Am i breaking lockdown rules ?

[1ForAllnAllFor1]

Hi all,
I live in a flat with a 2 year old. We previously used to go out everyday to a playgroup where him and another girl got on and played every day. He asks about her every day.

I have been self isolating for almost a month now due to my DH having flu symptoms earlier in the month whixh he recovered from. My son, is absolutely bored at home.

This morning I decided to take him out on his scooter next to our block of flats, towards a Tesco (which I wasn’t going into). It’s a little forest walkway where there is runners and I was respecting all social distancing.

I happened to bump into his friend who he has been asking for everyday, he pointed her out and ran towards her. She was on her scooter too. So me and the mum kept 2 meters apart and we let them run the scooter alongside each other. They didn’t touch or anything.

Part of me felt irresponsible but I was overwhelmed with emotion as this was his normal and it broke my heart to end his happy moment as he has been so lonely and bored at home, but I wonder whether I wasn’t following guidelines?

A man saw us and was loudly swearing and cussing and saying how people like me are behind lockdown not being effective and stricter rules.

It has put me off taking my son out at all. But then I feel confused as this is part of the guidelines.

Am I unreasonable

But @lagunabubbles , they are being horrble to her, read some of the posts. If the poster didn’t give a shit she wouldn’t be posting on here asking for advice. So I don’t think she’s selfish. To me, it isn’t sensible to let the kids scooter beside/behind each other because that can easily turn into another’s form of playing (hard to explain to a toddler why they can’t) or one could fall and bump into the other, or fall and the other parent scoops them up out of instinct. But sometimes I do think it’s necessary to chuck things in the fuckit bucket and move on.

Have to disagree Flop, I don't think posts are horrible at all. The rules are quite clear and a "mistake" like this is not acceptable. At the other end of the scale you read things like this, over 3000 in groups in a park. An 18th birthday party. I could weep.

You didn't arrange to meet up. You bumped into each other and walked 2m apart in the same direction for a couple of minutes. Social distancing is not a licence for being rude. I think you managed the potentially awkward situation that could have lead to tears calmly and sensibly.

Yes, but Laguna that very obviously is the other end of the scale though isn’t it, I’m not saying she should do it again. I just think that under normal circumstances an individual going though what she is going through would get a lot of sympathy because it’s such an extreme and difficult situation - but because everyone’s going through it (or similar) we have less sympathy/ empathy when we should have more.

I think saying so and so died but they had underlying health issues really comes across as they don't matter, they would have died anyway and it lends itself to the idiots who think they are fit and well, so safe to go out as they won't die of it.

Laguna that is the Daily Mail. Enough said.

Hi @1ForAllnAllFor1 I know this is hard. I had something similar with my son on mother's Day. He and I took a gift to his grandmother's house, and left it on her door step. We then stood at the bottom of the garden path and called her to let her know to look out. As we were outside, his cousin arrived. I physically had to stop him from running to hug his cousin, which he didn't understand, despite having social distancing explained to him.

It's difficult with children but it's your responsibility to keep them safe.

It was in the daily mail, so what. It was still true.

Saying should be fine that one time comes from the same book as people thinking you can't get pregnant the first time you have sex .

People are being disgusting on here .the children are 2 years old. They don’t understand any of this. I think the man swearing was awful for using bad language

Laguna that is the Daily Mail. Enough said

I don't do Twitter but it is on the Polices twitter page so yes it is true. As much as I despise the DM it doesn't mean its not true. Look it up.

Yes, but Laguna that very obviously is the other end of the scale though

Of course but the virus can still spread from 1 person to. That's the point to the guidelines.

Although best not to do it I think it will be fine that one time

This is fast becoming the Mumsnet myth like solicitors giving out free half hour advice.

OP, what's done is done. Yes, the risks for both families are slightly increased now.

Use the Julia Donaldson pictures to explain to him that if you bump into the friends again, they can say hi, they can scoot, but they need to stay apart.

We are still allowed out. We need to be sensible, take precautions, but there is a balance. Staying cooped up in a flat with a 2 year old is hard work.

Each and every person breaking the instructions thinks that they are 'special' and so the instructions do not apply to them.

That's the problem- too many people think they are 'special' and have a unique reason to find a way around the rules.

So, to anyone who thinks that because they are finding things incredibly tough they have a valid reason to break the rules - just stop, you're no more special than everyone else!

Ok I’ve owned it. I’ve made a mistake for letting the kids play along side each other. It was a moment where I made a bad decision, out of being sleep deprived (have a teething toddler).

I made a mistake by posting on here when people are so anxious about health and deaths, and expecting them to contain their anger and not be triggered.

I shall make a donation to the NHS to make up for my shortcoming and I Hope other mums reading here will learn from my mistake. And won’t happen again.

I still wish we live in a world where people have the ability to educate/advise others without getting personal or getting a kicking out of bringing people down.

The points beinf mentioned are all valid, but a person can choose how to convey that across and I beleive those of you who choose to convey it in a nasty manner are in my eyes the selfish ones trying to make themselves feel better at the cost of others. Mental health issues due to abuse also results in deaths. Fact. Don’t normalize abuse either.

2 wrongs don’t make a right and all.

I was going to ask Mumsnet to delete this thread, but as I saw that this is a parenting forum and yes quite a few of us were in a situation where the children bumped into other kids, I think I’d keep it so others can be ready to handle their kids in such situations..

Thank you soo much to the pp who were in touch with their human side and able to advise me in a respectable manner. Your words resonated so much more than all the keyboard warriors. Connect before you correct and all that.

Sorry- having a teething baby. Before anyone cynical tries to create a story out of that too.

And to reassure everyone, I’m not a nurse. I was applying for a role of other supporting staff. Never worked officially in a hospital before and so would’ve been trained, but I applied to be able to operate and manage medical equipment.

I don’t represent nurses and my mistake reflects nothing on nurses or the NHS. Pls don’t worry.

1ForAllnAllFor1
"Ok I’ve owned it. I’ve made a mistake for letting the kids play along side each other."
Can't say fairer than that. Well done for being big enough to admit it. Hopefully others will learn from this too. 💐💐💐

As much as your ‘owning it’ was great, I’m struggling with the fact that anyone still has to be ‘educated’ on it- I’m waiting for the ‘Idiots Guide to Covid-19 Social Distancing, Isolation and Shielding’ to come out.

The Government can not make it any clearer about what we can and can not do 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Perhaps also “the idiots guide on how to interact in a civil and effective manner behind a screen”

I think the difficulty is that the people who are "nice" about it are for example people saying "whoops, its only once, doesnt matter"

Firstly it paths the way for those other people who are rule bending eg the people saying as long as they socially distance its fine. Look at how many hundreds of people post here and on social media about ways they've bent the rules or why the rules dont apply to them. Its everywhere and its a slippery slope, for example you met them by accident, people are deliberately engineering such meet ups. You can buy essentials thus people are buying all kinds of random things off facebook.

And it does matter. Its not okay. The virus doesnt care what your reason was. Reassurance that its "probably fine" means nothing. People have to know that what they are doing is a risk.

@53PurpleDaisies the OP and or her D's could now be carriers
You know?

I think OP gets it after the 10000th abusive message . Some people really need to get a hobby.

@Monty27 is that comment in response to Why does the op need to go back to isolating monty?. It was three days ago.

The advice isn’t if you stand too close to someone you need to isolate when there’s no evidence that anyone has covid 19. You shouldn’t be making up your own pupils health rules.

@32PurpleDaisies rtht

It seems some people have lost all perspective and are depressingly eager to condemn others. I get that people are frightened and scared but it's important that we all make the effort to be kind as it's not just people's physical health that's being tested during this time.

OP has admitted that she had a lapse in judgement when her toddler played with their friend. This is true, but realistically it was a one-off interaction, in a relatively low risk environment (well ventilated, outdoors) with two (presumably) non vulnerable people. This will realistically not single-handedly destroy all OP's good work in following the rules before then and after it.

It looks like we are in this for the long haul and people will make mistakes. A relatively small error in judgement is completely different than someone deliberately flouting the rules and organising mass gatherings etc. We should as a society be able to recognise these differences and tailor our response accordingly.