Another tiers thread... trying to avoid pressing the panic button!

[WeavingWandering]

My partner and I were due to move end of January. Unfortunately he was unable to return home from working overseas due to his health- and as they are only offering infrequent repatriation flights and he’s still poorly- I doubt he’ll be home for months. My heart is epically broken.

On top of this, I’m pregnant... all the stress about him not coming home, and his health, has made me too scared to tell anyone about the baby other than my immediate family who knew before my partner became unwell.

My mum was going to come up to help with move but she’s tier 4. We both self isolate anyway as a precaution but I know the law doesn’t care about that. Is there ANY way I can get her up to help with move?

Friends have offered to help but they are all people I have met through work and I feel uncomfortable asking someone I work with to help deep clean my house- on top of the fact I’m not ready to let work people know about my pregnancy.

Would it be bad for her to come and stay? If worse came to worse, she could stay in the new house (which is vacant) to avoid an overnight stay in a private home but that’s 3 and half hours driving each day to collect her as she doesn’t drive!

Just do what you need to do OP. I have no idea if there are any bubble exceptions that would allow her to help you legally in this situation but honestly, if you’ve both been sensible and she’s not in a high risk category then who is this actually hurting? Nobody! So just go for it. Sometimes we need to be sensible and logical rather than blindly following rules set by a government that has no clue what it’s doing.

(I’m following the rules btw but I can’t stand to hear of people struggling in extreme circs like yours - you’re not throwing a party, you’re a pregnant lady with a sick, absent husband, who needs help moving house!)

I think you can legitimately claim to be a single person household at the moment as your oh is away and not coming back any time soon, so you can use this as your excuse if you feel you need one. But regardless, I think I'm extreme circumstances like yours you should do what you need to do. Get your mum up to help.

Trades people are allowed- can you get a professional to do this? Your mum being in tier 4 cannot travel to you unless you are in tier 4 and is de facto acting as a trades person doing the cleaning.

Or if you are renting, get the agency to arrange something?

@Conkergame

Just do what you need to do OP. I have no idea if there are any bubble exceptions that would allow her to help you legally in this situation but honestly, if you’ve both been sensible and she’s not in a high risk category then who is this actually hurting? Nobody! So just go for it. Sometimes we need to be sensible and logical rather than blindly following rules set by a government that has no clue what it’s doing.

(I’m following the rules btw but I can’t stand to hear of people struggling in extreme circs like yours - you’re not throwing a party, you’re a pregnant lady with a sick, absent husband, who needs help moving house!)

This ^^

You can't move house by yourself while pregnant. I would use her as a support bubble.

There are a lot of people here saying that not leaving tier 4 overrides support bubbles and it doesn't!

www.gov.uk/guidance/tier-4-stay-at-home

Travelling out of a tier 4 area
You must stay at home and not leave your Tier 4 area, other than for legally permitted reasons such as:

travel to work where you cannot work from home
travel to education and for caring responsibilities
visit those in your support bubble - or your childcare bubble for childcare
attend hospital, GP and other medical appointments or visits where you have had an accident or are concerned about your health
The full list of exceptions will be published in the Regulations.

Pay a moving company.

From the gov.uk website T4 on house moves

*Moving home
You can still move home. People outside your household or support bubble should not help with moving house unless absolutely necessary.

Estate and letting agents and removals firms can continue to work. If you are looking to move, you can go to property viewings.

Follow the national guidance on moving home safely, which includes advice on social distancing and wearing a face covering*

Definitely getting a removal company to move all the furniture, etc. It’s more the packing things into boxes, doing the cleaning , replacing light bulbs... my landlord charges £25 a bulb to do this! And they put our rent up in the middle of pandemic so they aren’t exactly the reasonable sort!)

And probably dealing with my hormonal wobbles along the way!