Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

People with coughs shouldn’t be allowed in restaurants?

396 replies

Andrewsgirl · 15/07/2021 00:02

AIBU to think people with continual coughs shouldn’t be allowed in a restaurant at the moment and to be annoyed a restaurant allowed someone with a very obvious cough dine there?

OP posts:
SherbrookeFosterer · 17/07/2021 13:50

@FrangipaniDeLaSqueegeeMop

Is there something in the MN water? What is it with these weird threads?
I can't agree more.

The quality of the questions has severely declined since the first years of Mumsnet.

knickerstwickers · 17/07/2021 14:46

Oh yeah of course, if I have an asthma attack the problem is definitely ME not having empathy with the people sat near me 🤣. How utterly ridiculous.

Garofbalaxy · 17/07/2021 16:30

@Impier you do realise, people with Chronic Conditions are under the Disability/ASN umbrella. A minority group within society, who have suffered hundreds of years of prejudice and mistreatment, not to mention a severe lack of empathy from others. Tell me again why they/I should stay indoors and/or be treated like a second-class citizen, just because I have a long-term condition/disability? Abilism is not a good look these days.

Garofbalaxy · 17/07/2021 16:33

I spelled ableism wrong and it's stressing me out looking at it 🙈

Gothichouse40 · 17/07/2021 16:36

So would you like people with asthma, COPD etc banned from restaurants? People with hayfever? Im asthmatic and occasionally have a cough. If the spacing in the restaurant is good, whats the problem?

DeflatedGinDrinker · 17/07/2021 16:47

My 33 year old friend has lung disease she has coughed continuously everyday for around 6 years. Op you are a dick.

Impier · 17/07/2021 17:06

@DeflatedGinDrinker

My 33 year old friend has lung disease she has coughed continuously everyday for around 6 years. Op you are a dick.
I don't know if your friend is vulnerable to covid, but if she is, how would she feel if she were sat in a restaurant and someone on the table next to her was coughing away? Would she appreciate it if the cougher thought about her and moved away or at least reassured her that it was chronic rather than a new cough. Would she accept the risk she is exposed to, or would she leave the restaurant?

It is just about people thinking of others rather than exclusively themselves.

Ifitquacks · 17/07/2021 17:31

How on earth can you move away from everyone else at a restaurant? How many restaurants have one lone table a distance away from all others for the filthy coughers?

Impier · 17/07/2021 17:34

@Ifitquacks

How on earth can you move away from everyone else at a restaurant? How many restaurants have one lone table a distance away from all others for the filthy coughers?
Things aren't back to normal. In my town, most restaurants are still almost empty most of the time.
Ifitquacks · 17/07/2021 17:35

Ah, not in mine. All fully booked most nights.

RufustheBadgeringReindeer · 17/07/2021 17:37

@Ifitquacks

Ah, not in mine. All fully booked most nights.
Same

Socially distanced of course

Sadiecow · 17/07/2021 17:52

@Ifitquacks

Ah, not in mine. All fully booked most nights.
Great, long may on continue! Restaurants have had a dreadful time!
Ifitquacks · 17/07/2021 17:59

Oh I agree @Sadiecow, it’s great to see.

mussymummy · 17/07/2021 17:59

You sound awful OP and highly judgemental

Someonetookmyname · 17/07/2021 19:17

@Impier so are you now saying people with coughs should be allowed in restaurants (how kind of you), but should have to sit away from everyone else and also declare to everyone that they don’t have covid?

What does that even look like? Should they go up to every table near them, interrupt the conversation and declare to the table of strangers that, no they don’t have covid, and then declare their personal medical issues causing the cough? Should they do this to multiple tables or just stand up in the restaurant and make a loud public announcement about their health issue? Would you like to go up to a load of strangers and declare your medical issues to them?

And you think others lack empathy? Seriously?

PinkSparklyPussyCat · 17/07/2021 20:30

Perhaps those of us with a cough should be forced to wear a sign giving the reason we cough so the likes of OP and @Impier can decide whether or not we should be allowed in.

lazystar · 17/07/2021 21:43

Absolutely unbelievable- I am so angry I cannot get my words out.

So people with cancer, disease and other conditions are selfish and not thinking of others.

The only selfish person on here is you.

You should be reported for hate speech

lazystar · 17/07/2021 22:02

This is hate speech.

In another post you have virtually said people shouldn't cough as they should think of others first.

People have explained to you the many reasons that people cough.
Including lung cancer, and yet you have persisted with this idea that they are the ones that are selfish.

You absolutely need to give your head a good wobble and realise that this is basically inviting discrimination against sick or disabled people.

You should be ashamed of yourself.

grapewine · 17/07/2021 22:07

@lazystar

This is hate speech.

In another post you have virtually said people shouldn't cough as they should think of others first.

People have explained to you the many reasons that people cough.
Including lung cancer, and yet you have persisted with this idea that they are the ones that are selfish.

You absolutely need to give your head a good wobble and realise that this is basically inviting discrimination against sick or disabled people.

You should be ashamed of yourself.

Seconded.
Sadiecow · 18/07/2021 06:13

@Impier thinks people should be treated like lepers, maybe everyone should shout unclean, unclean?

It's funny, I thought people had progressed sine the 1800s, clearly not for some!

pam290358 · 18/07/2021 14:05

@Impier. I have a very visible disability and I find your posts really disturbing. You’re suggesting that those people with a disability which induces a cough, or other symptoms associated with Covid, should consider the feelings of others. Why should they pander to other people’s anxieties - people seeking to restrict their activities to make themselves feel better ? That kind of attitude has wider implications in the disabled community. I know we’ve come a long way since disabled people were institutionalised as the norm, but this kind of ableist attitude still persists - and I, and others like me, have been putting up with it all our lives in one form or another. I’m in a wheelchair, my condition doesn’t include any gross or disturbing effects - it just means I have difficulty moving about - and yet I have been asked to move to another place on a bus because my disability is causing distress to a child, I have been tripped over and tutted at in supermarkets because other shoppers haven’t bothered to look if anyone is behind them when they’ve stepped back. I’ve been walked into by people too busy looking at their bloody mobile phones to watch where they’re going and I’ve been refused entry to all kinds of venues because I’m a ‘fire hazard’. I could go on and on. The last straw was boing o a supermarket a couple of weeks ago and having a stroppy assistant demand to know my health condition because I wasn’t wearing a mask. And in all of these instances I am the one who is expected to apologise. Don’t get me wrong, there are some lovely people, and mostly these days my experiences are positive, but I still come across my share of rude, entitled and inconsiderate individuals - and it’s worse since the pandemic started. Now we have to put up with people like you demanding to know what health condition we’ve got - like we’re not trusted not to put other people at risk - so you can feel better. Go and boil your head - you need an attitude change.

supersonicsue · 18/07/2021 14:33

I have a very visible disability and I find your posts really disturbing

pam290358 As the husband of 2 disabled adult children and the wife of a CEV man whose medical condition means he coughs (pretty continually) I'd like to thank you for putting into words what I have failed to do. I have another child who has an invisible disability and it's quite remarkable the difference in how they are treated. But I do think it is pretty clear that at least some believe my husband (with accompanying cough) should stay at home indefinitely, least he upset others. And that hurts, really hurts.

Nohomemadecandles · 18/07/2021 15:14

@Andrewsgirl

Bit of a difficult thing to establish though, whether it’s new or old cough !
That's not for you to establish.

This is truly horrible. I'm neverendingly disappointed in humans.

LST · 18/07/2021 15:18

@Impier I am lost for words. I just don't think you should leave your house again. Ever

Theblacksheepandme · 18/07/2021 15:36

pam290358
I am so sorry to hear what you have to go through.

I remember when Cerrie Burnell was on Cbeebies and my daughter loved watching her when she was little. She was born where her right arm ends below the elbow. People wrote in stating it was upsetting their children. I asked my daughter who was a toddler at the time if she noticed anything different about Cerrie and she replied no. When I pointed it out to her it didn't bother her at all. I knew I was doing an ok job bringing up my little girl to have no prejudices. It is clearly parents that had the problem and not the children. Children really don't care as long as the person is nice.