Can family members drop off presents if you they don’t close by?

[CD41]

By close by I mean my family live about 10 miles away.

It’s DS’s birthday soon. A couple friends and mil have sent gifts directly to our house from where they ordered from.

My family want to drop things over because they’d already bought things before lockdown. By this I mean just drop it over and leave outside the door, not socialising with them and obviously I’ll wipe things over once it’s unwrapped - I’m not sure how I can sanitise wrapping paper 🤣

Is this okay? Is making a 10 mile journey just for children’s birthday presents okay? It’s not me making the journey but my family. I don’t want them to get in trouble. I don’t expect gifts for dc but they like to do It.

Would aibu to ask if they dropped it all off a few days before his birthday? So I can leave in my car or the garage and if any virus is on them it will hopefully die in the few days before he opens 😭🙈

No.

They can post them to you.

I wouldn’t as it’s not really for food etc and if everyone did that then it’ll just spread the virus all over the place but I can see why they’d want to. Could they not just save that present for Xmas and order something else online for bday? I know it’ll be a bit cheeky to suggest but if they usually get Xmas presents it seems like the logical thing to do

It was my adult dc birthday last week.
They live about ten miles away. I ordered gifts and cards online to be sent directly to them.

It's not a necessary journey op.

I think it’s too far

No, it’s not an essential journey

DS will be 4 next week, he has received some stuff via Amazon and I had a present already for a 60th so used Parcel2Go and dropped it at the Click and Collect (petrol station when getting petrol).

Our parcel people are not allowed to collect from houses, hence click and collect

What part of their journey is essential? Driving to work/nearest supermarket etc past the end of your road and taking a 30sec detour I wouldn’t have a problem with, driving 10 miles (20 if that’s each way) just to deliver presents- ridiculous!

Wondering what the risk is here.

I realise it's not an essential journey but surely driving to a house, dropping a parcel on the doorstep and leaving, having zero interaction with anyone, carries negligible risk? And probably a lot less than posting them, when you think of all the people that will handle a parcel in the postal system.

People are allowed to drive. Are allowed to shop and go out for exercise for an hour a day. 10 miles would not take long in a car and they could drop them on their way somewhere classed as essential. I would let them if they wanted to.

Exactly what I was going to say @cooperage. I have to drive nearly ten miles for the weekly shop so it seems fine to me.

We drove to mil for our dd’s birthday / Easter eggs just before the lock down proper started .
They left them on the door step , we stayed back and had a quick chat and then left .
No issues

I honestly don’t see a problem with this. Like Cooperage I have to drive nearly 10 miles to my nearest supermarket and while doing so see other cars on the road. Not nearly as many cars as usual but the roads aren’t deserted.
Hope your son has a great Birthday CD41🥳

I thought this was fine

I don’t think ten miles is that far.

I drove 40 minutes to drop off some essentials for my friend who works in a&e the other day.

How old are they?
DH is driving over 10 miles once a week to drop shopping in to MIL.
Could you do the opposite and collect presents at the same time?

Don't know why anyone is commenting on the distance.

It is not an essential journey and would only be allowed if they did some exercise near yours.

It's not about distance in a car, it's about risk.

Going to the post office to post them is also not essential.

What’s the risk? And don’t say they could have an accident, might break down or would be wasting petrol.

So you basically don't want to know the risks - you know them.

Plus the additional risk of passing Covid on.

Pretty clear government guidelines, dropping presents is not listed.

I’d do it, the risk is negligible.

Just say they can do it if they want to. It’s their decision to drive. It truly isn’t any different to driving for food supplies in a supermarket and ‘safer’ for the courier/driver who would have to deliver if ordered online. Nobody will stop them driving to you, but you have more to fear from a neighbourhood ‘Pete’ who will duly note down their reg plate and vent his fury on your local Facebook page. Hope your DC can have a nice birthday ☺️

I think it's fine, friends did similar for DD and as long as they don't all arrive together you're not breaking any rules. You're maintaining social distancing and it's a birthday, not a regular event. If you want to be squeaky clean, can they not drive over and THEN do some exercise/go to a shop near you?

Of course the risk is negligible. There’s less chance of having an accident than in normal times, modern cars break down very rarely and filling stations are awash with (very cheap) petrol.

It's against the rules, but at this point something like that is fine. There are risks but I think it comes down to personal risk analysis

It's not an essential journey, so no. I wouldn't ask them to post them either. Our local post office won't handle gifts or unnecessary parcels (eg Ebay etc) at the moment and I dont blame them.

It's not strictly within the rules but common sense suggests there's no great risk involved- they could go for a walk 2-3 miles from their home and then just go the extra distance to get the presents to your DS.

They might be better to send them by post but that actually increases the risk to you (as more strangers will handle the post and you don't know whether the post handlers have sick family at home etc.). I think asking them to bring the presents a few days before sounds like a reasonable idea.