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?

There is no scientific evidence anywhere according to the WHO of children passing the virus to adults

Nor of being "super spreaders". Children are already disproportionately affected by the current situation given that they are not in danger from the virus (underlying health conditions and very very rare cases exempted)

Totally agree. I'm sick and tired of this vile attitude towards kids. If B&Q banned over 70s due to corona risk they'd be accused of ageism. Kids have just as much right to be outside as adults FFS.

@FenellaVelour apparently that is not the case.

Pre lockdown some parents seemed to use larger shops as playcentres, allowing their DC to run around unchecked. I doubt this will change.

It isn't just children who put things in their mouths.

I've lost count now of how many of my customers have put their cards or their cash in their mouth to free up their hands while they put their car keys or something in their pocket, or move their wallet. They then hand their cash or card to me...

I have gloves on. but that's just an extra layer of skin. I'm not changing gloves between customers.

There's no need for children to go to supermarkets or DIY stores.

Unless you are buying something for their bedroom and you want them to choose, I suppose. But you could take photos and ask them to choose, or ask them to pick colours/patterns from the website.

It's not "excluding" them from public life, it's keeping numbers of people down in confined spaces.

I do agree that at the moment children should stay home if possible BUT I do worry about it making the problem of children being excluded from society even worse.

Children should be welcome in shops, cafes, public spaces in normal times which more and more they are not - quite a lot of people seem to think children belong in schools and soft play but nowhere else!

quite a lot of people seem to think children belong in schools and soft play but nowhere else

Is that not the case

‘No one is taking kids because the want to, they take them out of necessity.’

That’s rubbish. I tried to do a Tesco shop this week. 3 couples with kids in tow in the queue. People are bored and feel entitled to do whatever the hell they want.

B and Q aren't essential so there is no reason you would have to risk a child's safety by taking them in.

If they banned young children from supermarkets then that would starve some single parents and be an issue but to ban them from B and Q seems fine to me.

I think they should be allowed to accompany single parents only but agree that’s not enforceable. Fully admit my two are very capable of running riot in B&Q hence not taking them anywhere near it in future, but being lucky enough to have a DP it is a practical option to leave them behind. Not so for everyone.

Crikey this is Mumsnet I would expect to see a lot more people advocate FOR children. It makes me think of that old corker about children being seen and not heard. Yes there are parents who don't control the kids, but the problem there is the parents!!

All those saying that children run around, touch stuff, and cause a danger, you are only thinking of a small age group, not all under 16s.

For a start under 1s, probably under 2s, will be in a pushchair or trolley.

Then do you not think that 15 year olds can control themselves?
When my dd was 15, even 13, she wouldn't be seen dead running anywhere! She made every excuse under the sun to get out of pe, there is not way she would be running around B and Q causing safety issues. I expect she was quite typical of teenagers.

So if it's a safety issue, why not ban children not in pushchairs or carriers, to about the age if 10 or 12.
No need to ban teenagers with parents.

It is one shop. And it isn't a public place. It belongs to the shop and they can introduce any rules they like. There are plenty of places that have rules about how, when and why people can access them, and those rules have nothing to do with the virus.

Personally, I can see no reason why children are allowed to run amok in any DIY - or other - store. It simply isn't safe, and shops are not playgrounds. A fact which some parents seem to be blissfully unaware of. If you want to blame anyone, blame the partners who do not supervise or control their children. I have no doubt that if it weren't for them, stores wouldn't need to introduce such rules.

B&Q were closed for quite a while so presumably people managed to pick up essential household items via another route during that time? So no reason why they can't continue doing that now.

I'd prefer the rule to be one person per family, because I assume one of the reasons B&Q is enforcing this is to limit people in the shop, but I understand that's harder to enforce.

Do tradesmen really use B&Q? That must cost a bomb. The ones I know go to an actual builders’ merchant

Claim
A study has concluded that there have been no cases of children transmitting the new coronavirus.

Conclusion
This claim is taken out of context. It is the finding of one study among a review that found contradictory evidence about transmission of the new coronavirus in children. The review concluded that “the role of children in passing the disease to others is unknown”.

fullfact.org/health/children-transmitting-coronavirus

From the same people who claimed there was no evidence of human to human transmission.

Play it safe, don't take the kids to B&Q. They won't die by not going for a wander around a bit hardware store.

B&Q can sort out their click and collect so that people do not need to enter the main store. That way they can serve more people. Oh hang on, they are already on the case.

@rabbitheadlights - Just because people are on MN, it doesn't mean that they subscribe to the 'children are the be all and end all' philosophy. Many, like me, are here to read about a wide range of interesting subjects and their debate - not kids!

Children don’t need to be in B&Q and frankly, I’m sure most children are thankful not to have to go in there. Single parents can use click and collect.

^Totally agree. I'm sick and tired of this vile attitude towards kids. If B&Q banned over 70s due to corona risk they'd be accused of ageism. Kids have just as much right to be outside as adults FFS.*

It’s not the same. Over 70s are customers, the children are not.

did you miss the bit of my post where I said except for trade?!!

No. And I clarified my thinking later in the thread.

Families use 'shopping' as an excuse for a family outing - mum, dad, 3 or 4 kids. That's up to 6 people in a shop when they're trying to keep the number of people down inside the shop. And it's a DIY store not a playground.

Why do kids need to be in B&Q - single parents can use the click and collect service. One parent in a 2-adult family can do the shop while the others wait in the car if they really must all go out together.

Yes, it is a very good reason. Kids do not need to be there. Why take more people into a shop than necessary?

because some people are single parents and have no choice. Not hard to understand really is it?

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’m laughing at some of the ‘how very dare B&Q prioritise their actual customers over children’ type comments. Just waiting for the ‘I can’t believe Mumsnet hates children so much, this is supposed to be a parenting site’.

Why don't we go the whole hog and just lock our children up in towers? There'll be no money left for repairing their mental health afterwards as every penny will have gone to pay furlough for someone to sit on their arse reposting barely literate memes all over the internet for months on end but hell, who the fuck needs the next generation anyway?

Let's just lock up the single mothers as well because that's basically what that amounts to - MN would love that - lock up those working class single mothers as well.

I won't be shopping at B+Q again.