Neighbours pis*ed off we're in our garden when isolating

[blakeway45]

Me, DH and 2x DC (age 4 and 2) are isolating due to DH testing positive (the issues that come with this could be a whole other post in itself!).

Neighbours know we are isolating as they know my MIL well.

Yesterday we spent most of the day in and out of the garden. We're all feeling fine, kids have been playing in their paddling pool and on their slide and I've been pottering about and sunbathing. We also had lunch in the garden as a family.

Neighbours are livid we're in the garden when isolating because we could pass it to them over the fence?! I appreciate COVID is making everyone worry in lots of ways, but we are not breaking ANY rules in doing and it's OUR garden?! I'd be going insane if we had no outside space! Although the gardens run alongside each other all the way down, the gardens are pretty wide, it's not like we're sharing a space or are massively on top of each other?! There's a fence and a great big bush between us for goodness sake!!!

They have text me and called my MIL saying they're not pleased we're outside while we have COVID and they'd appreciate it if we'd be more careful and not pass it along the street?!

AIBU????

What a wonderful laugh this has given me! Thanks OP, and for the record YANBU! But it does worry me that the number of people unable to discern information issued by WHO/Government/NHS should be ignored compared to what 'Betty/the Daily blog' down the road has said!

@Trevsadick

I’d be pretty pissed off if my neighbour had covid and was sitting in their garden a couple of metres away from me behind a fence

Why?

Yeah why ?

My daughter and I had Covid April 2021. We spent 2 weeks isolated in the basement until we both felt well enough to venture upstairs. Our basement has a door going into the backyard and we spent a bit of time outside everyday getting some fresh air. It is your garden so you are entitled to be in your garden. You will not pass Covid onto your neighbours through the fence. I hope you MIL put them in their place.

I can imagine how hard it would be to isolate by yourselves in a one bathroom home etc. I imagine your husband was also in isolation? ie: not going to work, shops etc.

I read that there are zero cases that have been caught through casual outdoor contact.

I’d be pretty pissed off if my neighbour had covid and was sitting in their garden a couple of metres away from me behind a fence

Well yes, but unless you both only have one metre wide gardens, you can easily be many metres apart, not a couple. In the vast open air. No risk.

text them and say: Thanks for your text and I understand your reasonable emotional reaction. In fact and medically speaking the aerosol transmission reduces dramatically OUTSIDE. My household is therefore not only within the letter of the law and regulations but also well inside the spirit & current medical understanding of this particular virus. IF you are still feeling nervous it is open to you or any of your household to wear a mask in the garden.

@Kazzzzzzzzzzz

Have any of you mouthy mother's had Covid yourselves? ...well I have and caught it going to the supermarket. I can tell you its damn scarey!

Yes, I've had it, and I also probably caught it from going to the supermarket. And I can see the difference between being in a supermarket and being in a garden when it comes to transmissibility of the virus.

@TreeLeaf4 trust me we don't care if people sit in their gardens
We have far big fish to fry in the healthcare setting at the moment
Most of those fish have been caused by fear mongering idiots making people too scared to leave their homes to come to perfectly safe hospital appointments to receive essential care
So you can do one with your patronising tropes

ignore them, and be glad mental illness isn't catching.

Just to add, there is also some evidence that vitamin d can aid in the bodies fight with covid, so much so that some countries have been prescribing it to those hospitalised. So being out in the garden, in theory, should help aid recovery too.

@OMGafourth

Just to add, there is also some evidence that vitamin d can aid in the bodies fight with covid, so much so that some countries have been prescribing it to those hospitalised. So being out in the garden, in theory, should help aid recovery too.

I’m glad you said that that’s why outdoor exercise has always been allowed in fact encouraged. Of course if you are isolating you can’t go out but exercise away in your own garden or don’t just sit. Being outdoors has huge benefits from vitamin d like you say to just your mental health. People need to Stop the scaremongering as your only stressing yourself out .

Totally ridiculous abnd MIL should have told them that!

I don’t think you NDN can really challenge your any further when you are following government guidance. If they are that worried they should stay inside.

I'd send them a message with big smiley faces saying how much you loved their joke. Add that at first you were worried in case it was serious but you realised, of course, that they were not that stupid.

Had this during the first lockdown. We all had covid already so weren't even isolating. Neighbours one side would have extremely loud phone calls in the garden when we were there to someone about how we were always in our garden and it meant they could never go out. No idea what the hell the problem was - none of us had it, they didn't have it. We have a fence and boarders between us. We are a quiet family and I was home schooling 2 kids alone... I just carried on. We are always in the garden every day lockdown or not, so is the neighbour and we did get on fine, but for some reason it was a massive issue during lockdown though they never approached me, just these rude clearly meant for me to hear passive aggressive phone calls (neighbour never takes calls in the garden - this was the only time in 10 years!)

Just carry on and ignore it. You can't really explain to people when they get themselves in a tiz. If they are out in public they are far more likely to get it there than from you in your garden. My son has been a close contact with someone positive with the Indian variant, whole school closed because it spread like wildfire but he tested negative on many tests. When he did catch it, it was from his sister who got it from primary school (took 3 weeks for him and I to then get sick)