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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think if you chose to go abroad during a pandemic it serves you right?

366 replies

FunnysInLaJardin · 13/08/2020 23:04

I get that folk feel they deserve a holiday, but if you travel during the current pandemic you shouldn't complain if rules suddenly change before you get home.

Anyone with half a wit could see that it was a risky thing to do to take a holiday at this time.

OP posts:
ThinkAboutItTomorrow · 14/08/2020 07:40

Yes, I'm having such a lovely holiday. So glad we came and didn't let the paranoia wear us down.

TSSDNCOP · 14/08/2020 07:41

The glee that some people have when other people suffer misfortune during these times is risible.

So, you were right OP. Gloat away in your hand-sanitised isolation tank. You will be safe from the virus, but you will not be well liked.

tigger1001 · 14/08/2020 07:44

"Serves you right" is just a pointless statement which does make you unreasonable.

Some people who have gone on holiday will have done so understanding they may well need to quarantine when they get back. If people are willing to quarantine when they get back then I couldn't care less if they've gone on holiday. There weighed up the risks and are willing to comply with the regulations.

I do think though the people who are moaning that they now need to quarantine have brought it on themselves. It's been widely publicised that the quarantine restrictions could be brought in any time and if you still go away you have to accept that possibility. It's a known risk of foreign travel at the moment,

And I have no respect for these who just won't quarantine on return. Just why wouldn't you?

HopelessSemantics · 14/08/2020 07:45

@TSSDNCOP it's not glee though is it? It's more like exasperation that people moan when they must know the risks.

HOkieCOkie · 14/08/2020 07:46

I agree op.

Friendsoftheearth · 14/08/2020 07:48

I do really hope those that are overseas are able to get home safely.
It is very important to check your travel insurance, because I believe it is invalidated once the FCO made their announcement, so for those staying and particularly driving etc it is worth putting in a call to your insurance companies.

Whether you were careful and stayed at home this year, or decided to go away this virus has a lot to answer for, and Europe I believe is now in the throes of a second wave, and all that will mean in the weeks ahead.

I am worried about schools reopening now, I hope the NHS have done enough to be match ready for a winter with covid, and most of all I feel for all of us stuck in this nightmare wherever we are. Lets hope the vaccine is successful.

MsTSwift · 14/08/2020 07:56

The only topic that enthuses my in laws is other people’s holiday mishaps. Usually quiet and morose they come alive on this topic and often use similar “serves them right” phasing and actually tut. I wonder if op is my mil?! We don’t see them much anymore....

zafferana · 14/08/2020 07:57

Not a huge fan of schadenfreude myself. The way I look at it is this: those people who are willing to go abroad at the moment are keeping the foreign travel industry going. Presumably those who aren't will want it to still be there when THEY deem it safe enough to start travelling again and will whine and moan if every airline, hotel, restaurant and bar have gone bust in the meantime!

59giggles · 14/08/2020 07:59

Please just don't. I booked for France as my entire family is there and this was my only window to see them this whole year. I'm not dumb or wreckless, I had decided this was worth doing for my mental health before we head into winter. I have been in tears over this so I don't see the need to be so smug and mean.

EsmereldaMargaretNoteSpelling · 14/08/2020 07:59

Slight variation on the theme of the thread but it has been mentioned - if you move abroad to make your life there permanently, surely you accept that there is a realistic risk that you will never see relatives from your home country in person ever again? Anything could happen, anything. If that's not a risk you can tolerate in any way then the only solution is to not make the move. Surely?

TSSDNCOP · 14/08/2020 08:00

@HopelessSemantics no, it is definitely glee.

The stayers like OP made the right call. Well done them. Trouble is having to stay here all summer with their type.

Drivingdownthe101 · 14/08/2020 08:01

@EsmereldaMargaretNoteSpelling

Slight variation on the theme of the thread but it has been mentioned - if you move abroad to make your life there permanently, surely you accept that there is a realistic risk that you will never see relatives from your home country in person ever again? Anything could happen, anything. If that's not a risk you can tolerate in any way then the only solution is to not make the move. Surely?
Well yes, but my in laws moved abroad away from us. So yes, the risk to never see them again is a risk they took on our behalf I guess.
PamDemic · 14/08/2020 08:02

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

cologne4711 · 14/08/2020 08:02

A lot of people booked last year and would have lost large amounts of money if they didn't go.

I do think people who booked last minute are a bit mad, but if you don't mind quarantine it doesn't really matter.

those people who are willing to go abroad at the moment are keeping the foreign travel industry going can't their own residents keep their countries' tourist industries going? After all, it doesn't sound like Cornwall or Scotland are suffering from a lack of UK visitors at the moment.

I do wonder what you're meant to do if you are somewhere like Germany by land/sea transport though - presumably you'll also have to self-isolate as all the countries you can transit through are subject to quarantine. Or, if you don't have a car with you, fly home.

frazzledquaver · 14/08/2020 08:04

I think if people are going abroad understanding that they may need to quarantine when they get home, then I don't feel gleeful about the fact that quarantine is now imposed. I am however worried that people won't quarantine when they get back. I know a number of people from my children's classes at school are abroad for the summer, and I'm doubtful about whether they will all be coming back early and abiding by quarantine. As there is going to be no social distancing in schools, it will increase our risks as a family. But people who are having to cut holidays short, and who will abide by the quarantine, no, it doesn't "serve them right". I'll be happy to support them (e.g. bring food supplies, etc) to make quarantine as easy as possible for them. We wouldn't go abroad due to the uncertainty, not wanting to quarantine and not wanting to be on a plane with lots of people, but we are playing it very safe anyway.

Pluckedpencil · 14/08/2020 08:04

I think if you live in a different country to relatives, you have a different perspective on travel and see it as a necessary evil rather than frivolity. I am considering travelling to the UK, and I'm weighing up the risk (two weeks quarantine on return) versus the benefit (seeing parents before a second wave when borders may be closed, potentially another year going by without seeing my elderly parents). If I get stuck, it would absolutely be a problem of my own making but I would hardly say it "serves me right", as if it were a just punishment or irresponsible behaviour. I also think if you are willing to self isolate two weeks after your holiday, that is also no one's business other than your own. So yabu.

justdontgothere · 14/08/2020 08:05

@PlanDeRaccordement

It defies all sense. A country with one of the worst death rates, and the disease well and truly dispersed throughout thinks it is at risk of that same disease coming in across its borders from its few healthy people going on holiday! It’s the rest of the world that should be stopping British people from entering.
THIS 👇
TSSDNCOP · 14/08/2020 08:05

I don't think people typically have "but their might be a pandemic" in mind when they fall in love with a person from a different country @EsmereldaMargaretNoteSpelling

I'm sure there are lots of valid reasons why people don't live in their country of birth. Lots of people on these threads are in really desperate situations where a parent or sibling won't be seen again, and your post will certainly pick them right up won't it?

SheWranglesRugRats · 14/08/2020 08:06

BTW If anyone is cancelling a French holiday pm me, we’re in France and need to make a last minute booking.

OnceUponACat · 14/08/2020 08:07

Just for the record, We have all felt so much safer in the country I have been staying in this summer than all the past months in the UK. I dount we will bring more virus than anyone who has spent their holiday in the UK. Especially by those crowded beaches or pubs where people drink far more than here and abandon any social distancing guidelines.
But each to their own. The enemy abroad is always more appealing than the one within.

Friendsoftheearth · 14/08/2020 08:08

Does anyone know if our friends now have to quarantine for FOUR weeks?? They are on en route now, once landed are they now subject tot the French quarantine for two weeks, and then another two weeks in the UK? Please can someone answer this question, as there is no way they can take a month's holiday from work commitments.

Secondly can anyone advise what the French quarantine involves? As in no restaurants or shopping?! As this is going to be very onerous if that is the case

OnceUponACat · 14/08/2020 08:09

@EsmereldaMargaretNoteSpelling you must certainly be living a full and joyful life.

PamDemic · 14/08/2020 08:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Friendsoftheearth · 14/08/2020 08:11

she Tons of availability everywhere in France, so many have had to cancel now!

just That is exactly the reason why the British are being so careful, they don't want a rerun of the spring. Importing infection is the last thing we need.

Does anyone know about the French quarantine requirements?

OnceUponACat · 14/08/2020 08:12

Oh, and all these measures whilst the UK, with over 2k new infections daily, is easing down the lockdown measures. Intereting moves indeed.