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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think children should be able to eat out together?

41 replies

sunshinesky · 15/10/2020 20:14

My child’s birthday on the weekend. I’ve realised that even though kids can sit together all day in school, with no distancing, they can’t even go for a burger together at the moment! I’ve followed all the rules but this makes no sense to me!

OP posts:
howmanyroads · 15/10/2020 20:17

I thought they were supposed to be distancing in school?

Missandra · 15/10/2020 20:18

It’s a very flawed logic.

Finerumpus · 15/10/2020 20:21

How can pupils distance from each other in a school?

CertainGecko · 15/10/2020 20:21

I thought they were supposed to be distancing in school?

They can't distance in any schools I know. Not enough space. No school has space to sit each child 1m apart. In fact you'd need more space than that, as the teacher needs to be able to walk between desks to get to the back and sides of the room if necessary.

Moat schools seem to be using bubbles of classes or even whole year groups.

Shoppingwithmother · 15/10/2020 20:24

So do you think restaurants should now check whether children are in the same school/year/bubble?

Cocomarine · 15/10/2020 20:25

It’s not a flawed logic at all.

It simply isn’t possibly to have simple to understand rules without that creating anomalies.
Your child at school will be spaced out (even if just normal spacing) and have an adult overseeing them, to stop them getting too close.
Send them off to McDonald’s and they’ll be on top of each other, and passing burger boxes around, etc. It’s a more relaxed environment.

Even if they have no more contact eating out than at school, you’ve increased the total exposure.

You simply can’t have a rule that says, “no eating out unless it’s the kids from your bubble” without someone deciding - well, if I’m bringing little sibling too, then they might as well have a friend too, as they’ll have their germs anyway...

Fed up with people who think they’re clever for spotting, “flaws”. They’re not.

OfficerKrupkey · 15/10/2020 20:27

Always amazes me when people (who have presumably been inside a school at some point, as we all have) think there's distancing in schools. How exactly do you think that would happen? The schools guidance doesn't require it anyway so no, there isn't any.

And yes op it is crazy. They're around each other all day every day, doing pe, eating together etc, but they can't socialise for a couple of hours outside of school because apparently that is when transmission will happen. Not during the 30 other hours a week they spend together. Ffs.

supersky · 15/10/2020 20:29

A restaurant wouldn't know whether the children go to the same school

KlausIsMyProphet · 15/10/2020 20:29

@Cocomarine

I have a primary aged class. There is no social distancing within the bubble. They are all over each other at lunch and break as much as they would be at a party. Its business as normal within each bubble, they share equipment, toys, books - distances are only enforced between bubbles as much as possible.

I'm not saying this is a justification for having a party, but that's the reality.

OfficerKrupkey · 15/10/2020 20:30

@Cocomarine there isn't any spacing in schools.

While they're in school, they're apparently in a bubble. In the case of secondary year groups it's a 250 strong bubble. But it's a bubble, so they're not spaced. At all.

But once they step off school grounds they're no longer in this bubble and instead are in their household only bubble, and can't go beyond that.

BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz · 15/10/2020 20:30

It's about minimising the exposure. They need to go to school so there is a trade off which (for most) is worth it in order to get an education.

Dining together at the weekend is additional exposure which is wholly unnecessary.

Every just needs to cut back to the bare minimum to reduce transmission.

babyguffingtonstrikesagain · 15/10/2020 20:32

"I thought they were supposed to be distancing in school."

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Aragog · 15/10/2020 20:32

Your child at school will be spaced out (even if just normal spacing) and have an adult overseeing them, to stop them getting too close.
Send them off to McDonald’s and they’ll be on top of each other,

Whilst I understand why we have the rules, this reasoning here is not the case ime. They are most likely more spaced out in McDonald's than in class.

In school children will be sat right next to one another, elbows may well be touching when they're sat at their desks next to one another.

Children are sat in classrooms with normal every day pre Covid spacing. That, at the very least, usually means having two children sat to a double desk.

Wherever I have been to a restaurant, bar, fast food place etc I have sat further away from the person I'm with then the children in school are.

Why would they be all over one another? I can't imagine they're going to be sat on one another's knees in McDonald's unless they are boyfriend/girlfriends perhaps.

Wondergirl100 · 15/10/2020 20:32

Children do not have to social distance at school - that is the point of the bubble.

It's not about minimising exposure - my kids sit side by side with their bubble all week long - it's just a nonsense rule. It would be perfectly simple to say kids in school bubbles can also socialise but this Government doesn't care about children.

Sally872 · 15/10/2020 20:32

Limiting interactions. It is a balancing act, education is worth the risk. Birthday is not. We have all had lockdown birthdays it is not the same as normal but Birthday person feels special.

Iwantacookie · 15/10/2020 20:37

Its batshit but we mustn't forgot about the invisible covid barrier around schools

Cocomarine · 15/10/2020 20:37

@KlausIsMyProphet and @OfficerKrupkey that’s why I said “even if normal spacing” as I know that in the majority of cases there really isn’t any more spacing. My children - and my teacher friends - all say that equipment sharing is massively reduced in their schools though, and it is different currently.

I’m under no illusion that my kids are walking around in a 2m forcefield. Not least because my 14yo just got fucking nits!!! 😫

But school is a more controlled environment than MaccyD, and the reason they can’t all go to the latter helps make up for the fact that school isn’t that controlled.

Whatthebloodyell · 15/10/2020 20:41

Because any rules that are imposed need to be simple to follow. So ‘don’t socialise indoors with people outside your own household’ . Adding in ‘except if it is children who are at school together, but only those who are actually in the same class, or if it is colleagues who work together, or ..... etc etc’ just makes the rules more complicated and less likely
To be followed at all.

Storyoftonight · 15/10/2020 20:42

@babyguffingtonstrikesagain

"I thought they were supposed to be distancing in school."

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

I did the same Grin
JuliaJohnston · 15/10/2020 20:43

@Shoppingwithmother

So do you think restaurants should now check whether children are in the same school/year/bubble?
This. Engage your brain, op.
Storyoftonight · 15/10/2020 20:44

@Wondergirl100

Children do not have to social distance at school - that is the point of the bubble.

It's not about minimising exposure - my kids sit side by side with their bubble all week long - it's just a nonsense rule. It would be perfectly simple to say kids in school bubbles can also socialise but this Government doesn't care about children.

Children have been able to not distance both in schools and throughout lockdown . Children are not the worse off in this.

Incidentally as a PP pointed out , if kids from a class can go for lunch can I go with my colleagues?

Bunkumum · 15/10/2020 20:51

@howmanyroads

I thought they were supposed to be distancing in school?
I have 30 4/5 year olds, 8 tables, 8 cabinets, role play area, 14 chairs, and a whole load of toys and resources in a room about 28ft by 20ft. There isn’t space to social distance. Oh. And a tough tray and 2 more adults plus me.
IAintentDead · 15/10/2020 21:01

None of it makes any fucking sense.

The government is behaving like an abusive partner.

Perpetrators of emotional abuse may use insults, humiliation or fear tactics to manipulate or control victims.

Isolation, intimidation, verbal assault, or confinement as well as any treatment that causes a decline in a person’s sense of self-worth, identity or dignity are all examples of emotional abuse.

Emotional abuse is defined as any act that subjects a victim to behavior that could result in psychological trauma, resulting in anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder or that causes them to live in fear.

Now tell me it's not abusive

zigaziga · 15/10/2020 21:04

Your child at school will be spaced out (even if just normal spacing) and have an adult overseeing them, to stop them getting too close.
Haha what?!

Age dependent there is zero expectation of any social distancing at schools. On the first day in September one of the first things I witnessed at DC’s school was teachers encouraging overwhelmed and scared children to hold hands to walk in together. (I have to say, I felt a lot better myself after witnessing this).

allthegoodusernameshavegone · 15/10/2020 21:24

It doesn’t make any sense, we are in unprecedented times, new to us all including the government, no one is going to face any long term trauma by missing a birthday meal with their friends.