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?

So its ok for throngs of people to sit on the grass and wander around in the same park on the bank holiday weekend but not ok for 2 kids to play in an empty park?
How the hell so you justify that? Its beyond ridiculous.

We are slowly turning into a police state where neighbours report on each other. Those in power love it when us plebs turn on each other. They do it over public sector pay rises, GP pay rises, dustbin men strikes etc.

Unless there's some backstory - e.g. your neighbour is sick of you having all and sundry around your flat for the last 2 months and finally snapped - I think someone reporting you for this is absolutely ridiculous and incredibly mean.

Wow - Between 9am and 9.05am the police took a phone call, registered a report, and managed to dispatch a police officer in a van out to give you a warning.

All that happened in 5 minutes.

Unbelievable. Literally.

@CatWithKittens

Heartsonacake - full marks for honesty but for normal human decency and what until very recently has always been seen as acceptable behaviour ?????

Yeah I’m aware it’s not a popular opinion 🤷‍♀️

Of course it was seen as acceptable behaviour until recently, because until recently we weren’t in a global pandemic with thousands already dead.

Parks are supposed to be open and you are now allowed to sit down.

@TooTiredTodayOk

Wow - Between 9am and 9.05am the police took a phone call, registered a report, and managed to dispatch a police officer in a van out to give you a warning.

All that happened in 5 minutes.

Unbelievable. Literally.

It really does sound more like they drove past saw you and decided to talk to you.

I feel so sorry for your children who had just started enjoying a play in the sand

If children can go back to school I am shocked someone reported you for playing in the sand. Our local park has had children playing on the equipment most days this week now.

To be fair OP, all parents of young DC have had to avoid the playgrounds, yes it has been hard, but as soon as one family starts breaking the rules everybody will do it as well. What are we supposed to answer our DC when they ask why yours are allowed in the sandpit when we have been telling them for months it is forbidden?

Like almost everyone, OP, I have every sympathy for you, and others like you, being cooped up in a flat with two toddlers. And I can't understand why anyone reported you.

Can you just take them to have a run-about in the non-sandpit part of the park? A few posters have said things like 'all parks are still off limits', but surely that's wrong - or does it depend on which part of the country you're in? If people from the same household are allowed to have a picnic, where are these picnics taking place if you don't live near the coast? Perhaps your local council could clarify whether or not the whole park is off limits.

To be fair OP, all parents of young DC have had to avoid the playgrounds

Yes, but I bet most have easier access to private outdoor space.

Utterly pathetic. So we can now:
Sit on benches
Have picnics where we are undoubtedly passing food and drinks to one another
Shop in b and Q and garden centres, again handling stuff
Drive hundreds of miles to stay near family so they can help us
Drive to beauty spots to check our eyesight
Go to beaches and play in the sand there.
Play golf and tennis, again touching balls and nets

But the OP's child can't play in a sand pit
Ridiculous

tootired it's a major London park and hotspot for people to come to in hot weather. There's usually a police van driving around on most days telling people off "put your dog on a lead" etc., (but never seen one so early in the morning) so someone could very well have called the Parks Police number or saw the van and stopped them 🤷🏽‍♀️

The world has gone mad

This is just nuts, we are in Wales very strict here still, but children are allowed in parks and on the beach. You lucked out with a police person who did not know the rules. These cases are collapsing all the time.

pleasepassthecoffee I mentioned upthread that I've seen other families in this playground throughout lockdown but just shrugged my shoulders and continued on our walk... I never though to report any of them!
I would have thought after 9 weeks, an easing of lockdown, not touching the equipment itself, and being there so early in the morning I would be ok. I guess not and that's fine.

It was the use of the sandpit that was the problem. It's using shared equipment. Other people could be touching it before or after you without it being possible to be cleaned - although sunshine/UV light cleans sandpits pretty well in my opinion.

Schools, nurseries and childminders have been told no sand play anymore when they reopen.

*This "new normal" that people keep banging on about worries me much more than the virus. We are sleepwalking into Nineteen Eighty-Four, where highly restrictive laws can be rushed through with no scrutiny, welcomed by the public; people are banned from seeing their families; members of the public spy on each other; and the Two Minute Hate (ritualised clapping), where people shame each other for not taking part. This must not be allowed to become the new normal.

Are you all right? Honestly, this sci-fi book you’re writing isn’t actually occurring. In my country, our lockdown is being stepped back gradually. We’re back to pubs, cinemas and cafes open. We can gather in groups, see family, travel some distance. Schools are open. All is fine. No need to be a gloom-sayer.

Two toddlers in a flat is a much harder row to hoe than people with gardens have. Not to mention thise with ready access to family farms/estates complete with woods to walk in and childcare on tap if required.

I feel for you, and so did the police officer, clearly. I suppose the logic is that other mums and toddlers might have joined you - but they didn't. It's all about keeping the rules and setting an example. For the likes of us, that is!

I do think anyone now stopped and warned should claim to be either following their instincts or testing their eyesight. 😉

@IntermittentParps
'Parks' are open everywhere in England if we use the southern definition of a park that encompasses open land without play equipment, however most people up north wouldn't consider open land without such equipment to be a park but rather a field and would reserve using the word park for what the south would call a play area.

StatisticalSense, in this case the OP says 'it's a major London park'.

I would have thought after 9 weeks, an easing of lockdown, not touching the equipment itself, and being there so early in the morning I would be ok. I guess not and that's fine.

Clearly it’s not fine, OP, otherwise you wouldn’t have started a thread complaining about how “livid” you were.

Absolutely it's harder for people in flats. We have two decent sized gardens and so it hasn't actually been hard at all for my kids to get exercise and burn off steam and they've not really suffered for lack of playground. There's no comparison.

One of the saddest sights of this whole thing has been seeing the cordoned off play areas. I know what a godsend they were when DS was little - now he's a sullen teen and lockdown has been providing its own particular challenges. Everyone knows how important fresh air (Vitamin D !) and physical exercise is for growing bodies,and I feel by sacrificing everything for a short term goal of combating a virus that does not appear to be serious to young people, we're setting ourselves up for much longer term unintended consequences through our hasty actions.

OP - I'm sorry you were so unlucky. Your story definitely highlights the difference between the haves and have nots, when they're ok to drive and do whatever they fancy with no consequences.