to think that this is really sad for the young children?

[PrettyLittleLiar20]

I’ve got a young child who is so so bored at home. Constantly asks if we can go to the playground. I say no the playground is closed. Can we go to the beach mummy? No because we’re not allowed. Mummy can we go to McDonald’s? No because it’s closed. I’m just so so sad for my DD and im constantly feeling bad because she doesn’t understand any of this.

Everyone else entertained their own dc. All the time!

What’s your point? I’m predominantly a SAHM (work freelance from home when they’re in bed) so I entertain my children all the time too. Well obviously not the 6 and 4 year olds when they’re at school, but due to the ages of my 3 DC I’ve always had at least 1 and usually 2 at home with me full time. I have more ways to entertain babies/toddlers/pre schoolers/school children in my back pocket than lots of other people.
The current situation is still bloody hard.

It's also sad for children living in poverty or in war or in refugee camps who can't have these things all the time

But for me, the sad thing is not that the fact that our children can't get a McDonalds or a new toy or go to soft play. The sad part is that they can't mix with other children or play with them. I'm pretty sure children in refugee camps interact with each other.

Now, before anyone jumps on me, I'm not saying children in refugee camps are having an easier time than children in this country...not for a moment. Just, they're not comparable situations.

I am surprised so many people place so little importance on social interaction. Loneliness can make people feel suicidal. If a young child lived in a beautiful mansion with every toy in the world at their disposable but never saw or spoke to another child, would you think they were lucky or privileged? I wouldn't.

it's is sad. like it is for everyone.

you need to put a positive spin on it. you really do.

same as "we're not shut up at home we're safe at home".

that is your task as the adult.

good luck OP. keep optimistic.

Of course they wouldn’t be formerbabe and if the OP had said that, the response would have been completely different. A lot of us can’t summon much sadness for a child temporarily deprived of a happy meal or building sandcastles on the beach.

I’m sad for all of us deprived of social interaction but most of all for very old people living alone who haven’t seen another human being for more than two weeks.

No sadder than it is for everyone else.

I am surprised so many people place so little importance on social interaction.

Me too, but it's worryingly commonplace these days.

I was on a thread yesterday where someone sneered 'everyone just misses going on a piss-up at the pub' - as though we all now need virtuous reasons to validate a future life outside of our houses.

I absolutely miss a piss-up at the pub, and I don't think I'm alone.

@Heygirlheyboy exactly- everyone needs to ease off a bit, life isn’t normal at the moment so no point beating yourself up about it. Lots of people are effectively going through a grieving process losing what they thought was important (it’s irrelevant whether someone else thinks it’s important) some people can’t cope with change, some people love it.

BUT you can’t allow yourself to be sunk by it. Accept how you feel. Accept you can do nothing to change the current external position, then move on, alter the way you see the world, after all that world has changed, you can learn a new normal for you. That is entirely within your grasp.

There’s a great quote from William Blake borrowed by my favourite author Aldous Huxley. “If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite” what better time to be polishing away at those panes? (Just maybe avoid the drugs).

It's only temporary and it's to keep people alive. we all know this, but at the point where your child is struggling , you're still allowed to feel sad for them.

Not many of us get to live through history being made. It's a privilege. are you for real?? You think it's a privilege to watch thousands of people die, to watch nurses cry before every shift and send their kids away to live with famy to keep them safe. You think it'll be a privilege to live thorough the economy imploding and lives being ruined? You have a weird idea of privilege

“Not many of us get to live through history being made. It's a privilege“

Blimey 😳

Its a privilege I’d be very happy indeed to forego.

I hope that today's children will have more empathy for PPs than some PPs have for them, when the children are the future carers, frontline workers etc.

Of course it's rubbish for everyone. Children are allowed to matter too and they have very specific windows of development as well.

Well yes. But parents didn’t have DC doing numerous activities and ship them around to clubs and after school events. If we went to a friends house for tea, we walked there and home afterwards. When no one had fridges, shopped nearly every day, didn’t have automatic washing machines and vacuum cleaners were not very good, housekeeping was hard work! No MacDonalds for a treat. My DM packed a picnic if we went out. More work.

I do think the DC will miss their activities but there is an opportunity to do something else. Young DC get so much from their parents. DC who don’t get this, do start school behind their peers developmentally. So look at this as an opportunity to get ahead!

I don’t think the DC of today will want to be carers or health care workers. We already have many overseas workers doing these jobs do the previous generation rejected them too!

Although my 2 year old misses the park, swimming pooland play centres, he's hardly being hard done by for not going out for a month or 2. Usually I'd be working so we're enjoying the time we get to spend together. The children will be fine

do the previous generation rejected them too!

Of all the ridiculous things I’ve read on MN lately, this is right up there.

The idea that it's healthy and good for children and teens to spend no time at all playing with friends, socialising etc is to total opposite to what has been said on here for years, that it's a shame they're all in screens and don't play out etc

I agree with the PP who said the lack of empathy for children on this site is mind boggling.

I think England in particular is not a child friendly country.

What could these attitudes mean for after this finishes, if everyone decides that it really is better for children to be away from the rest of society as much as possible? Enough people didn't like seeing them in shops, cafes, restaurants, out on the street etc even before this.

Why do we have to compare coronavirus with a child having cancer? I just knew I’d get these kind of replies. That’s like me saying to someone who just lost there job well there’s people who don’t have a job so stop thinking of yourself. So many people on their high horse. Everyone is entitled to feel sad and not everything has to be compared to dreadful things in life.

What a lovely, heartwarming response from the op to someone whose child had cancer.

@chew it’s not a nasty response either. You should NOT be throwing in people’s faces that they shouldn’t feel sad for their child because theirs has had cancer! My dad has cancer, terminal and has 3 months to live. Did I throw it in anyone’s face because they dared to be upset about something in their own life? No.

It's only as sad as the parents make it.

So many threads in the past about parents who couldn't wait for their kids to go back to school after a week, parents who wouldn't take kids out of nursery on their days off, parents who couldn't bare spending more than 1 hour with their kids, let alone a week.

I feel so sorry for THOSE children who are made to feel so unwelcome and unwanted at home.

Yes, it's sad and not ideal, but it's hardly the end of the world for kids to miss out on things for... how long as it been so far? 2 WEEKS?

Don't be so selfish and self-centered, the only ones preventing them from having a great time is you. Parents who MUST work and put themselves in danger are feeling guilty and bad enough, they would have something to complain about.

@ChewChewIsMySpiritAnimal oh piss off .. you’ve twisted that completely

BeetrootRocks no one is talking about older children and teens For v young children, time with a responsive care giver is no. 1 and so this time could be beneficial in that we are spending more time with our children than usual. I'm trying to count that blessing for the op rather than choose to.dwell on the temporary losses. As I said we're taking a happy picture each day in fhe hope they'll look back and say 'Glad that's over but we had some really nice times together. We got through and we did it.' Personally that's the message I want to pass to my DC. We've read the stay at home superheroes story, they've written to their little pals and I leave the door open for chat about it all but we are also making the most of it and not shaking our heads at how dreadful it is for them. I am thinking as I said previously of the children for whom school is their safe, predictable place and that breaks my heart. It does help me any way to look at others and count my blessings when things are tough.

It's only as sad as the parents make it.
Nonsense. No amount of playing with DS, showing him pictures of kids starving in Africa to show him how lucky he is, telling he the only thing he should worry about is who will die next, completing 100 fun activities or anything else will change the fact thst not seeing Nanny is sad. Voice chats, video calls, making her pictures. None of that removes how sad it is he can't hig her

and that's OK.
My kid is allowed to be sad, and I will give him a place to feel sad. I can feel sad for him and other people will give me a safe place to feel sad. And we're all carry on

why are people so determined than no one is allowed to have feelings? What is so wrong with kdis feeling sadness about something that should make them sad?

Also people don’t realise how repetitive it gets. Imagine painting, playing in the garden and baking consistently for maybe 6 months straight or however long this goes in for. Imagine not hugging nanny for 6 months. It’s hard.

@Fluffybutter

You seem nice.

Why don't you pen a nice cathartic open letter to your DC and post it on MN for us? Really get all your feelings out...

What could these attitudes mean for after this finishes, if everyone decides that it really is better for children to be away! many people would be very happy to never have children allowed in the shops again, to see palces like Maccies shut down for good, to restrict how much children are allowed out