Struggling without a garden.

[Isitrainingihadntnoticed]

Those with gardens, I envy you so much at the moment. I'm also still having to go to work in a hospital. In the days off and it's been sunny, I've been so desperate to get out! It's so fucking hard to cope with this when you have an apartment and no way to enjoy eating outdoors etc.

OP I’m not a key worker but I’m in a small flat and it’s not good. I would have found lockdown in winter in easier.

We do have a garden, but years ago we lived on the Isle of Dogs in London in a third floor flat with no garden. Its only outdoor area was a single parking space. We moved out of there when DD1 (now almost 25) was just a year old. We absolutely remember what it was like and were only saying a few days ago how lockdown would have been hell on earth in the flat.

You do regularly see posts on here where people say "How difficult is it to just stay at home?" to berate others. I would absolutely be willing to bet that this is uttered by posters who have never experienced living in an inner city flat and who are sitting pretty in their gardens, therefore taking what they have for granted and completely failing to understand that others do not have the same. They really can get quite nasty about it.

I do have great sympathy for those with no gardens. I am thankful for what we have. Lockdown throws such issues into stark relief, I think.

I used to live in a flat for 15 years with no garden. When we bought a house, I really thought I didn't mind if we had a garden or not and the house we bought had a tiny garden which was in a really bad state .

In the end we paid to have the garden done for a variety of reasons and I am so pleased we did now. It is small but has a lot of.plants andd flowers in it and a nice place to sit and and I love sitting in it at the moment. It gives me a lot of joy so I do empathise. I think without it is be a lot more depressed now and I am a bit depressed anyway

ok I do have a garden, but say for bit that I didn,t. I do have a green opoosite me and walking distance to parks, and kids are able to cycle and a small drive to a wood. You can get out with out a garden.

We have a garden but ds won't go in it due the noises from everyone else's machinery noises and loud music.

june there’s only the park here within walking distance. No car. In London, people are being urged to move along faster or told they’re not exercising if they’re walking. Park benches are taped off so if anyone needs to stop, they can’t. Police are patrolling and saying through loudspeakers not to sit on the grass.

Is there a way that people with large front gardens could let people from local flats ( one family or couple ) use that open space? I have such a space and was wondering about how to do that?

June not everyone wants to be marching around a park when they're outside. Can you imagine with small children telling them they can only keep walking instead of rolling around the grass on a lovely sunny day?

Jay that’s really decent of you. Maybe wrote to local MP and council?

Imagine what demand for dogs will be like after this.

It's hard isn't it. I've been struggling with a good friend of mine who is so completely tone deaf in her whinging. She has a huge garden for her kids but does nothing but complain about not being able to exercise her DC, while the garden lies neglected. She has no idea what she has.

We take the DC out for a walk or scoot every day. We're lucky that we have nice scenery and it's a more suburban area rather than fully built up, but the kids are struggling with it. DD5 has got to the point where she thinks she's doing something wrong because of the times she has to be told to get into the side to make sure we're leaving enough space for other people using the footpaths. They want to speed off ahead, run around, play, but they can't.

Jayfee, I do have a large front garden and I do have someone who could make good use of it, but I thought it was against the rules (and I can’t be in trouble with the police due to my job!). But perhaps I’ll just get on with it.

It really is a living hell. I pray for bad weather now and when I wake up in the morning to sunlight it makes me feel so depressed.
Going for a walk is in no way comparable to being able to relax in your own outside space.

I’m certainly feeling it today. We’ve been out for our walk and we’ve been out into the tiny yard. 18 month old DS gets bored really quickly as there’s nothing to do and no space to run around.
I sat outside the front of my house on a camping chair to get some sunlight earlier. Desperate times call for desperate measures!

I do think picnicking, reading, sitting in a park should be allowed for a limited time as long as social distancing is observed, for this reason. Daylight and fresh air makes a huge difference to people’s well-being.

We have a field opposite us which is basically empty all the time. DS likes to run around collecting sticks and stones, there’s a stream there too, he likes to throw sticks into it.
Do you think we’d be able to use that and put a blanket down etc just for 20 mins or so? If anyone came to use it (which they don’t, sometimes there’s the odd dog walker) we would leave..

I totally don’t know how I could have managed this lockdown with 4 year old and 12 week old without a garden. I just can’t imagine. My every sympathetic thought.

I know it’s not the same at all, but I’ve found watching ‘walking’ YouTube videos has helped me feel like I’ve at least seen somewhere else. Watched Walker is particularly good as it’s very high definition. I have it on in the background.

I am lucky to have a garden but I do feel for people without one, not seeing family etc is hard enough for us all but being able to go outside to eat, have the dc play is helping a lot at the moment.

My best friend has 2 dc under 5 and she lives in an admittedly very nice flat in London but not being able to take them to the park/walk to the shop daily for a few food bits like she normally would is hard for her. Also the dc keep asking to go out, especially when it’s sunny “why can’t we go to the park mummy” it really is difficult as with little ones you can’t really make them understand as you can say a 15 year old.

MozFan I can't see a problem with that as it will be exercise time for your DS.

I have a large garden, but barely use it tbh.

Pretty shit thing to post on a thread like this.

Is 150ft by 30ft too big?.

No garden here either. Grew up in moorland surrounded by fields and now live in a tiny Terrace without a garden in a city... cant even open the windows as the house opposite at the back (approx 15m door to door either side of a alley way) has decides whenever it's nice to sit/stand outside their back door and chain smoke cannabis, so cant have any upstairs or downstairs window open as it stinks the house through.
Wouldnt mind but the house has a average humidity of 15% (very very dry) so being at home for extended periods of time has always given me extreme headaches and made me feel ill, and even using a humidifier is barely getting it to 40%. (Should sit at around 50/55%). Never realised before how often I would go out just for a mooch about if I was at home all day >.<

Add on Adhd and autism it's become torture, never missed the gym so much as have so much energy and no where for it to go. Walking in my area isnt really any good as it's really busy, and would normally go cycling so I can get past people and distance quicker, (as usually see lots of people ending up bunched up in huge groups which makes me panic) but tyres flat and waiting on a new pump to be delivered >.<

Never missed having a garden so much in my life. Swore to DH I am never renting a house without a garden or at least a yard large enough to sit in again!

I feel for those without gardens. I don’t think I’ve ever appreciated my garden quite so much. It isn’t huge (new build), I’ve always wished it was bigger, but it’s big enough to sit out in and to put a decent sized paddling pool up in warm weather.

My neighbour has two small children’s and no garden (coach house). I feel bad for her. Under normal circumstances I’d invite her little ones in to use our pool, but obviously I just can’t risk it at the moment as I work in a hospital and don’t know what I could have picked up.

Hey @Womenwotlunch - was this below a v useful or nice thing to post on this particle thread you think?

I have a large garden, but barely use it tbh.

We only have a small garden but I'm very grateful for it at the moment