people walking or cycling, sometimes with kids on scooters. People are generally very good at keeping their distance.

I think the chances of picking up coronavirus in those circumstances are minimal. Going to the shops seems much more risky.

I've no reason to touch anything when out (even the main roads are dead so no need to push any buttons at the pedestrian crossing). Even then I do a thorough hand wash on my return.

As for people suddenly taking up exercise, even 'couch potatoes' would have been getting some exercise going out to work etc...

Anyway, if people get into the habit of doing more exercise now than they did in the past, surely that's a good thing.

Thank you OP. So many people don't have gardens. So many people manage their mental health through exercise. So many people are following the rules when out - it's just everyone else whose out at the same timemthinks that it's just the rest of the population whose doing it all wrong.

And yes - we are allowed out. We are allowed.

I live right by a small park, people playing football, a couple sunbathing, and about 5-6 kids with adults playing. Makes you think what the bigger parks must have been like.
They could all be from same households who knows. But sunbathing is a bit of a no no at the moment.
We all want to do it but what would happen if we did all do it? So I stay inside and abide by the rules cos I just want this over and done with as quickly as possibly. I have a walk once a day or so and I'm happy with that.
What these sunbathing idiots don't realise is that the more people who do this , will just result in a total lockdown.

I finally managed to get my two kids (13 & 16) to go to the park after days and days indoors - very few people there - and an elderly woman with a dog screamed at them about the virus and kept in at them. They came back crying. Awful. They won’t go out anymore. It’s dystopian.

Totally agree. People are allowed to exercise, but not allowed to travel any distance to get to anywhere more remote. I live in a village. All the local parks and streets are really busy - because most people are working at home, and people are exercising and dog walking from their front doors. Do think people shouldn’t picnic or sunbathe though.

Agree with you OP.

It’s also about balancing out the risks and benefits to both scenarios- there are many negatives to small children being kept completely indoors with no fresh air and exercise for weeks on end.