To do a normal Christmas this year

[Coviddooneplease]

Now before I’m flamed I don’t mean completely normal eg a New Year’s Eve party like we usually have, and huge gatherings of both mine and dh’s family all together. I won’t go stupid but I have no intention of snubbing family this Christmas Anette’s denying my dc to see our nearest ant dearest. I know it’s been a shit year for everyone, and I expect the majority of you have stuck to the rules religiously (like me) but I refuse to have a shit Christmas to top of a shit 2020.

I plan to have my parents round on their own then my sister and niece on their own then see dh’s parents and brother at their house. That’s it. Usually we have 30+ people including both sets of grandparents (mine) who I won’t be spending time with as they are to vulnerable medically speaking. AIBU here or are other people going to do what they went whilst exercising caution and of course common sense?

I'm so bored of these threads.

I wouldn't be surprised to see a massive spike in cases in January.

The virus won't take a day off because it's Christmas. It doesn't know and doesn't care. It also doesn't care that you have obeyed all the rules up until now and hence feel you have stacked up some credits. It's a virus - it doesn't do credits. It's a bummer but that's the facts.

We had planned to have another couple with us on Christmas Day, like us older, not working or mixing with schoolchildren or young people. Then London moved into tier 2, then I learned I will be having chemo, so should be shielding for six months at least - and we're still planning on having them here, if we can, either end of our long dining table.

YABVU

January is going to be carnage if everyone carries on as normal at Christmas. There will be thousands of avoidable deaths.

I won't be breaking them. I will be alone on Christmas Day.

@Coviddooneplease

That’s a shame. My kids grandmother is dying of covid right now, but hey, enjoy definitely not contributing to the spread in any way at Christmas.

We don’t know what the rules are though for Christmas so how can we break them

Why start a thread about it if you've made your mind up?

@CraftyGin absolutely!!

I work in a school with 2,000 teenagers and 200+ staff. Despite the best efforts of our wonderfully supportive Leadership Team we have already had several staff and students test positive this half term. I feel utterly defeated when I see posts like yours OP, because however careful I am (and I am being very careful) come January I will be in packed corridors shoulder to shoulder with your children, neices and nephews, your friends children etc etc and there's nothing I can do about it. Fortunately, I'm young and healthy. But I worry for my colleague whose DH is having chemotherapy, my other colleague whose DS has had an organ transplant and my other colleague who is so medically vulnerable she was shielding but the Govt now say it's safe for her to mix with up to 200 different students a day with no PPE and social distancing.

But yeah, you've clearly made up your mind so enjoy your day.

We will see a lot of ppl complaining when the kids are sent home a day or two after going back in Jan.

"They've just had 2 weeks off why do they want more" kind of crap will be all over here as they struggle with the fall out caused by the very ones complaining!

We’ll be following the rules. My children are sensible and understand that this year we’re all going to be doing things differently to help keep lots of people safer. They are proud to do what they can to help, as am I.

My town are worried about feeding our disadvantaged children, and local businesses and food banks are mobilising. We are worried about our elderly and more isolated and volunteers shop and support. We are worried about our children missing out on Halloween so have a pumpkin trail where parents will give their own children sweets for every pumpkin they can find on a walk. We wear our masks, we wash our hands, we work from home where we can, and we get on with things. I believe this happening quietly all over the country.

Take a big breath OP. Have a think about who you want to be.

@Coviddooneplease

My relatives, and myself for that matter, could catch covid through our selflessness ie sticking to the rules, only going out for essentials like food clothing or work, So please, don’t try and guilt trip me as it won’t work.

That makes NO sense. The more we follow the rules the less virus is transmitted. You just can't front your way out of responsibility. YOUR responsibility for enabling the virus to spread. It is one day in December, you're being extremely selfish.

I think this is a difficult one. I found out I was pregnant just as lockdown began and have been WFH since, so has DH. We live with his elderly parents who have been sheilding all the way through. Only DH goes out to pick up click and collect shopping.

I haven't seen my family who live 2 hours away through my whole pregnancy. My in laws dont celebrate Christmas and my FIL is frankly a horrible man that I don't like spending any time with but have had to be under the same roof as him for nearly 9 months. We usually go to my mum and dads for Christmas every year. Its really important to my family, my baby will be 6 weeks old at the time, it will be my parents only grandchild. My mum and dad are both retired and quite fearful of Covid so have been home, my brother is working from home and again following restrictions really carefully. The only risk is my sister who works in a public facing job and has to get the train to work. My parents live in a large house so social distancing is fairly easy in their house and I think for my mental health, I need to go see them at Christmas. We will probably stay a week with them rather than just a day or overnight. I'm not sure if that makes me going better or worse but the prospect of not going is really negatively impacting me.

@Washimal

I work in a school with 2,000 teenagers and 200+ staff. Despite the best efforts of our wonderfully supportive Leadership Team we have already had several staff and students test positive this half term. I feel utterly defeated when I see posts like yours OP, because however careful I am (and I am being very careful) come January I will be in packed corridors shoulder to shoulder with your children, neices and nephews, your friends children etc etc and there's nothing I can do about it. Fortunately, I'm young and healthy. But I worry for my colleague whose DH is having chemotherapy, my other colleague whose DS has had an organ transplant and my other colleague who is so medically vulnerable she was shielding but the Govt now say it's safe for her to mix with up to 200 different students a day with no PPE and social distancing.

But yeah, you've clearly made up your mind so enjoy your day.

I agree with @Washimal

I'm fed up of people saying they'll do what they like. COVID has opened my eyes to just how selfish people can be. And then they moan that the UK has such high rates..........

@Bloodybridget

We had planned to have another couple with us on Christmas Day, like us older, not working or mixing with schoolchildren or young people. Then London moved into tier 2, then I learned I will be having chemo, so should be shielding for six months at least - and we're still planning on having them here, if we can, either end of our long dining table.

@Bloodybridget

for your chemo. Hope it goes well

But please reconsider about Christmas. It's not just about the risk to your own health. What if you take COVID into hospital and infect other patients?

@Coviddooneplease

My relatives, and myself for that matter, could catch covid through our selflessness ie sticking to the rules, only going out for essentials like food clothing or work, So please, don’t try and guilt trip me as it won’t work.

Then why did you post the thread? Maybe you should have said that you only wanted people to agree with you.

Well I've just seen how easily covid spread around my workplace. Nobody had symptoms and it was a shock when the first positive result came back. People who were so careful and abided by social distancing etc. Knock yourselves out, but you've only got yourselves to blame when a somebody gets seriously ill.

@ilovesooty

Tricerapops
We see grandparents once a week for childcare at the moment anyway so yes, we'll still be seeing them on Christmas Day as usual. 
Childcare is not there to facilitate socialising

I don't believe I said the childcare was there to facilitate socialising. They do a day of childcare each week to facilitate us working.

But if people are now so overcome with fear that they can't think rationally for themselves and realise that if the GPs can see us on Xmas eve for childcare, so Xmas day with their grandchildren probably isn't much more of risk, then so be it.

Yes, I agree with others who are saying it's fine if just one family does this but if everyone breaks the rules the results a fortnight later will not be pretty.

Is this real

Hope no families pay the price come January

There is increasing evidence that lockdowns dong work.

I can't imagine why.

If any of our extended family were to catch covid and need hospitalisation I would prefer if wasn’t during a peak period like mid January could be, so that their chance of being able to get treatment to survive would be higher. I won’t be spending Christmas with relatives, but we don’t have anyone living alone so it’s an easier decision for us.

We have been lucky not to lose anyone to covid, though I have a relative quite sick with it at the moment. I’ve had a parent hospitalised that we couldn’t visit or advocate for. I’ve developed health complications due to not being able to access timely medical help. I have had to cope with a dc whose SN and MH services were stopped. All of our elderly parents and relatives need medical support and have been fortunate to be able to access these. If covid cases rise, all of these other medical and support services come under strain or cease. It’s not just Covid that I’m worried about - it’s everything else as well. I’m following the rules so that people who need cancer treatment can still get it, so that ICU beds are available for accident victims and those recovering from scheduled operations.

I’m giving serious thought to keeping my dc off school in January. It’s too soon to make any decisions but it’s in the back of my mind.

But for Christmas it will be just our immediate family. We will have zoom chats, an Among Us marathon, maybe share a movie. It will be different but it will be ok. And hopefully we’ll all be around to celebrate together in 2021.

@notanothertakeaway I'll have over three weeks before I go to hospital for chemo again, and I'm using the NHS app, so if any of us develops symptoms during that time it will be picked up.

Everybody ‘wants to see people’ but they just engage their bloody brains and decide against it this year. It’s not acceptable in most circumstances. There are obviously exceptions but this isn’t one. So yes, i will call them vile.