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?

Sign me up for the Children's Liberation Army. I'm thisclose to going out at dead of night with a balaclava and bolt cutters.

What has been done to our children is a scandal.

Bushes and trees get cut back in the winter by the council, not the summer. My husband works in this area in a local council and they were tree cutting until April.
I get the park thing because there is nothing else for children to do but loads of hands all over the same equipment will lead to more infections. Okay children don't usually get that ill but easily pass it on to parents or other adults.
I'm more concerned about the secondary school that still haven't given any indication of when or if they plan to reopen.
Children can run round in the park, cycle there, play Frisbee or football, just not play on the equipment.

My DC's are bored shitless of every walk within 4 miles of here. It's hard getting them out the house now.
Yanbu.

[quote Porcupineinwaiting]@Khione the thing is, you can just look at countries where there is no lockdown or only a very short one to see what happens. Take a peek at Brazil. Or Mexico. Does that look good to you?

I'd remind you that we have a right- wing government. These people are not the touchy feely kind who care deeply about the sick and vulnerable. The very fact they were prepared to lock down should tell you that the virus unchecked was serious.

470k dead so your kid can play on the swings ffs![/quote]
there have only been 400,000 deaths worldwide so we would have had to go some to get to 470k in the UK directly from CV. But I see you get your 'facts' from the most pessimistic research model. That is your choice - but it is just a model.

I suspect the fallout from lockdown will be many more thousands of death of young healthy people from suicide, from heart attacks and cancers that have gone untreated or undetected (including in children) during the past 3 months.

The virus was unknown, and the more we know, the more senseless lockdown after the initial 3 weeks has been. A generation of children have been thrown under the bus.

I wouldn't do it. If we all broke the rules in a way that we thought was minimal then rules would be broken everywhere all the time and it would be to the detriment of society and order. One person sees someone doing that, another thinks "oh well I can just break this little rule then", then the next person thinks "well I can break this small rule" and so on and so forth.

Bushes, trees and grassy areas are cut here all year round, not just in the autumn/winter. Are you telling me between April and November nothing is maintained where you live? What a load of crap

Our council has removed the swings and the steps of the slide, purely because of this sort of selfish behaviour. Parks are closed for good reason.

@Khione it is the latest model so based on the most research (bearing in mind that this is such a young and unknown virus). Maybe it's wrong- but what is happening in places with no ability to lock down would suggest that it may not be.

If it was right and we let it happen that really would be a whole generation thrown under a bus. And it wouldnt even result in a nice summer term at school and a lovely holiday for your kids as so many people would be sick and at the same time, even if you/they were totally unaffected.

Basketball courts should not still be closed, if your council is choosing to close them complain, they are going against government advice.

@wanderings

As someone who has lost 4 members of my extended family to covid I find your comments extremely selfish .

And it was not just to save the old and vunerable ( that does not tie in with a government that allegedly does not care about that portion of society)

The lockdown was to allow the nhs to try and prepare for treating those with covid and the information from Italy at the time was that they were not all old and infirm . PLUS had the nhs had been overwhelmed then no one else who was sick could be treated either . And despite some of the posts on here denying this , I also had experience of two members of my family who were very ill being rushed into hospital and treated ( not old and apparently disposable ) so it did work.

PLUS some people on here have no idea what a proper Lockdown is like . In other countries you had to have a certificate and ID to even go out of your door . You were NOT allowed exercise . Let alone China physically manhandling people into isolation.

And yet you still moan .

Teens were playing in the park last month here, the fence is under a metre high, they simply climb over. The problem is that play parks mean far closer contact than most adult sanctioned activities.

What has been done to our kids is force them to spend time with parents who can't be bothered to entertain them and care for them.
Shame on you if you can't find anything better than breaking into playground and if you can't survive without a soft play for a couple of months.

This country is an embarrassment .
Now schools are finally reopening, let's trash all the plans and little groups and mix all the kids together in playgrounds.

The stupidity and selfishness of some people is astonishing.

For anyone reading who is out of the UK, just to be clear: we NEVER had a lockdown, we ALWAYS have been allowed to take the kids outside at least once a day. You'd think people had actually experienced hardship reading these threads, no, they just have been told to stay home as much as possible and the restrictions are slowly being lifted. It is embarrassing.

@AllTheCakes - schools try to keep the children separate & sanitise everything regularly. Who'll do that in parks & playgrounds?

SusieOwl, excellent post. I'm so sorry the pandemic has hit those close to you so hard, that is sobering.

My son had a friend who died from it and another who was hospitalised, very ill, early on and still not recovered.

We have a mutual friend who died a few days ago from something else but had been sent home from hospital in April because all efforts were in aid of the pandemic.

Regarding parks, I suppose it depends where you live but there are several open near where I live and other open spaces. It's far easier to keep distance from others in a park or open space than, for example, in a garden centre or IKEA :-), and people, including children, can ride bikes.

We've been locked down for less than three months and even so, not severely locked down. People were still allowed out for shopping and exercise and plenty carried on almost as normal. It seems, if we can believe the media (which tell us different things throughout the day), it is coming to an end. It has been very hard for some but a few months out of a lifetime is not that much really and worthwhile even if it saves only a few lives.

cancers that have gone untreated or undetected (including in children) during the past 3 months

simply not true.

If you need an appointment, you get one. I have relatives with cancer and the treatments have NEVER stopped.

The message to call and get checked has been on since day 1.
Let's stop pretending all hospitals and medical have closed and stopped shall we , it's a lie.

Let's also stop pretending the NHS was copying marvellously BEFORE covid19. Not true either.

Parks are opened.

It's only playgrounds that are not... the hysteria on these threads is embarrassing.

@Nihiloxica - the risks have changed. Have they or do we know more? It's clear you're not really bought into this pandemic

[quote Porcupineinwaiting]@Khione it is the latest model so based on the most research (bearing in mind that this is such a young and unknown virus). Maybe it's wrong- but what is happening in places with no ability to lock down would suggest that it may not be.

If it was right and we let it happen that really would be a whole generation thrown under a bus. And it wouldnt even result in a nice summer term at school and a lovely holiday for your kids as so many people would be sick and at the same time, even if you/they were totally unaffected.[/quote]
It is the latest model from the ICL which is not the only model.

It was ICL that advised lockdown in the first place so it is in their interests to maintain it was essential.
It also says this was based on 'assumptions' including behaviour not changing at all - i.e. no handwashing or social distancing at all. Not closing restaurants, pubs, sporting fixtures etc.
Scaremongering that is clearly succeeding.

Some of this was clearly necessary, including a short term lockdown but it doesn't justify keeping playgrounds shut now.

I don't have young children or grandchildren - I just hate the way people are using them as pawns - whilst many other things that have a far higher risk factor - because they don't have the a voice

home my tweens have no interest in spending time with me walking yet another loop around town. We've found streams, statues, memorials, cute cygnets ect. It becomes very dull after 75 days.

They've had it up to here and just want their friends and some school work back. We're all sick of each other.

Home seems to appropriate a lot of emotion for randoms she doesn't even know, all this embarrassment is wasted you know, because a lot of people are waking up after 77 days of lockdown to understand this can't go on, particularly as the virus by and large does not effect young people so badly that the entire generation is being slung under a bus.

What's embarrassing is those still using sexist, misogynist terms like 'hysteria' in a pathetic attempt to guilt-shame parents for actually wanting some parts of normal life back after nearly 80 fucking days .

How is 'hysteria' sexist?

When did you ever hear a man being described as 'hysterical'?

It refers to the womb. Look up theory of wandering wombs. It cannot be applied to men.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wandering_womb