To talk to you about life in Spain right now

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In case UK follows many other countries and tightens the rules, I made a post about what it's like here in Spain.

A few things worth buying. Vitamin D for kids in case you are not allowed to take them out from next week, especially if you have no outside space. Craft materials (these are now very scarce here as supermarkets have had to close that section if they had it to discourage browsing). Disney Plus for movie nights. Microwave popcorn!

I live in Spain. We have an apartment in the city centre and no outside space at all. I am separated from my son's father but we chose for him to move in just before the lockdown as we saw it coming in the news and wanted to ensure the kids were not separated from him for months on end. We get on very well, I appreciate this is not an option for everyone. We also have a flatmate who is a lovely 27 year old Portuguese guy. So we are 3 adults and 2 kids in 115 square metres of space..... And that's better than some of our friends who live in 60 or 70 square metre apartments. Spanish children have not been outside for 3 weeks. My sons are 9 and 3 and normally active boys doing lots of sports and we are normally out of the house every day between 8am and 8:30pm. That has all changed. Schools are fully closed and have been since 13th March, no exceptions.

1. How are people coping with kids?

Varying levels of coping, of course. Here with the little one I bake, do drawing, dance, play football inside etc. For the older one I made little bags. One has basketball drills (his favorite sport) which he does 2 a day. One has exercise sets (I will post an example), one has different amounts of screen time and one has activities linked to school (maths, history, Spanish, English, science projects, baking etc). He chooses 3 of those.

1. Grocery shopping.

My ex goes to the shops once every 6 days. That's it. You are asked to carry a paper justifying your journey. You can not go to whatever shop you choose. You must go to the closest one to home. If you are caught turning this into a walk you will be stopped and fined between 600 and 30000 euros. If the police decide you are covering up a walk with a "shopping trip".... Fined. Someone I know was fined 200 euros for only buying a can of coke and a chocolate. We have not seen scenes of panic buying or bulk buying here, possibly because in cities most do not have a car so you take a granny trolley and a couple of bags for life so no space for millones of toilet paper etc. This may be different in rural areas but there haven't been many reports of it (I haven't seen any, in fact). People wear a mask and gloves and supermarkets make you queue outside 2 meters apart and don't let many people in at a time. Most supermarkets also provide gloves and require you to wear them.

1. What can you leave the house for?

Essential food shopping, pharmacy, medical appointments, essential workers, walk your dog (but only so he can go to the toilet... No big long walks) Only allowed to leave the house individually unless you are accompanying someone who is unable to go alone.

4.Can you use your garden or roof terrace?
If it is for private use, yes. If it is for communal use (shared garden or roof terrace with other flats), no. You'll get fined as if you were outside.

1. Clapping?

Yes. Every night for keyworkers at 8pm. Most people join in. Slight difference with UK is its unusual for kids to be in bed before 9pm here. Occasionally will be extra one for kids at 6pm.

1. Doctors appointments

All non urgent appointments canceled. Telephone appointments with emailed prescriptions available and I had one within an hour of asking.

Please stay safe. It's difficult, but it's not forever and it will be less time the more people abide by the rules. Feel free to ask any questions and I will try to answer. It's tough, but we are coping. So will you if the UK tightens the rules for a while.

@NotEnoughCoffeeToday yes here in Catalunya I believe people are being told to disinfect pets paws

There really are not so many arguments about "rights" mostly people just get on with it and try to make the best of it. As previously stated all public spaces are shut and policed so there is no discussion there. You go, you receive a hefty fine.

I’ve not heard any talk of ‘rights’ in real life here in the UK either. People I know are also just getting on with it.

It seems to me from what I read that most people in the UK are abiding by lockdown. But there does also seem to be a lot of people (maybe it's more MN than anywhere) who are looking for a way round the limits, rather than just getting on with it. And a lot of talk about how they NEED to exercise. Which, when you've spent 22 days without being able to, on the whole, (and I'm generalising about the average person here) massively OTT.

Maybe the people not complying in the UK is partly because it's less strict, less enforced. I mean, here, no schools are open, no eateries, not even for take away. All parks are shut or roped off. And you know if you go out and get stopped and can't justify what you're doing, you WILL get a fine. Locally to me, the police are fining €1500 upwards. I think it can be from €650 to €30,000. And anyway, there is NOWHERE to go, apart from the supermarket or the pharmacy. Nowhere.

I'm really really not hearing of people complaining about it or trying to find ways round it. Maybe there just aren't ways around it. I mean if nobody's allowed out for exercise on pain of a massive fine, you're going to stick out like a sore thumb if you do it.

I have seen quite a bit of that on MN, and various reports of people pushing the limits of the daily exercise in the UK media. I'm not seeing that in Spain. But again, maybe asking people to define for themselves what "essential" means was always going to invite some to interpret it differently.

I don't know, there does seem to be an issue with compliance in the UK with some people, more than, say Ireland, with a fairly similar lockdown, but apparently fewwer issues with people not adhering to it.

m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10158150462684437&id=282039604436

Scenes of Barcelona posted by the police today

Sorry, 24 days

Wow, spooky, isn't it?

This was Seville on Friday, on what would normally be one of the busiest days of the year, just at the start of semana santa

www.facebook.com/EmergenciasSevilla/videos/893143457786909/UzpfSTUyODQyNzY5MDoxMDE1NjY5MjY1NjA4NzY5MQ/?comment_id=10156694845577691&reply_comment_id=10156695451097691&notif_id=1586182081775518&notif_t=feed_comment

Police posted similar pics of Manchester city Centre over the weekend

The UK are being more compliant that mumsnet and hysterical social media posters are letting on

Certainly, people are by and large being very compliant where I live in the UK. I took the dog out just now for 40 mins, saw five other walkers plus three elderly geezers well spread out exchanging a few pleasantries. Very little traffic. Nobody on the closed-off playing field. Most people try very hard to distance (tbh I think people just sometimes forget). People are helping each other out a great deal.

This idea of the Brits being uniquely awful at everything is bloody tedious, tbh, and just not true.

@grumpy I know. I’d hardly call the Spanish shining examples of civic and patriotic obedience, personally. But what do we know, we are just slovenly, thick, uncultured brits who holiday in Benidorm and only eat fry ups for every meal

we are just slovenly, thick, uncultured brits who holiday in Benidorm and only eat fry ups for every meal I don't think anyone said anything even remotely like that, but knock yourself out.

It’s pretty obvious in the undertones of many posts just how right every single Spanish citizen is getting it, and how wrong apparently the majority of Britain is. Whereas that’s not the case

"live in Italy & i can't believe the arrogance & general attitude to the current situation in the uk"

Why? The situation and attitude was exactly the same in Italy before it was properly locked down.

I'm in Korea and we were never locked down here, just given "advice" not to go out unless necessary. The past two weekends, everyone has been out in full force, clubs, bars, parks, restaurants, all heaving.

Whether the early and rigorous testing will have been enough to prevent a second outbreak remains to be seen but I'm not hopeful. There are elections next week and I'm pretty sure that is one of the reasons the government hasn't issued a lockdown.

What is the limit on walking for shopping (or pharmacy) - what I mean is, if you say walked 2 miles to your nearest supermarket, would they say you should be driving, and are masking exercise?

live in Italy & i can't believe the arrogance & general attitude to the current situation in the uk

You need to stop believing everything you read on social media. There's a massive amount of fake news around.

Most people in the UK are following the rules. It's newsworthy when they don't eg a group near Reading who drove 10 miles to walk a dog and crashed! And I don't think they were related - ie friends in the car. Yes they need to have the book thrown at them, but that's one case.

I suppose it depends where you live. If you passed similar supermarkets on the way then maybe they wouldn't be impressed, if it were clear you were using it as an excuse. Where I live, there's one small supermarket in the village and about 4 within a 20 minute drive, so I mostly drive because then I can get pretty much everything and only go once a week.

@Chillicheese123 so yes I do believe there is much more compliance here than in UK. At no point did I say that this is a cultural difference. The issue is more that the British government are hazy and making guidance or rules which are too "Grey area". Here it's very clear cut. No one called you slovenly, thick or uncultured. Noone mentioned benidorm although as it happens at the beginning of the lockdown there were scenes of drunk British tourists insulting the police and flouting the rules and being generally obnoxious. Whilst of course they don't represent UK as a whole..... It did happen.

I do think that one reason may be that people here are more used to communal living and UK is more insular. The anti clapping posts here on MumsNet, for example...... That take on it I really believe would not occur to anyone I know here and I was really taken aback at how many posters here were sceptical. I'm not saying either is right or wrong, just that it's a noticeable difference.

In terms of walking to the shop......Can't speak for outside the city but I know almost noone here who has a car.... Equally almost no one who lives more than 1km away from a supermarket. There are 4 within 600m of my front door. Not huge ones like in UK..... Those are very rare here. Most are about the size of Tesco express or similar.

It is true that multiple trips to the shops would be policed and fined. You are expected to keep it to s minimum. Going every day or every 2 days is likely to get you a stern word, a warning or just a straight up fine.

Very informative thank you.

You probably don’t know the answer to this as there are probably not many it applies to. I understand fetching food, medication & toileting animals. What would happen if someone had no facility to wash clothes & towels? (We just moved house and had to abandon our kitchen utility refit so currently have a bare room with a window sized hole in the wall)

The shopping every 6 days us tough too. We have a tiny borrowed fridge & no freezer. No room to store a weeks worth of milk.

That’s exactly what I am doing by choice. I go out once a week for groceries.

I think, Spanish lockdown is different because it was formulated, communicated and is being policed differently. The whole tone was different from the beginning. It was very strict from the beginning.

I think, if some schools are partly open, businesses can offer take away, people can "exercise" (and it's left as woolly as that), then there just are more people on the streets, it feels slightly more normal (although obviously not not normal really) than here where none of those things are happening. By definiton, the footfall on the streets is much lower if nobody can go for a walk, no schools are open even for key workers, NO food businesses are open in any form, except food shops.

And, if there's really NOBODY around then you feel even less inclined to go out because you feel you'll stick out like a sore thumb if you see what I mean?

People I know are very careful to get a receipt for shopping so they can show it if they get stopped.

So, you naturally go out less and less and less. It's easier to just stay at home.

The fines are higher here than in the UK from what I understand.

So, all that adds up to a different level of lockdown.

As far as the clapping, I don't actually personally do the clapping every night, but I really think it's lovely that people do it and enjoy it. I don't know of anyone here who thinks it's "cringey". I've seen a lot of that on MN. There's at least one whole thread about it.

It actually makes me well up, especially the music they play (in my street anyway) before and after: Spanish version of I will survive and then, this week, Holy Week brass band music because Holy Week has been cancelled and it's very very big in my part of Spain. The music is beautiful. The clapping here is every night though, so it's become quite a ritual. I think it's emotional because we are so confined not even being able to go for a walk, that it's good to have that connection with other people.

Where I live, you wouldn't be fined for shopping every couple of days, absolutely not. They do ask you to try to limit how much you go out, but it is understood that some people, like the elderly for instance, can only go and get things every couple of days.

Thanks so much for your insight. I hope everyone here in the London reads your post as although the majority are following instructions there is a large minority who are not and are going to make things a great deal worse. Since lockdown my neighbours boyfriend, who doesn't live there has been staying with her some nights, returning home for a number days, then coming back again. On Saturday they took delivery of building materials and today I have had to witness him completely take apart the area between her and our property the front - I mean pull up paving with a pick axe; dig and dispose of a gravelled area; open up a number of drains and re-cement the top. I believe this project is going take all week and he is doing it now because he can't go to work and is bored!!!!!!!. The couple and her child have been out all day directly in front of my property, the child cycling around and her sitting in the sun drinking tea so I have been unable to go out of my front door without being within 2m of them. So many people here are not treating this lock down seriously and treating it just as an extended holiday period.

@Comefromaway we also have not lots of fridge and freezer space..... We buy UHT milk which does not need to be refrigerated until it's opened. Could you do that perhaps?

Thanks for sharing how it is in Spain. x

@Comefromaway
In France, launderettes are on the list of shops that can remain open. These include food shops, chemists, computer repair shops, DIY shops and, I think, some garden centres now if they are selling herbs/fruit/veg plants as the plants need to be bought now and planted or they will die, and anyone growing their own will be helping if harvests are tricky.