Driving miles to skateboard park

[HyacynthBucket]

A friend of someone I know drove 27 miles to a city skatepark for her child to attend (and 27 miles back) even though there are skateparks near home, when we are supposed to be making essential journeys only. AIBU to feel this is so selfish when so many others have made big sacrifices to do the right thing, stay home and not spread the virus? The journey was completely unnecessary.

Skateparks are closed around here so either different councils have different interpretations of the law or else it’s breaking the law with a nonessential journey to break the law by going to a skatepark.

@BlueTimes

Skateparks are closed around here so either different councils have different interpretations of the law or else it’s breaking the law with a nonessential journey to break the law by going to a skatepark.

There isn't any interpretation of the law that would result in a skatepark or indeed any other type of playground closing.

An individual council's decision to close a place of exercise is entirely on them (and should be condemned).

@GoodnightKevin

At this point - almost 12 solid months into ongoing lockdowns of varying degrees - I really just don't care any more what other people are doing. Some people are stringently obeying the rules, others are bending them slightly to make life more tolerable, some are completely disregarding them. I just do not have the energy to GAF any more.

A parent took a child to a skate park, not out to spit in strangers' open mouths 🤷🏻‍♀️

^ this. This exactly.

@scottish83 apparently it follows advice from SkateboardGB and Sport England to shut, as "outdoor sports facilities had been directed to close".

@HyacynthBucket

IndecentFeminist I think it is the sense that "I can do whatever I like in the middle of a huge pandemic, even though everyone else has been told to stick to guidance about essential travel only, and most do. But I am not going to because it doesn't suit me, and sod everyone else. I will do what I want". That is what it feels like to me, having made huge efforts not to make any unnecessay journeys.

To be fair, you don't know what she is thinking or feeling, maybe she's just at the end of her tether and this is one thing that she's bent the rules on, rather than thinking "fuck you all, I'll do what I want" about everything. Honestly, don't get yourself so worked up over something that is probably mostly in your imagination.

Jesus. Can you imagine posting this a year ago. Its mad. The guidelines state to stay local yes, but it isnt the law. They've technically done nothing wrong. Its just that you wouldn't do it.

That was a far more interesting reason than mine for driving the same distance today.

Even Boris cycled miles across London for his own enjoyment, I’m afraid I can’t get het up about this!

Boris travelled 250 miles this weekend from London to Northumberland to carry out the urgently essential business of officially opening a factory that has been open for several months already. I don't think he'd be bothered about a kid going to a skate park.

@FoxyTheFox

Even Boris cycled miles across London for his own enjoyment, I’m afraid I can’t get het up about this!

Boris travelled 250 miles this weekend from London to Northumberland to carry out the urgently essential business of officially opening a factory that has been open for several months already. I don't think he'd be bothered about a kid going to a skate park.

After all, it’s not as it he was bothered by Dominic Cummings either.

Exactly, what would Cummings do if he fancied getting on his skateboard? 🛹 🤡

And the place for this tedious wannabe grassing, snitching and curtain twitching is the Coronavirus topic, where it can be quarantined with like-minded people who like to whinge about “selfish arseholes”. Although even there, the tide is turning.

Yabu and perfectly living up to your user name 🙄

Maybe the closer skateboard parks aren't much good. We go some distance for the better more challenging ones.

Hepsie
Hardly essential though, is it?

Didn't say it was did I. Just pointing out a reason why she may have gone further

I can only imagine caring about this if I really disliked the person to start with.

It seems to be within the law, which is more than many people are doing.

As others have said - why is this little thing, that is not very likely to increase risk, a thing you are so focused on? This isn't the big reason behind the UK's high case loads - It's people spending time with others outside their household in indoor settings. Work places that don't let people work from home even though they could, or that haven't instituted good socially distanced working practices. People not self-quarantining when they are supposed to. Not someone driving the child they live with a few extra miles to an outdoor space.

Yabu

I think it falls into the category of ‘taking a slightly generous interpretation of the guidance’ rather than ‘so selfish’.

Local should have been defined- for exercise it should be walked, run or cycled from your front door. Even the Belgians who cannot agree which language to say it in managed that detail.

Local should have been defined

“Local” isn’t mentioned in the legislation so why would it need defining?

YABU

YABVU. Bore off.

Skate parks count as outdoor recreation and are supposed to be closed. Realistically you can't close a skate park but locally the police have stopped and fined people.

I mean outdoor sports.

So they are travelling to something they shouldn't be going to anyway!

Honestly, until I hear that I am only allowed to travel within a 5 mile radius of my house, I will continue to travel to local parks/woods/river etc just to mix up our "exercise". Mind your own business. Make your own decisions and don't judge other people who are doing what they think is right for them.