A PLEA

[YukoandHiro]

Please, if you have a garden or any alternative, do not go out and use parks etc.

My husband and I live in a damp, dark two bedroom flat with no outside space with a 2.5 year old.

A no outside exercise edict Will drive us to completely mental breakdown.

Stop being selfish and think of the people who really actually need to leave the their property to keep their child well.

These are very difficult issues for people. If some people do not go out they will be killing their spouse and that kind of thing. The problem is one in cities mostly as people don't have gardens and are in flats.

Always go back to the regulations - there are lots of reasons why by law you can go out - www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/350/contents/made However I am in mostly (not least because I have a ton of work, student children around and have to work to ensure the salaries of nurses are paid - must be nice to have loads of free time!!!!!)

I favour the Swedish solution and would not have closed schools but even so I do not recommend civil disobedience as we need to preserve the rule of law although there will come a point when lock down is too long and we are destroying the lives of 60m people to save a tiny tiny fraction of the UK's usual 500,000 deaths in a normal year.

Don’t direct your anger at people with gardens- direct it at this flouncing the rules. The sunbathers, the groups of cyclists, the groups of teenagers.
I’m allowed out to walk and I will continue to go out and walk for mine and my 2yr olds sanity.
We are clamping down on the wrong people

OP I wouldn't worry too much - the decimating of the police force in recent years means there are nowhere near enough police officers to enforce a total lockdown - if there were, the idiots flouting the current restrictions would be being dealt with. And yes they could enlist the army to help, but do you honestly see Boris wanting to be the Prime Minister who brought in marshal law to deal with the government's failure to act quickly enough over coronavirus. It would be the end of the Tories.

Presume you've seen the news that a full, total lockdown is coming

Why do people twist stuff and present it as fact?
This hasn't been said at all.
What HAS been said is that people need to start sticking to the rules, otherwise the restrictions may be tightened and exercise outside of the home could be banned.
May be being the operative word there.
It hasn't been said it's fact at all.
If it is, then it is what it is.
Just wish people would fucking stick to the rules, how hard is it to not have gatherings or go sunbathing etc FFS?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52172035

YANBU. We have a garden, it's not very big but it's enough for the DC and us to get some fresh air and kick a ball to each other. DH and the DC haven't left the house for about 3 weeks. I've left to go food shopping and take food/prescriptions to my parents who are shielding. I do think the parks and open spaces should, at the moment, be there for those who otherwise can't get outside.

Yanbu we have a garden, it’s not great but we’ve made do.
Someone I know with a garden has posted fb pics everyday with her brood out and about on the beach etc then last night complaining someone’s “snitched” on her.

Pleased to see most people generally in agreement.

I do think most people are following the rules and being sensible - but there are few who may end up making things more difficult for all of us

I posted a while ago that people were being arrested. Or taken to court. I got jumped on!! I was right.

It's in the news that a full
Lockdown will happen if people keep going out to sunbathe etc.

My father lives in Spain. They've been in a full lockdown for 14 days? They've just been told it's another 14 days. On top of the 30 days it was originally. So almost 6 weeks in total

No exercise. Nothing.

It's coming.

YANBU OP. If theres one thing we need to do in all this its consider others - with not stockpiling, with making sure we social distance and give good space to people, with assisting others and trying not to judge people when we dont know their circumstances.
Surely those with alternatives eg a garden should be showing consideration of those who might have more need of a shared public resource like communal grounds and parks because they dont have other opportunities for exercise and fresh air?

I am expecting obesity rates to drop and fitness levels to rise after this "lockdown" which actually did the opposite of what it intended. Instead of making people stay home, it made them realise they want to "exercise".

I haven't been out with my 2 young children in 2 weeks. We've stayed on our garden or house. We've a very small garden. So it's been hard. But not impossible. We've been doing dance routines. Exercise videos.

I can't understand why the government are threatening a full lockdown that will be to the detriment of the mental and physical health of the vast majority who are complying with the rules.

Why not enforce the rules and have tougher penalties for the minority who break the rules? A £30 fine is ridiculous. Make it £500 and people will be less likely to flout the rules.

I live in London in a flat over looking a massive field with a football stadium in, the field is empty bar about 7 people just exercising away from people.
I can see into about 30 gardens and no body is in them now it always makes me feel weird when it's summer that no one really uses them. I'd love a house with a garden we are hoping to move to a house when this is over. Atm I'm about 235ft up top floor with three kids in this flat I'm lucky enough the parks always empty.

Why not enforce the rules and have tougher penalties for the minority who break the rules? A £30 fine is ridiculous. Make it £500 and people will be less likely to flout the rules.

Who's going to enforce it though? The police are already massively stretched with the number of staff having to self-isolate. I'm sure if we had the army roaming the streets people would be complaining about how bad that was for their mental health too.

@IvinghoeBeacon , @Deux and @ Wanderings I think you are right.

This government has for floating ideas out there before putting them in place. 3 weeks ago they put herd immunity into the public sphere - it didn't go down well so they started with the LOCK!down rhetoric. It got a slightly mixed response as people realised that the restrictions would cause them issues. So a Lockdown Lite position was put in place. Which has polarised opinion even within groups who feel isolation is what is required. We have at one end of the spectrum those who don't feel it is necessary to enshrine it in law as it impacts on personal liberty and at the other people who feel that a blanket rule needs to be put in place even where the one rule for everybody doesn't make a difference to infection rates eg a lone person going for a walk for several hours and does not see anyone.

Matt Hancock was probably tasked on todays' Andrew Marr Show with "letting slip" an idea to see where the balance of opinion lies.

I agree with you. Selfish knobbers with big gardens insisting on their right to go and walk around the park for an hour a day - or sunbathe - or socialize "at a distance" but clearly in a group - are going to end up forcing us into a stricter lockdown. Some people I know are going out more now than they did before all of this! Over entitled twats.

Total lockdown is probably planned, I think. But if people all go out in the good weather it will give the govt an excuse to say they've done it because of that.

We have a garden and still go out for a walk. Admittedly I live in the middle of nowhere so we don’t see anyone 😬 people can go out regardless if they have a garden or not.. I do get it op. I used to live in a tiny damp flat with no garden with my son years ago. It was horrible! I was only saying earlier I wouldn’t have coped like this!

Solidarity and YANBU at all. I’m in a top floor 2 bed as well with a 1.5 year old. It will be hell for him and my partner if we have to stay in all the time. I’m “lucky” enough that I still get to leave the flat to go to work.

We live 2 minutes walk from a beautiful park (the reason we chose the flat) and it will be devastating not to be able to use it.

JinglingHellsBells

"From photos, it appears to be mainly younger people, in cities, who are not doing the right thing."

I'm not sure. Perhaps some but cities will have lots of sharers living together because they can't afford to buy or rent alone. If you see 4 twenty something's together you might assume they are ignoring the restrictions but they may be getting some exercise with their household just like everyone else.

I have absolute sympathy with those who have no outside space of their own, but I'm afraid I'm not going to stop going on my daily walks to the woods near my home until I am instructed by the government for doing so.

I'm absolutely not taking the piss in doing this. I go out once a day and take all necessary precautions. I don't see many other people at all while I'm out, and I keep my distance when I do. I could not possibly get the same type of exercise in my small garden, and it would not have the same beneficial impact on my physical ormental health. Plus, the only other properties within walking distance of these woods are all houses with gardens of their own, and anyone who lives further afield should be exercising in their own vicinity, not travelling to mine.

People going out for exercise in line with government guidelines aren't really the problem, and they aren't the reason that we'll probably end up with a total ban either. It's the piss takers who are sitting around in public places and still meeting up with people from outside their own households, and the ones who are failing to observe proper social distancing when they're out.

It's only logical that if someone has adequate private outside space, they should leave communal one to people who need it.

It could only be logical if everyone lived in areas where there are people without gardens who need it. Everyone doesn't.

The reason we will end up with a ban is because that is what the government has decided to do. It’s not because some people are being naughty and we should all point the finger of blame at them. It would be helpful if the government would just say straightforwardly “we feel more restrictions are necessary to slow the spread of the virus” (or whatever their rationale is) than saying “you must be SHAMED and PUNISHED because you cannot be trusted!”

The latter is an easier message to sell I am sure

gingerbread, those of us with gardens cannot be in them all the time. Eg I am working most of today Sunday. I am lucky to have work ( self employed over £50k so no help from the state) and that will help to fund nurses' salaries so it s not that we are wasting our gardens but that we have a lot of other things to do. I was in the garden for about 40 minutes today.

Hadenoughofitall441

My DD 7 was crying yesterday because she said she was bored and she misses her friends.

Do you have devices phone/tablet/computer where your daughter could play online with a real world friend. Minecraft or Roblox perhaps (the one where they work in a pizza shop is pretty good fun). You could arrange with another mum and if your devices don't have sound to speak to each other both put your phone's on speaker so they can chat as they play. Or how about putting the same "just dance" video or favourite song on you tube and having a "zoom party" Maybe a pamper party over FaceTime with a school friend and you and their mum doing their hair/nails /make-up (or just moisturiser if they don't do make up)

My son is 10 and plays Xbox games regularly chatting with 5 or 6 school friends or his cousins. I know this can be more a boy thing but I think it really helps and we can try to embrace these technologies at this time.