Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Original poster

To go to a local garden centre?

339 replies

Thetimehascomethewalrussaid · 19/01/2021 09:58

I feel like I might get flamed for this. I'm on maternity leave and obviously we're in full lockdown. Where I live is also currently in the throes of Storm Christoph and the rain outside is literally like the wrath of god - so no chance of a walk. My baby is teething and really grumpy and I'm going out of my mind being stuck in the same four walls all day every day. All baby classes have been cancelled, can't even go somewhere for a quick coffee to break up the day. My husband is at work (he's a teacher and over half of the school are in because the government have massively expanded the list of what constitutes a 'key worker' - so it's not really a lockdown, but that's another thread!) We have a support bubble because we have a child under 1 but they're also at work in the week (also teachers). Our local garden centre (2 min drive away) is open - would I be unreasonable to pack the baby in the car and go and have a look round there for an hour? Just to break up the day and regain a bit of sanity? Not an essential journey, but arguably important for mental health! My husband now has weekly COVID tests - he had one yesterday and it was negative so it's highly unlikely we have it! Feel like I'm going mad!

OP posts:
MintyMabel · 19/01/2021 11:37

Pet food, farm shops, fence panels.

All available in non garden centre stores (and usually at a much better price)

Garden Centres were noted as non essential by the Scottish Government. About the only sensible thing they have done.

Icanseegreenshoots · 19/01/2021 11:37

I agree peanut some seem to have lost all perspective.

CandidaAlbicans2 · 19/01/2021 11:37

Sympathies, OP, life's challenging at the moment for most of us. All I'm going to say is, do you really think that a browse of the garden centre is allowed according to the following laws from the gov website? IMHO, using "mental health" is disingenuous unless you're at the point of wanting to harm yourself or your baby; being bored and fed up doesn't cut it as far as the "for my mental health" excuse goes. Just put wet weather kit on and go for a walk, leaving baby with your DH when he gets home if necessary.

Summary: what you can and cannot do during the national lockdown
You must stay at home. The single most important action we can all take is to stay at home to protect the NHS and save lives.

You should follow this guidance immediately. This is the law.

Leaving home
You must not leave, or be outside of your home except where necessary. You may leave the home to:

  • shop for basic necessities, for you or a vulnerable person
  • go to work, or provide voluntary or charitable services, if you cannot reasonably do so from home
  • exercise with your household (or support bubble) or one other person (in which case you should stay 2m apart). Exercise should be limited to once per day, and you should not travel outside your local area.
  • meet your support bubble or childcare bubble where necessary, but only if you are legally permitted to form one
  • seek medical assistance or avoid injury, illness or risk of harm (including domestic abuse)
  • attend education or childcare - for those eligible

If you do leave home for a permitted reason, you should always stay local - unless it is necessary to go further, for example to go to work. Stay local means stay in the village, town, or part of the city where you live.

Robbybobtail · 19/01/2021 11:38

No, you shouldn’t go out because there are people on here who haven’t been out since last March and why should you be any different? Open a window if your baby needs fresh air!!

(I’m being sarcastic OP - yes go out, don’t let the COVID police get to you. You should come off mumsnet if you’re starting to think you need to ask permission from a bunch of strangers on the internet whether you can go and do something that is perfectly reasonable and allowed).
Buy something whilst you’re there - places like this may not survive if they’re not getting any business.

boobot1 · 19/01/2021 11:40

@Thetimehascomethewalrussaid

I feel like I might get flamed for this. I'm on maternity leave and obviously we're in full lockdown. Where I live is also currently in the throes of Storm Christoph and the rain outside is literally like the wrath of god - so no chance of a walk. My baby is teething and really grumpy and I'm going out of my mind being stuck in the same four walls all day every day. All baby classes have been cancelled, can't even go somewhere for a quick coffee to break up the day. My husband is at work (he's a teacher and over half of the school are in because the government have massively expanded the list of what constitutes a 'key worker' - so it's not really a lockdown, but that's another thread!) We have a support bubble because we have a child under 1 but they're also at work in the week (also teachers). Our local garden centre (2 min drive away) is open - would I be unreasonable to pack the baby in the car and go and have a look round there for an hour? Just to break up the day and regain a bit of sanity? Not an essential journey, but arguably important for mental health! My husband now has weekly COVID tests - he had one yesterday and it was negative so it's highly unlikely we have it! Feel like I'm going mad!
No, go and enjoy it
redsquirrelfan · 19/01/2021 11:40

Of course you can go to a garden centre. They are open, so it's permitted to go to them.

If the government doesn't want us to go to them, they should have kept them closed as in the first lockdown.

Although I wouldn't want to be in a confined indoor area for an hour and I don't think it's a very wise idea. I'd wait until the rain eases a bit and go out.

countrygirl99 · 19/01/2021 11:44

@Sparklingbrook

I don't know of an garden centres that sell P* F*d. There's B&M/Pets at Home/Home Bargains/every single supermarket for that.
My local garden centre not only sells a huge range of pet food but is also the village shop, the nearest post office to me and 3 days a week has a fishmonger and a greengrocer on site.
boobot1 · 19/01/2021 11:44

@Sparklingbrook

it is full of complete lockdown lunatics

Rude.

But true! people have lost all sense of proportion.
Vintagevixen · 19/01/2021 11:45

@PinkSparklyPussyCat I have no problem with that!

Just pointing out the hypocrisy when people feel they are all virtuous for having stayed in since March and having everything delivered - there are a lot of very poorly paid and supported people needed to support those extra deliveries. These types of delivery workplaces are drivers of infection - look at all the posties off at the moment!

Its almost as though the safely housed, securely salaried middle class (excluding elderly/CEV here) don't want to share the risk by, you know, maybe going to the supermarket and getting the shopping themselves.

CleverCatty · 19/01/2021 11:46

Yes, YABU to go to a local garden centre simply because you're bored. Meet a friend or whatever but for a browse no.

I mean I'm bored shitless, am not going to the local high street unless I have to (got online shopping) but for some reason unless its local park I'm staying put.

Brefugee · 19/01/2021 11:47

TBH if the shops are open i think people should (in a covid-safe way) use them because it will, hopefully mean that fewer businesses go under. In that vein I'd probably only go to an independent garden centre rather than a big chain if possible.

I hope that whoever is responsible for seeing that businesses operate in the safest possible way for their staff are policing this kind of business carefully.

RedskyBynight · 19/01/2021 11:47

It would be better for your mental health to go for a walk outside than in a confined space (probably full of many people also buying "essential" items).
And it will not be good for your mental health if you do catch Covid, and then are in exactly the same stuck-at-home position as now, but additionally have to look after your baby while ill.

Icanseegreenshoots · 19/01/2021 11:47

Hope you are having a happy day op with your baby and have lots of Flowers to show for it, and some Cake you deserve both managing a teething little baby in the middle of a pandemic.

Sinful8 · 19/01/2021 11:48

@GirlCrush

They are open?? Yes for ESSENTIALS!!

Staff won’t want you in otherwise

Yeah I'm sure the staff of garden centers aren't at all interested in somones non essential custom, not like they're worried they might lose their job
Shehasadiamondinthesky · 19/01/2021 11:48

Nobody is staying g at home. The roads, open shops and open garden centres are packed hete. It makes my ood boil.

Sparklingbrook · 19/01/2021 11:49

@countygirl99 I do get that it will vary from place to place. I think one by my DB's is more of a farmer's market than bulbs and plants.

Sinful8 · 19/01/2021 11:49

Oh but January really is the time you should be getting your seed spuds

Heyahun · 19/01/2021 11:50

why do people ask these questions

Just do what you want and dont involve loads of others in your decision

I just dont get it

SnuggyBuggy · 19/01/2021 11:50

Remember every time you smile a granny gets covid.

Icanseegreenshoots · 19/01/2021 11:50

It is dead around here, not even a passing car for weeks, so I guess it balances out.

Heyahun · 19/01/2021 11:51

if nobody went they would be in even more trouble and the staff would lose their jobs

Tinkletwat · 19/01/2021 11:53

Why do you think you're special OP? This is part of the reason we're still in this situation. Just imagine that there's one person on every street doing the same as you - you're not just 1 extra person in the garden centre.

Go for a walk instead rather than put you and others at risk unnecessarily. Get some fresh air, a little exercise and look for some bulbs and buds appearing to help with your mental health.

SchrodingersImmigrant · 19/01/2021 11:53

Well going in for an hours walk isn't going to save the business either unless op decides to buy something 🤷🏻

MaltbyMaeve · 19/01/2021 11:54

Of course YANBU.

RedskyBynight · 19/01/2021 11:55

@Heyahun

if nobody went they would be in even more trouble and the staff would lose their jobs
I'm fairly sure that people going in to browse because they are bored at home, make no difference to whether staff lose their jobs.