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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wonder what all the walkers would usually be doing

557 replies

CloseSchoolsProtecttheNHS · 17/01/2021 02:13

I live in a small village near a lovely green open space for walks. I walk every single day and have done since I moved here many years ago. It's always been very quiet - many, many times I've been the only person out and have walked for an hour+ and not seen a soul.

Since Covid - and particularly since the summer - it's been mobbed! I'm dodging people constantly when out walking and although the size of the space means I can keep 2 metres away, I now often have groups of people behind, in front and to the sides of me which makes me a bit uncomfortable. Most are considerate but some are arseholes that want to brush past you so you have to be aware and it's a lot less relaxing. I'm pretty sure that they are local people as it's not a 'day out' place or anywhere people would know about let alone go to, and it's nice that more local people are out walking but... why have they all just discovered walking? It's not like it was a closely guarded secret before and we are quite rural. What would they normally be doing (for example today on a Saturday afternoon) that they now can't do that leaves walking as their only option??

(Yes I do kind of wish they'd bugger off and yes IABU for that as I don't own this piece of land! But mostly I'm just really perplexed as to why so many people are now out walking!)

OP posts:
YouCanWorkItOut · 17/01/2021 08:31

Kids would be doing sports. We’d be watching them. Then seeing friends for lunch or dinner, or maybe going to my mums for the afternoon. Maybe cinema if something new is our. Perhaps even a day out, Legoland or Hever Castle maybe? Or they’d have a friends party to go to. I might have plans with girlfriends in the evening.

The dog always gets walked by one or all of us but all four of us going for a long walk every day at the weekend, every weekend - yes, this is new. I can assure you I’d rather be doing my normal activities!!

Phineyj · 17/01/2021 08:31

Oh the climbing wall! I mourn that. I have a hyperactive child who loved it. It shut in March and never reopened.

Phineyj · 17/01/2021 08:32

On the plus side, I think many dogs and cats have loved all this.

Toddlerteaplease · 17/01/2021 08:33

I would go for an extended walk into town, sit in Nero's for an hour or so. Then Mass if it's a weekday, Potter round town then back to Nero's for a cuppa.

User24689 · 17/01/2021 08:34

Can't actually believe this post.

Sorry your precious countryside has been invaded by the "masses" OP.

In case you haven't noticed, life is absolutely shit for most people at the moment. Walking is literally the only thing left to get out of the house to do. Sorry we are all getting in your way.

Apparently there's a vaccine coming and I might soon able to spend my weekends watching my 5 year old learn to swim all over again, or meeting my friends, or spending time with my parents, taking my kids for their first trip to the cinema, letting them experience a birthday party (don't think my 3 year old knows what that is even like)

Seriously.

LuckyJaney · 17/01/2021 08:35

@tinierclanger So you are saying that walking is not proper exercise?

You must be a stroller and not a proper walker :)

Kids need to get out into the countryside and experience the seasons, learn about nature, pick blackberries, watch animals.....

AS WELL AS doing other sport.

GeordieGreigsButtButtZoom · 17/01/2021 08:35

@LuckyJaney

I think the OP has a point and posters are pretending not to notice.

I agree with the OP.

As a family who love walking and always have, it's quite surprising to me that so many people don't walk usually, and only do so when everything else is shut.

I think that is the point of her post.

And I also get cross when 'new' walkers are ignorant of the countryside code, leave farm gates open even ones with 'sheep - please close gate' - wander off the waymarked paths onto private farm land, and trespass over fields planted with crops.

So there.

Aside from a nod to people who brush past her, this wasn't the thrust of the OP at all.

"...why have they all just discovered walking? It's not like it was a closely guarded secret before and we are quite rural. What would they normally be doing (for example today on a Saturday afternoon) that they now can't do that leaves walking as their only option??"

"Yes I do kind of wish they'd bugger off and yes IABU for that as I don't own this piece of land! But mostly I'm just really perplexed as to why so many people are now out walking!)."

Really, she's not asking why so many people were ignorant of the joys of a walk before, and she's definitely not pleased that they are getting into it. She is not even focusing on the bad ones. Can't think what else was once available to do, really? Walking is so great that it's actually puzzling that anyone ever chose to do anything else on a weekend? Even in a freezing winter? Really?

OP is understandably irritated that it's busier now, but she trying to frame it as "I can't understand whhhhhhyyyyy", which is really so annoying.

As it happens, the pandemic has absolutely ruined my prior love of walking. I'm never going to do it again after this.

redsquirrelfan · 17/01/2021 08:37

OP is understandably irritated that it's busier now, but she trying to frame it as "I can't understand whhhhhhyyyyy", which is really so annoying

I didn't read it that way at all. It was "what were they doing before" not "why are they all here now".

redsquirrelfan · 17/01/2021 08:38

And actually they probably were out walking in their "family time", visiting the local or less local National Trust place or similar. Or driving miles and sitting in traffic jams to get to a beach.

Just not where the OP lives!

BarbaraofSeville · 17/01/2021 08:39

@Phineyj

On the plus side, I think many dogs and cats have loved all this.
The dogs have. They have their people round them all the time, are rarely left alone, and have had far more walks than usual.

In Spain, dogs were a commodity because at one point, you were only allowed to leave the house to walk the dog, not even for your own exercise. So if you had a dog, or could borrow one, you were allowed out.

Cats not so much. Never getting the house to themselves, having their routine disrupted by their people disturbing their peace by talking to a device all the time.

And if they wanted to come and see who was in the screen for themselves, show them their nice clean bottom or investigate all those interesting new things just asking to be pushed off the flat surface, they got shooed away.

AmoElCafe · 17/01/2021 08:39

Kids need to get out into the countryside and experience the seasons, learn about nature, pick blackberries, watch animals....

And they do. Amongst all the other activities they do.
The other activities are no longer available to them, which means more people are walking more often than usual. Why is that difficult to understand?

PurBal · 17/01/2021 08:40

Like you I'm a keen walker. I've actually had to stop altogether because of the increase in walkers. We live on the edge of a city and can't social distance. We were travelling to more rural places but not doable in lockdown. I'm CV. So I've not left the house since about Christmas except for doctor appointments. I'll be so glad when things go back to normal, all these people go back to the pub and I can get out of the house again.

Cocogreen · 17/01/2021 08:40

I’m in Melbourne. In our hard lockdown no-one in metro Melbourne could go 5km from home without a permit to work or reason such as a medical appointment. We have a walking path and parkland behind our house which is normally pretty empty and was packed during lockdown, to the point where I did my walks in suburban streets where there were fewer people. Of course people are going to walk when there’s nothing open for them to go to or do.

CheetasOnFajitas · 17/01/2021 08:40

I get the sense that OP cannot process the idea that her wonderful healthy wholesome activity of walking in the country might be enjoyed by the type of person who also enjoys wandering round a shopping centre, going to the pub or attending a football match. Turns out she’s not as superior to all those people as she thought...

Mammyloveswine · 17/01/2021 08:40

How dare people go for a walk to get some fresh air...

Honestly op you do not own the outside area! People are told to stay local, they literally can only leave the house for a walk, everything else is closed... but of course just because they usually walk/cycle to and from work, or go to the gym, or swim or do any other leisure activity they cannot do they should just stay cooped up inside their houses as god forbid your walk be slightly busier...

Also how do you know people weren't just walking a different time to when you go and have adjusted their time?

Or parents homeschooling will likely break up the day with a walk (as their kids need fresh air and exercise!).

Hate these judgemental threads! It's like the gym goers moaning when new people join in January...

FrankButchersDickieBow · 17/01/2021 08:41

Really cannot bear people who begrudge people walking at local beauty spots. You don't fucking own the place. There is fuck all else for people to do for gods sake. 'How dare these people walk about where I do'.

Piss off.

tinierclanger · 17/01/2021 08:41

[quote LuckyJaney]@tinierclanger So you are saying that walking is not proper exercise?

You must be a stroller and not a proper walker :)

Kids need to get out into the countryside and experience the seasons, learn about nature, pick blackberries, watch animals.....

AS WELL AS doing other sport.[/quote]
I've got no idea what you mean. Where did I say walking isn't proper exercise? I literally said we AREN'T getting the normal exercise we would from our usual walking??

And the bottom part of my post, if you actually read it, was that yes we would, like many other families also go walking and go to the countryside and do all the blackberry picking gubbins, just not every weekend?!

Bookworming · 17/01/2021 08:42

Really good question OP?

I really cannot think what they were doing before?

I read this post some hours ago and still have not come up with a single idea.

It's a mystery isn't it?

I tell you what though, if you've been using the area prior to Covid, I think that you've had your use of it already. It's someone else's turn now, so you stay indoors and stop adding to the numbers out there.

ChikiTIKI · 17/01/2021 08:43

Lots of people probably used to go for a walk at lunchtime everyday, but near their place of work. Now they work from home, so they're still going for a walk near there place of work... That place is just home.

squishedblueberry · 17/01/2021 08:44

I think the answer is pretty obvious, there’s a global pandemic and fuck all else to do
Do you expect people to just stay at home?

Ragwort · 17/01/2021 08:45

Personally I'm delighted as going for a walk is the one of the very few things we can do and in a relatively small town, with nice walking areas, I nearly always accidentally meet someone I know and we can have a quick chat.

I've always been into walking, mainly because I loathe nearly every other form of exercise Grin.

Ifancysomecake · 17/01/2021 08:45

Honestly? Are you stupid?! EVERYTHING we usually do is shut. There is nothing but the great outdoors and our own houses. Like many other people, If I don't go out I'll go mad. One of the most stupid posts I've seen on here. And there is a lot of those!!!

KaptainKaveman · 17/01/2021 08:46

Poor OP. I think she daren't return!!

ButterflySmith · 17/01/2021 08:48

We would normally spend our Saturdays at music sessions / orchestra and football / rugby matches. Sunday would also be football matches and possibly a walk in the park. We might also go to the cinema, visit grandparents, attend a birthday party, go shopping or out for food.

Athinginitself · 17/01/2021 08:49

This is one of the oddest posts I've ever read. People are doing the only thing they are now allowed to do. They would normally be seeing friends and family, going to soft play, days out, meals, cinemas etc. Hopefully a lot of these people will keep up their daily walk although am sure that will be very disappointing for you.