AIBU to think Coronavirus is not an excuse to exclude children from public places?

[RoseGoldCloud]

B&Q have banned children from their stores due to Coronavirus. www.diy.com/customer-support#icamp=HP_Cat5_shopsafely
I get that people are scared in public places. I also agree that anyone not respecting the social distancing should be asked to leave. I don’t understand why they are excluding one particular group based solely on age. The rules should apply to everyone and anyone breaking it should have to leave. I have seen many children behaving really sensibly and I’ve also had numerous adults stand right next to me, refuse to follow the one way systems, touching baskets that have been disinfected and then putting them back. Why are the adults allowed to ignore the rules? But all the children get banned? What are single parents going to do if other shops start doing this? And what next? Are we going to ban other groups that are cared for? If we find out certain population groups are more prone to covid will we be banning them too? Are we going to ban children from all public places? Shops? Shopping centres? Town squares?

I recognise that people are scared but I think we really need to remember that we are fighting a virus not other people or certain groups of people.

So AIBU to think we shouldn’t ban people from a public place based on their age?

This is ridiculous. Parents need to get over themselves. B&Q don't have a crèche because they have already made the commercial decision not to have one.

Yes, that was my point. Though it doesn’t stop them trialing it in future if they thought it might work. Obviously IKEA think having one is better than telling customers with young children to ‘get over themselves’.

Children aren’t necessary to the shopping process unless you are a single parent or have some other circumstance which means you simply can’t find a time to shop solo.

This is about limiting the number of people in the store.

I went to do a pickup order yesterday and was amazed at the number of families walking into the store. Two parents with kids in tow. As things start to reopen we will be choosing businesses that restrict shopping parties to one adult and that ask parents to avoid shopping with children if at all possible.

Obviously IKEA think having one is better than telling customers with young children to ‘get over themselves’.

IKEA is an entirely different model to B&Q.

Unless you're a single parent, in which case I can understand why this is difficult, why does your child need to go to B&Q anyway? Even outside of a worldwide pandemic, I'd still only take my children to a hardware store if I really had to, especially young children.

The most obvious explanation as to why they are being banned from public spaces/stores is surely 1. They don't need to be there (again unless you're a single parent with no other option) and 2. They are more likely to not practice social distancing.

It's not excluding a certain set of people. Children have absolutely no need to visit B&Q unless their parent needs to go and they have no other childcare options.

Well children don't NEED to be in there, they aren't purchasing anything.

I'm not sure there's many people shopping there because of an emergency vs because they want things to do a bit of DIY

They are right to ban children. I'm alone with 2 kids and the b&q staff very kindly brought what I needed to the door. We were there to buy things though, not for a day out.

I went to b & q this morning
They had a sign on the door saying under 16s would not be allowed in.
By the time you got along the queue to see the sign you had been waiting at least 30 mins.
However, a mum and girl of around 8 or 9 were in the queue, and were let in with no questions.

When my children were 18 months old they were in a buggy and not put close enough to touch or lick anything!

She's a very active and large 18 month old, think more along the lines of a two year old. She fights being in a buggy or trolley because she likes to walk, and is too strong to carry resisting. Before Covid, we would all go together and either me or my partner would be focused on keeping her in check, but generally she'd get hold of something every now and then and we'd just put it back.

I'm not saying it's impossible to stop these things, but there will be lots of parents whose children would touch things if allowed in a shop, a huge amount of under 5s I would say. I don't think just saying "it's the parents responsibility" is a realistic solution to stopping it from happening, especially as many are not being responsible. Measures to at least discourage families from shopping together are realistic and necessary.

I'm a single parent, I'm in the process of moving house, and it will need a little work done. Out of principle I will boycott B and Q, and buy elsewhere. I'll also send them an email letting them know. I'll do the same for anywhere else that bans me during this vulnerable time.

Sounds sensible. If a parent and child are walking side by side then it makes it harder for people to get past them in a narrow aisle. I’m not sure if B&q have a one way system or not but this point is especially true if they don’t. And I don’t believe for a minute that kids would walk behind their parents because they don’t manage that on the pavement or in the supermarket. It just increases the risk.

Other hardware stores are available

Agos, Homebase & Screwfix online services only sell 4 colours of paint, none of which were what we wanted. The local variety store which has huge selection of paints is still closed per govt orders. So we went to B&Q, 15 miles away.

why does your child need to go to B&Q

DS was choosing the paint colour. He likes DIY. He builds things & has fussed about improvements to the interior decor (there's always one, I know). We (he) chose a lampshade too.

I get the message though... assume indefinitely that only one adult is welcome in any shop and that the queues will always be very long.

Too bad DS also likes gardening...

I went to B&Q this morning. It was mostly adults (lots of couples). One man with a child, they just made them get a trolley to sit the child in.

Seemed like an acceptable compromise to me.

Hopefully they’ll be excluded from pubs when they reopen

I'd bloody love that!

Not so fussed about B&Q though.

Unless you're a single parent, in which case I can understand why this is difficult, why does your child need to go to B&Q anyway?

Well I certainly wouldn’t want DH (great as he is) to choose our home decor without me looking too and vice versa.... so, when they were too young to be home alone, our children came too. They did this without running around or touching things as B&Q, or the garden centre, or the supermarket were places that they had been exposed to from an early age and just knew they weren’t a playground.

Right now is different because of the need for social distancing but I am responding to the people who seem to think children should NEVER be allowed in shops.

I can appreciate that Bugger.

I think the OP just read to me as if they thought it were akin to saying 'no women allowed', excluding a group of society due to age. When in reality, children don't need to be in B&Q, not now. They aren't purchasing anything.

Children are 'excluded' from a lot of things due to their age. It's just the way it is as not everything is appropriate for them all of the time.

People have no choice but to go to B&Q? Really? I haven’t been there for ages and have managed to live my life perfectly fine. Nobody needs to take their kids to B&Q a the moment.

I need to go to B&Q. My washing line broke yesterday and I need a new dustbin, because rats (or possibly foxes, but I suspect rats) have gnawed their way through mine and scattered rubbish all over the front garden and the road.

While I'm in there, I'll also get some lawn feed and some (much needed) weedkiller for the paths, neither of which are essential, but as I'll be in there anyway ...

*Really no choice but to go to B&Q?

Other hardware stores are available*

True. I could go to my local Homebase, but they don't sell dustbins and 50% of trips there are fruitless because they don't seem to have any idea about stock control.

The nearest independent hardware store is 12 miles away, 4 miles further than B&Q, and has no parking nearby.

B&Q isn't a public place, though, is it? It's a chain of stores on private land, who can choose to admit who they want. You likewise can choose to take your custom elsewhere if you don't like how they run their business.

@Aesopfable the kids can do it classes were abandoned years ago

Surely the low spreading, low risk population shouldn't be excluded?

I should have thought it much more sensible to exclude all men over 50.

I went to B&Q this morning. It was mostly adults (lots of couples). One man with a child, they just made them get a trolley to sit the child in.

Seemed like an acceptable compromise to me.

Seems to me like the policy is really not "children" excluded, but "mothers" excluded.

• I went to B&Q this morning. It was mostly adults (lots of couples). One man with a child, they just made them get a trolley to sit the child in.

Seemed like an acceptable compromise to me.*

Agreed for the little ones. If that’s what they said on the website i wouldn’t have posted the OP.

I’m not sure it would be an acceptable compromise for the 10, 11, 12 , 13 year olds though.