To suggest we storm the parks (armed with hand gel and cleaning wipes)

[TotorosFurryBehind]

Maybe light-hearted, maybe not. In the past week I'm increasing frustrated that children and their well-being are being left behind, as golf courses, garden centres etc open. But no timeline in sight for playparks, zoos etc.

I walk past the park most days on our walk and am increasingly tempted to snip the plastic ties holding the gate shut and take my daughter to play on the swings. I think the only thing stopping me is that is socially taboo and that someone will call the police.

I'm such a law abiding person normally. But I think the anxiety and depression of lockdown is really getting to me. I don't understand the logic of the way things are reopening.

Does anyone else feel like this?

But the difference between playparks and garden centres/golf courses is that the demographic of the visitors is widely different so give over with your sanctimonious patronising comments please.

No one has touched the parks in months so there shouldn’t be any contaminated surfaces!

But as soon as kids return, they may get contaminated from the kids.

It'll be OK for the first few people in, but then you're back to the same risks the next day onwards unless all surfaces/rails etc are cleaned regularly.

Schools and nurseries are different because they'll be specific groups of kids who would be easier to track/trace and isolate if necessary.

Aren’t kids allowed on golf grounds, garden centres And Ikea?

@Nihiloxica I guess you didnt see the latest research that estimates that lockdown prevented 470k deaths in the UK? Don't you consider that a large number? Or do you have some other research to bring to the table?

And within the 48 hours it takes to test many would have been exposed.
For the first week I didn’t realise it was cv. It was when it properly started it became obvious. My didn’t start with a cough and temp, it started with an earache. Yes it was tested positive.

I dont think the main problem with play parks is the risk of surface transmission. It's the likelihood of children and more especially parents getting too close together if/when they get crowded. And let's face it, they do get crowded and it's very hard to stay away from other people when you are shadowing a toddler.

It is quite possible for children to have good mental health without access to play parks and soft play btw

So come on tell us, how do you provide peer interaction with all of the places peers can interact closed?

Pay particular attention to kids who do not have "friends" that they can meet up with.

Please remember everyone that middle aged, middle class men are the most important people ever...that's why golf courses, car showrooms, garden centres and soon pubs are open.

But adults aren't allowed to use similar equipment either, otherwise gyms would be open.

I’m a member of a zoo and they are planning, pretty sure they will be open soon. They send regular emails and it seems to be on the cards.

To be fair my children aren’t really bothered by playgrounds / soft play and weren’t even before lockdown. They have always preferred fields and forests. All children are different and not all are bored because they can’t do either.

@AllTheCakes

Absolutely. No one has touched the parks in months so there shouldn’t be any contaminated surfaces!

Given that some kids are now back to mingling at nursery and school, I don’t see it being much higher risk to play in the playground.

Except that is only true for the first person who goes into the playpark isn't it? The second person is then trusting that the person before them is definitely not an asymptomatic carrier. By the time the 10th child arrives it is most probable that one of the preceding 9 children to use the equipment in the last hour probably was an asymptomatic carrier and probably did leave some germs behind. Fully open, and every family with a child playing in that playpark will have a shared collection of germs within a few days.

Are the adult gyms inside or the ones outside? I believe adults can excerise outside in open spaces, which of course takes up more space open for children.

@formerbabe YES! Couldnt have put it better myself.

Considering people were bleaching fruit not long ago noisy many parents would show up without a suitcase full of cleaning gear, gloves etc.

No idea where the random noisy came from 🤣

I cannot fathom zoos. I really can’t. Especially big open ones. Close the play equipment and interactive stuff, limit the numbers. But there’s no reason to keep them shut. When national trust and kew are open.

I walked past our local park last week and there was a grown man there, working out on the monkey bars. Then I had to explain to my son who saw him that it was, in fact, still closed and he still wasn’t allowed to play there :(

Adults exercising outside in open space is with their own equipment (or sign equipment a PT has provided and cleaned before and after) In very small controlled groups who understand the need to keep socially distanced.

It’s very different from using playground equipment

The re-opening plan has nothing to do with transmission - though it is being sound that way.

The government are reopening businesses that pay tax. This is why they won't let zoos open as they are largely charities ect.

They are also trying to minimise job losses to reduce the risk of a massive benefits bill.

There is no thought going into our children's and our wellbeing beyond 'can the work'

YANBU OP. It’s especially difficult to explain to my DC why they aren’t allowed to use the parks when there are plenty of bigger children in there.

You'd need some bolt cutters as well as the hand gel round here - they padlocked them all up just to make sure any scrap of our kids' childhood may not sneak past the gloom.

@UpToonGirl The guidance states the bubble is only sent home when a child tests positive, not if they are symptomatic.

Totally agree with you. We need to take action on behalf of children who can’t pressurise the government themselves

Boris shows the same disregard for the nation's children as he does for his own children

YinuCeatleAyru latest I read was that 1 in 1000 people is a carrier, not 1 in 10. And it will be even lower than that amongst children, and the chances of spreading the virus to anyone else from a swing or.slide in the open air really isn't that high. I'd take my chances in a playground rather than ikea (recycled air, people in there for hours, hundreds of visitors a day) any day.

My kids walk past two different playgrounds every time we go anywhere at all. I'd love to lob them over the fence.