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.

I completely agree, OP. People going out for walks in the way we are allowed is fine. People congregating in parks, sunbathing and meeting friends is not fine and that's what will get us a full lockdown.

I agree with OP, too.

It must be so difficult being confined indoors with a small active child. We all need a bit of fresh air.

We have a postage-stamp sized garden - if we didn't have energetic dogs we would confine ourselves to it. As it is DH and I have reduced their walks from 3- 4 hours/day (am and pm), to 1 hr day. When this partial lockdown started we took turns - one out for an hour with dogs in the morning, the other ditto in the afternoon, reducing it to 2 hours. Now, we go out alternate days for an hour (roughly) at a time - so DH one day, me the next, and try to get out very early in the morning when there are fewer people about.

The days of sitting on a seat during the walk, having a chat and watching the dogs play with other people's are long gone. We don't sit down in case we either leave something behind, or take something away. We hurry round as quickly as we can. I can't understand why these sunbathers etc think that taking a morning to lie in the sun is 'exercise", or that they may not be picking up a virus, or leaving one for the next person, or how they can't see that if they linger unnecessarily outside, it could prevent someone else from getting out for their much needed fresh air. It's pure selfishness.

Go out - for 30-60 minutes; keep moving; maintain distance; let other people enjoy the space, too.

I tried indoor jogging the other evening It was a bit weird but I found a YouTube of scenery for running which included a timer for 30 minutes. I ran in place for that time, enjoying the countryside on screen (and thinking it was passing much faster than if I'd actually been out there!)

I'm sure it wasn't quite the workout of actually running as there was no forward propulsion, but I was properly sweaty by the end and the on-screen timer was useful for faster intervals. We have a very small garden, just about big enough to skip in, so this was a good alternative.

I mentioned to my sister yesterday that I reckoned the outdoor exercising would be banned before Easter, based on how people behaved this weekend. It looks very possible, unfortunately.

YANBU OP. We should try to be considerate of each other. I’ve been going out for a walk most days at a quiet time, and staying 2m away from people has been easy where I live. I don’t go to the park or seafront because it will be busy and yes, I think people who live in flats should have informal priority.

I agree with those who think the govt are nudging us to police ourselves/each other.

There are people who will do things unless they are specifically told not to. That’s their prerogative I suppose but it doesn’t mean they’re not selfish.

YANBU, we have a garden and have only used our local park a few times in the past month. If my dd wants to run, she's a teen and likes to keep fit for mh, we go when it's quiet, either early morning or after tea, just before dark.
Some people don't have a garden and parks and they should have preference, especially if they have young dc.

I also live in a flat and went for my daily walk in the park just now, in a city, was glad to see it was empty apart from runners and walkers...even compared to yesterday. No police around whereas yesterday there were several.

So I am keeping my fingers crossed people ARE listening.

You all just need a bit of fairy liquid or oil

Some people I know are going out more now than they did before all of this!.

Have to agree with this!

I know several people whose idea of a good physical workout was opening the ring-pulls on their beer cans who are now going out just because they have been told to stay in.

If it gets them off their arses it has to be a good thing, though - as long as they don't flout the rules.

Good grief, so now, if you have a postage stamp of grass outside your house you should stay in?

Nice.

Well i see the image didn't load...

I don’t see how my getting up at 5am and going for a run on the roads/never setting foot in a park is a problem. You’re angry with the wrong people.

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!

Where have they mentioned shaming and punishing?

I completely agree with you, OP. Our garden’s very small but we sit out in it and walk the dog at sun down. We don’t need to spoil the park two minutes away for people who really need it.

It did🙄 god this is so annoying on mn

Some people I know are going out more now than they did before all of this!.

I was thinking about this with regards to where I live. My husband and I have a fairly long commute, with a decent walk at the other end. Any of our neighbours seeing us go out might conclude that we don't usually go out walking, so why are we doing it now, when actually we always walk, it's just that it's done every day on the way to work many miles away where none of them see us.

I am sad so many twats may spoil things for others. But given that there are so many twats out there it would not surprise me if a tighter lockdown does happen. I agree in that case parks etc should be for those who really need them. And those of us with a garden do not. Simple as. No, I don’t want to have to keep my dog in the garden rather than walk him properly, but it is doable. Dogs will no die from less exercise. People will, and are, dying from this virus..

There are always going to be people who are better or worse off in this situation, as with any other. You don't have a garden which some people do; you have company which some people don't.

I have been going for short walks, keeping my distance from other people and incorporating my food shopping when necessary. I strongly disagree with people flouting the rules to sunbathe or whatever, but to expect people living on their own not to see (I mean literally see, not meet) another soul for several weeks or months, even if they have a garden, is a big ask.

I have a small patio barely big enough to swing a cat, so unless or until it is forbidden I am going to keep having short local walks.

I totally agree with you OP. So many people just being selfish arseholes.

I think we will go on stricter lockdown and, to be honest, I think we should.

People going to beaches, parks etc. Just why?

Me and DH usually walk our dogs twice a day and rarely see anyone. We have had to stop walking them now as there are so many others dog walking. One of our dogs is a rescue and doesn't like people or dogs much.

Some of the walkers I have never ever seen walking their dogs before. Of course they could all have normally driven somewhere to walk but we live in a village surrounded by fields and footpaths so hard to believe they always drove somewhere

Even if you live in a flat, you don’t need to go to a park for a walk. You can walk the streets.

We have a tiny garden that has been dug up and is unusable (work paused on it obviously). My daily run keeps me sane, on a normal weekend run I'd do a route that takes me to three different parks. Today I did none of them and kept to quiet residential roads and ran towards the traffic so I could run in the road if anyone came walking in the other direction. If everyone was sensible I'd like to hope we keep our exercise allowance. Not being able to go out scares me.

Whilst I see where you are coming from, I do think you are being unreasonable. I have a dog. I also have completely stuffed joints. I am on the waiting list for a knee replacement. I also need the other one and both hips done. My left hip is particularly dodgy.
God knows when they will be done. I can’t run, or jump on the spot. I need to walk. If I don’t walk I will end up needing to be in hospital.

I am fortunate enough to have a garden, but it’s about 14 feet by 8.

So I will continue to walk.

Regarding people who have allegedly suddenly taken to exercising when they never did before, I don't see why it's so surprising. People who are used to being out at work (and maybe in the gym at lunchtime for all we know) from 7am to 7pm suddenly have nothing to do and nowhere to go. Of course they'll take a daily walk, and unless they are hanging around in groups or crowding others, good luck to them.

Do you know what's worse than staying at home all day? Staying at home all day other than when you're going to a job where you watch people die of Coronavirus without their family before going back to your house and quarantining again.

I can not wait for them to implement full lockdown.

Was this Brockwell park? If so it is only closed for today.

I don’t know what happened to prompt the closure but 3000 people should be able to maintain social distancing in that amount of space assuming they stay off the paths. For example 100,000 attend the country show (obviously not social distancing)

I haven’t been out much since lockdown and not to the parks at all but one of the biggest issues on the streets is joggers getting too close, panting etc

It's people in London and Surrey, what a surprise.

I can see your point OP and I tend to agree with you, but I'm fed up with people (regardless of whether or not they live in a flat with young kids) saying they need to go out for exercise. If there was a gunman outside ready to shoot you, would you still "need" to go out? No. The threat's the same, it's just invisible. I'm sorry, but unless you're starving or at risk of harm you don't "need" at all. You need to suck it up and stay inside.