Are you planning to keep kids away from their friends entirely once schools shut?

[DorotheaHomeAlone]

We have a two kids under 6 and a newborn and like most parents we’re just waiting now for the inevitable school closure announcement. We’ve started social distancing from today but I’m wondering how sustainable it is to keep the kids here at home, away from friends, for months on end.

I’m thinking about asking a local family we see a lot if they want to continue meeting up. They have two kids the same age as ours and we could then all agree not to meet up with any other children. They could have ours sometimes or we could swap. Does this sound like a reasonable plan? Overkill? Reckless? I want to create a sustainable set-up given the schools may well be shut for months.

Yes and relatives, even though we'll have our Eid festival in a couple of months. I think if people don't take this seriously then the social distancing measures will become more strict and enforced.
A vulnerable person's life isn't worth less than your kids having to cope with playing in the back garden/ IPad/ Gaming/Telly/ craft etc. They can FaceTime/call/text/WhatsApp video their friends instead. This is what my 3 DC will be doing.

This is yet another example of why we will need a lockdown enforceable by police drones.

Of course. People need to take this seriously. What will it take?

DS1(12) has been meeting up with one or two friends on their bikes and boards. DS2(2) is having to make do with Thomas the Tank Engine on YouTube, occasional chat with passersby when he's in the garden or when I'm at the shops.

Fortunately we're not in isolation, so practicing social distancing at the moment.

Ugh the attitude on this thread is worrying. ‘Still seeing friends’ is NOT limiting social contact, is it? But to hell with a few ‘collateral’ deaths as long as little Tarquin gets to play with little Jocasta, eh?
And I say this as a single parent at home with a primary aged child. We may not see anyone for 12 weeks but I’m prepared to bite the bullet to protect the vulnerable.

This is my dilemma-dc always plays out with the neighbouring kids. I’m sure they’ll come knocking if we get to lockdown and I don’t think it’s be right to have them all okay out together. The advice is avoid any unnecessary get togethers at the moment isn’t it?

I will be saying no no personally to my ex playing out with friends

dc not ex

Mine are home and will be going nowhere and seeing nobody.

I think this is the government’s fault really for not doing more. Some people just won’t follow ‘advice’. They are trusting that enough of us will do so to stop the spread but judging by what I am seeing in real life and reading on here it won’t be enough.

Maybe when they see social distancing isn’t happening they’ll take more stringent measures.

🤦‍♀️ there's no hope with attitudes like this around.

Thanks to those of you who responded politely. I get that people are stressed and anxious but there’s really no need to be rude. I’m clearly here asking for opinions on seeing one other family not insisting that we will do whatever we please or carry on as normal. This is supposed to be a helpful for parents. There’s no need to be aggressive.

At least your kids can play with each other. My 4 year old has no-one to play with as we haven't been able to afford to have a second yet. I'm just going to have to play more legos with him :-) Having a newborn in this situation must be really difficult, I sympathize. We're not going to be seeing anyone though. It's a bit easier for us anyway as we're in Scotland and my family is all in the north of England, so used to not seeing them as much since we moved up here. He doesn't do social media obv but gets a lot out of skyping/facetiming family members - I let him use my phone and he just takes it off and shows them his toys and even plays games with them over the phone. I'm going to try to doit a bit more just so he sees some faces that aren't ours occasionally!

Fortunately we're not in isolation, so practicing social distancing at the moment

But you aren't though are you? Social distancing means stopping all unnecessary contact. You clearly aren't doing that.

EVERYBODY needs to comply.
NOBODY is a special case.

We’re in Ireland and yes!! We have all been advised to keep to whoever lives in your house.

The WHO recommendations on social distancing include not visiting family / friends for social reasons.

So, no. We wouldn’t do this. Not even if we didn’t have a vulnerable person in the household. Still no.

"We are socially distancing from today"

"We want to meet up with one family regularly because it will be hard otherwise".

No. Social distancing means NO unnecessary contact with anyone. Do you understand why we are being asked to make these actions?

Yes, of course it's going to be hard to only see your immediate household for an unspecified length of time, but it is to save lives. We are all in the same position. Please do what you have been asked to do.

Your 4 and 6 year old can learn to socialise via FaceTime. I wouldn't write it off now. They'll chat once they get used to it.

My husband has always travelled and my kids weren't very engaged at phone calls home but as soon as video calls arrived they joined in straight away.

Please don't meet up with friends if we go onto lockdown.

I live in HK where schools have been shut down for 7 weeks. Yes, kids still see a small number of friends. This is in keeping with the guidelines on social distancing.

It is very hard for children to have no peer to peer socialisation. I weigh the risks against the benefits.

Those who think they can go 4, 12, 18 months without letting their children see any other kid - good luck.

So it's ok for Boris Johnson to say that children need to stay in school, mixing with several hundred other kids, using public transport, etc, but those whose children are at home aren't allowed to meet up with 1 other family which doesn't have the virus, under controlled conditions?

And no, a four year old should not learn to socialise on FT, or certainly not exclusively.

DD's school is closed now, we are not leaving the house except to go for walks, keeping away from people. No friends over. Shall keep busy doing school work (her teacher will be setting work to be done each week, photographed and turned in electronically) and watching films. Have a toddler to contain too which is more difficult because shops are his happy place but we'll figure it out.

Mine are 6, 4 and 1. They’re already off school for 14 days due to symptoms within the household.
It’s shit, it really is. But when we have finished our 14 days lockdown, no we won’t be seeing friends. Prevention of deaths is more important than my children missing their friends.

I live in HK where schools have been shut down for 7 weeks. Yes, kids still see a small number of friends. This is in keeping with the guidelines on social distancing.

Thank you - it's always interesting to hear the perspective of those who've been doing this for longer. We've only been in this for 3 days so far, so it's all new.

Spending time in the outdoors, metres away from others is social distancing.