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?

In my innocence I had always believed that the Stasi, Gestapo, KGB and like organisations would have had difficulty getting people in the UK to spy on their neighbours. I fear that current events and the encouragement and growth of the "snitch" culture have removed that innocence.

I wonder if Police officers have a tally going on how many people use the Cummings, eyesight etc excuse to them, with the officer is thinking, how original..

Ffs so sick of playgrounds being shut full stop. If basketball/tennis courts can be open now (and they are where I live), why not a bloody playground? If children can go back to school and nurseries, open the bloody playgrounds. People are touching things everywhere anyway! it's frustrating that there's not even the slightest indication of when they might!

I would have asked for more detail as to how you had broken the rules.
Playgrounds are currently closed in England. A sandpit is part of the playground, even if it was not cordoned off. So technically, the OP broke the rules. HTH.

Complaining about the rules is another matter entirely.

bleep we do have communal gardens but can't take a shell sandpit there. They do have a fun water fountain feature that they have let children play in during lockdown though which is usually off limits to play so that's been fun!

hearts I honestly hope you never have to spend lockdown in a flat with a 2yr old and a 1yr old.

The people who reported you are assholes.

Try to be comforted by the fact that their lives must be miserable.

Nah that's just vindictive to report !!

Parks are open where I am.

Parks usually are but "playgrounds" are closed. Technically sandpit is probably part of the "playground equipment" but practically (1) it can be debated, (2) the risk of surface transmission for COVID is actually low and is probably zero in the sand and (3) whoever reported the OP is a really miserable individual.

In my innocence I had always believed that the Stasi, Gestapo, KGB and like organisations would have had difficulty getting people in the UK to spy on their neighbours. I fear that current events and the encouragement and growth of the "snitch" culture have removed that innocence It is scary isn't it.

Absolutely PATHETIC. Massive well done to you for coping with 2 small children in this horrendous time.

Next time, you feel fed up get in a taxi and go to Durham.

In my own innocence, I also thought the brits were generally a cheerfully resilient bunch. The level of drama brought by the "lockdown" has depressingly proven me very very wrong.

I guess it is breaking the rules but I can't believe someone would report you for something as silly as this. Twice I've been in my local country park and there have been parents allowing their children into the swing park to play. That really pissed me off as it's difficult to explain to a speech delayed crying toddler why they can't go in and play as well. It still didn't enter my mind to report them although I was silently cursing them.

It's ridiculous but probably better to choose an activity that doesn't involve playing in the park. It likely wasn't possible to rope off the sand pit in the same way they could the rest of the equipment. I'm surprised I the climate now that anyone bothered to phone as I thought most of the competitive misery types were swinging the other way. To add though sand was one of the first things we had to remove from school and nursery along with play doh when the virus first became apparent and we were all still just washing our hands

Where we are the football goal and basket ball hoops have been re-opened. The swing, slide etc are all still out of bounds.

It's not all that clear really.

OP, I really feel for you.

I have been in total lockdown, not been beyond my garden for 12 weeks.

I would love to have seen a couple of toddlers playing in the sand so early in the morning, would be good for my mental health and must be even better for yours. You're doing a great job OP.

What sort of miserable wanker reports this? I would put a note with your child's sad face on it through every door overlooking the park so they all know they have this sort of neighbour.

It's not any easier to contact the police than it is an MP paflechien. It is, however, more likely to lead to clarification of what the local police policy is. If you want to know the views of a particular institution or body, it makes more sense to start with them than somebody else.

Yanbu

hearts I honestly hope you never have to spend lockdown in a flat with a 2yr old and a 1yr old.

Circumstance does not exempt one from the rules. Every man and his dog has an excuse why he should be the one to break them.

And no, just because other people do it doesn’t mean you should.

I feel for you OP, it’s so ridiculous. I can just imagine how you felt trying to explain to your toddler.

"Sorry officer, I was checking whether my DC could actually play with sand before I made the journey to the coast to let them play on the beach"

It's stupid though, isn't it? The police should have used common sense and told the twat who reported this to get a grip and ask them for suggestions on how they are supposed to police the beaches in that case.

So a dickhead reported you, police were fucking backwards too for not using their common sense.

And to the PP suggesting you put a playpit in your flat: What are you on?

Meanwhile Dominic Cummings was right to operate heavy machinery to test his eyesight. He was right to expose his DS to a COVID patient for 4 hours + in a fucking enclosed space to travel to his second home.

OP, I don't think you did anything wrong. Ignore the dementors sucking the joy out of everything.

@cherry2727

My husband's work van got stolen and the police couldn't even be bothered and they've turned up in the park because someone reported you ?Wow! This pandemic has really raised eyebrows for me in soo many ways. OP, don't worry about it , at least you didn't get fined .

One of our work vehicles was broken into in a council-run car park with two CCTV cameras covering the vehicle and another on the entrance/exit. Police said they couldn’t check CCTV footage unless we could give them a 20 minute window. The council were unable to check the footage, unless requested by the police. We were given a crime number and the case was presumably closed.

We narrowed it to a 3 hour window, but there was nothing they could do.

During the lockdown they had teams of 2 officers out every day patrolling the edge of the forest near where we live and fining (mostly elderly and vulnerable) people who’d driven the mile out from the nearby village to walk their dogs in safety.

I don’t blame the individual officers who are probably just as frustrated as us. Someone somewhere has got their priorities mixed up though.

Circumstance does not exempt one from the rules. Every man and his dog has an excuse why he should be the one to break them.

Yep. An asshole.

@Clemmieandareallybigbunfight

What sort of miserable wanker reports this? I would put a note with your child's sad face on it through every door overlooking the park so they all know they have this sort of neighbour.

If I received a note like that I’m pretty sure I’d just laugh. Whoever reported the OP did not cause a sad child, OP caused her own child to be sad because she took them to do an activity they should not have been doing.

She took that risk and it backfired; she has to deal with the consequences of that.