To drive 200 miles for a support bubble?

[User3Covid]

I’m exhausted, I need help.

Nobody is around close to me to help with our darling DC who is incredibly hard to cope with at times. Waking between 7 and 10 times every night.

My mum lives 200 miles away with her husband they don’t go out, get everything delivered and essentially have hidden away entirely since March even when cases eased over the summer.

DC was born in the first lockdown and bar a few days in the summer we’ve been mostly contained in these 4 walls with lots of walks.

I haven’t been anywhere in more than 3 weeks, I need a break, do you think I’d be unreasonable to go without stopping (and interacting with anyone) on the way to stay for a few days/week?

I’ve been reading reports of fines and I just cannot afford that!

My understanding is that you can have a support bubble if you have a baby under one, and while you SHOULD bubble with someone local if you can, it's guidance not the law.
So do it!

Yes completely you are allowed although I’m sure some will say no

You absolutely must go.

Oh yes go! Get some support and rest. Maybe also look into a baby sleep consultant to help you also get some more sleep going forward.

Oh, phew, I’ve been really in a quandary over this for a while. I just felt hopeless with reports of it lasting until March/April.

I do have a nan near but she’s 86 and not exactly going to provide me with the sort of help I was thinking of with a baby.

You're definitely allowed so you'd be able to appeal a fine even if you did encounter any overzealous police (FWIW DP has been driving 50 miles up and down a major A road twice a week to collect or drop off DSD for the last year and hasn't been stopped once so I think it's extremely unlikely you would be)

Do you have a DP/DH? Are they still going out to work - would you be putting your DMum at any additional risk?

I am setting off on Friday for the 100 miles door to door trip to my parents. Officially they are my support bubble, but the support actually goes the other way as my dad is carer for my mum with dementia.
I haven't visited them in person since the end of December because in winter weather I can't do the fortnightly weekend day-trip garden visits I was doing through last spring, summer and autumn.

We will have all isolated for 12 days since my dad's last hospital visit and they have been so desperately looking forward to the weekend. I am taking a blood pressure machine to teach them how to use it, as well as clothes in different sizes for them to try on, and homemade food for the next week.

I am fully expecting to be stopped by the police as I drive the first couple of miles through our local woods, but will absolutely argue that this is an essential journey and definitely within the rules, as your trip to your support bubble is too.

YANBU. It's unlikely you'll get stopped by police and if you do, you have a perfectly valid reason.

I'm in a bubble with my DP who lives alone. He is 200 miles away, I go there every other weekend, not been stopped yet.

My only worry would be that your not safe to drive with being so tired.

Yes go.

I’m bubbled with my sister who lives 100 miles away; I read that it’s preferable to bubble with someone local but I don’t have anyone local

Yes it’s fine - childcare support.

Where's the other parent in this?