Just got reported to police for breaching lockdown. WIBU?!

[saylor]

For context: I have 2 toddler DC (tiny age gap!), we live in a flat and we have thus far abided by all lockdown rules, and it's been fucking hard!

This morning, at 9am (!!!!), I took DC to the park across the road and let them play in a sandpit which forms part of an un-gated playground. All the play equipment is roped off with police and hazard tape and we didn't go on the equipment, just played in the sand with buckets and spades. First time in 9 weeks and no one else was there.

After literally only being there for 5 minutes a police van pulls up and tells me I'm breaching lockdown rules, took my details, and gave me a warning. She stopped short of fining me. I apologised and started packing up the buckets and spades and older toddler had an absolute meltdown that we had to leave. The police woman took pity on me and said she was sorry she had to move us on but because someone reported me, it was her job.

So someone saw a mother and her two young children playing in the sand and decided to call the police at 9am and tell me off. This is after a bank holiday weekend of huge groups of people socialising all over the park and no one told off.

I'm livid. AIBU? Or WIBU to take my DC to the sandpit after 9 weeks of lockdown hell?

The person who reported you is a spanner - there has been far worse happening out there.

No all parks are not off limit and people have been playing sport in them and sunbathing as per gov rules ! People have been flocking to beaches ...If there were a group of you less than 6 feet of each other
OP you are most definately not being unreasonable ... Jesus this is a virus not an airborne gas like Sarin...
My biggest concern with this whole epidemic is the amount of people who are turning on people , for nothing. And the ridiculous pettiness and lack of common sense.
If I were your neighbour I would be happy to see you and your children enjoying some fresh air and exhibiting normal healthy behaviour , knowing the hell we have been going through , particularly children in flats with no garden, whilst observing the rules !
I would also be emabarrassed if I were the policewoman and just said take a couple of buckets of sand over to the grass and gone back and put the nosey, nasty neighbour to rights over it...
What is the matter with people !
I hope what time you had , you enjoyed and go back with several buckets , fill them up and go sit on grass and let your children play!
This is riduvlous , 100% not being unreasonable !

Can people consider things the other way around?

How would the OP have felt is she was at home with her two kids, while they were watching out the window at someone else's two kids playing in the sand pit.

I'd think it's been a fellow mum who's reported to end the tantrums from their own kids. Who if they over look the play park are probably asking a dozen times a day to go and play.

How would the OP have felt is she was at home with her two kids, while they were watching out the window at someone else's two kids playing in the sand pit.

That's me. But I'd put myself in the same situation as the Op-

If I'd have seen a mum with her two toddlers at 9am (well done btw!) taking the opportunity to use an empty playing area to let her kids have a little runaround I'd have thought fair play to her and possibly tried to do the same myself hoping for an empty space- after 9 weeks in a city flat trying to make the best of things for a 1 & 2 year old, we need to, all of us in this situation.

It probably wasn't another mum in her situation, as I think we can all empathise with this now....at 9am it was more likely the WPC box ticking, or someone complaining about the noise trying to have a sleep in....

Either way, she was definitely NBU.

@GetUpAgain

This is fucking disgraceful. Of course OP was being reasonable.

Somehow we can open car showrooms, golf courses and let people go fishing, but a toddler can't play in a sandpit?

Are we just reopening the stereotypical man world, and women and children can stay home?

looks like It!!

@Blackbear19

Can people stop splitting hairs Playgrounds are closed. In many areas of the country Playground is called a Playpark shorted to Park. Nobody in my RL would say they are taking the kids to the playground. No child would ask to go to a playground. Playgrounds are a very boring tarmac patch attached to schools. Park is what people talk about. They mean they swings and other play equipment.

London Green Park is a playground? It's not splitting hairs, they are simply different things. It's clear what the circumstances are in the original post.

Does that mean London Green Park has swings etc ?

I would have refused to give her my details. Sorry this happened to you OP. Craziness.

Green Park does not have a playground but Hyde Park and St James Park do.

Maybe there is linguistic thing going on. In London we have parks, and some parks have playgrounds within. We also have stand alone playgrounds and pocket parks with play areas. Where I live virtually no one has a garden. Kids expect to be taken to playgrounds to play. It's really tough that playgrounds remain closed.

The kids parks on local parks and estates are all closed. Even the ‘seniors’ play park is closed!

The person who reported you was unreasonable. And by the sound of it, the police agreed.

Maybe there is linguistic thing going on

There is definitely a linguistic thing going on. People are getting jumped on for saying "Parks are closed" when what they really mean is the playparks / playgrounds / play areas / play equipment of all shapes and sizes are closed.

Yes, there is a difference between playgrounds and parks IMO.

I'm struggling to understand why someone would report you for something so insignificant , and also why the police would waste their time on it!

Yes, there is a difference between playgrounds and parks

If your kids want to go to the local playground / swings etc. Where do they ask to go to?

Mine would definitely ask to go to "the park".

Sadly the park next to us is busy with large groups of young adults smoking pot and boozing. Busier than normal for this time of year - it’s usually least of tourists but these must be locals (although there seems to be people coming from further afield to get some space). There was a stabbing yesterday early evening (when ds usually has his run).

Mine would definitely ask to go to "the park".

But you get parks without playgrounds and playgrounds, especially the small ones adjacent to estates. We used to visit a whole load of different playgrounds, with special trips to Battersea, the Princess Di, and Coram Fields. But then, like OP, we don't have a garden. The variety and quality of playgrounds were one of the very best things about being a small child in London. (As were things like the water play area in the Science museum which are also closed.)

I really feel for my neighbours with young children.

If I'd have seen a mum with her two toddlers at 9am (well done btw!)

Surely if you have 2 toddlers, 9am is mid-morning ??
would be more impressive if she'd managed it with 2 teens :)

@RedskyAtnight

If I'd have seen a mum with her two toddlers at 9am (well done btw!)

Surely if you have 2 toddlers, 9am is mid-morning ??
would be more impressive if she'd managed it with 2 teens :)

Getting out of the house for 9am with a 1&2 year old would mean starting to get them ready about 5 for me!

After breakfasts, bag packing, bottle making, multiple nappy changes (someone always poos! Usually both after shoes on!)...then negotiating from a first floor flat...buggy down, up, Dd1 down, up, Dd2, lock up.....!
So 9am....👏👏👏!

For context, the current demonstration outside the US Embassy threatens to be a lot more risky in terms of spreading virus. Then presumably on to Battersea Park for the after party. (Loads, with laden carrier bags, were on their way as we tried to pass.)

I see we have 2 more demos (at least) planned for this week near us. Loads of people heading off to the park with picnic blankets and shopping bags. Slightly fewer people than yesterday (maybe because of the stabbing a last night and the demo today) but it will be busy again by late pm.

@saylor

Well this morning we passed the playground and there were several families playing on the equipment, having ripped up the hazard tape. No police in sight! Guess I was just unlucky. But now I can't be caught in the playground/sandpit again because I'll be fined as I've already had a warning and my details taken.

Hoping playgrounds will reopen soon. My toddlers are going mental.

Sailor. You haven't broken any regulation. Unfortunately all sorts of total rubbish has been published as guidance, most of which has not foundation in law. I can assure you that regulation 6(1) and reg 6(2) of the regulations do not prohibit playing in a sandpit. I suggest you drop in at your local police station and ask them to articulate exactly what law you broke and request an apology

If you recall a few weeks ago a rather broad South Yorkshire Police officer informed someone stood in their front garden they were in breach of the regulations. Unfortunately the police know little about this law

Technically you were using equipment which is not meant to be in use just now so you were breaking the rules. I do feel it was over zealous of some one to report you for that, mind you, but for all we know, you could have been the twentieth person that day they saw playing in the sand pit ‘just because it doesn’t have cordon tape on it’. If the tape was still on everything else, I’d take it to mean it’s not to be used.

twentieth person that day they saw playing in the sand pit

Unlikely to have been the twentieth person that day in the sand pit at 9am. But I totally get what you are saying. You don't know how many people have been in the sandpit in previous days and weeks.

I'm still fairly convinced that it's been another mum who's complained. Probably because they can't cope with their own kids saying "Look Mummy they sand pit is open, can we go, can we go".
My other thought is it could have been picked up by the CCTV cameras. When really its someone just doing their job.

Just read through most of the comments and what’s more infuriating is all of the ‘police should use common sense’, ‘how do they have time’ rubbish! Sick of reading this. They can’t just apply common sense, they can only apply law and try to do so consistently, which incidentally with this was cobbled together on the back of a fag packet and launched at them with no consultation, communication or planning. Add to that the delights of the government shifting the goalposts constantly with public opinion and every officer is damned if they do and damned if they don’t. How about we lay the blame squarely where it needs to be - with a shambolic government who couldn’t run a country fair raffle! I’m assuming all the armchair critics here will be signing up to fill the 20,000 vacancies currently being advertised?! As the wife of a serving officer who puts up with dirty needles being slashed at him, punches and kicks, drunken abuse, no toilet/meal breaks, shift changes at a moments notice and constant COVID mask refits at the moment I couldn’t do his job if they paid me treble the salary and then to have to tolerate being bashed for enforcing a law most of them think is a sham anyway! He and his colleagues would far rather spend the time connecting up a lonely old man’s television and getting some food for his empty fridge than dealing with petty neighbour reports but no one reports that! Boils my blood!