The “I just had a sit down in the park with crisps” brigade

[Candodad]

You are the problem. The rules are simple. Go out and exercise and then go home. Just that, nothing more than that.

To be fair then problem is actually bigger than that and has been brewing for years as we increasingly become a country with rules but almost everyone has an excuse for why that rule shouldn’t apply to them/their child/family.

That's actually OK because water is virtuous. A lot of what is happening up thread is actually about food policing and shaming, not CV.

^ Yup, 100% this.

Also, the bench obsession... Did anyone actually read the official guidelines somebody linked to upthread which actually said 'you can stop for a rest during your exercise, on a bench for example, as long as you're spending considerably more time exercising than sitting'?

People need to stop making up rules that don't exist. If you think it's dangerous to sit on a bench, may I suggest that you choose not to sit in a bench?

Q

This thread should be saved for historical record.

Now I'm imagining a really crap sequel to Galaxy Quest

One day I am going to leave my local plebian housing estate and stroll through the nearest village that may or may not be owned in its entirety by one person, for ahead there is a wheat field and I shall sprint as joyfully through it as my fat, pudgey legs will although, then with glee in my heart I will arrive at The Bench that was my destination the whole time. I will stroke and caress it all over lovingly, so it knows I have missed it. Then, finally, there is nothing else to do but scoff the whole bloody tube of Pringles that I have bought with me as I smile smugly, yet serenely, at anyone who may pass by over two metres away from me.

If you're vulnerable enough to be shielding from the virus then shield. You have to continue to stay indoors and will for ages.

We (as in the rest of us) are supposed to be working towards herd immunity. There's flexibility and a degree of allowance of normal life in the guide lines/laws (what ever you want to call them) for this reason.

'They' don't want for no one to be catching it. They want to keep infection rate low. It's low now. The vulnerable still have to stay inside while it's going on. The majority are out there doing the catching it but keeping the curve long. But the vulnerable have to stay in.

Waiting for a vaccine isn't doable for the majority of the population or there will be no world for the vulnerable to come back out into. For this scenario to work a lot/most/the majority of us have to go out and risk catching it. While the vulnerable stay inside.

When we start to come out of lockdown in a few weeks those who are shielding will have to continue to shield. That wont be some fault of the people who are choosing to go out now or the people who choose to go out and enjoy full 'lockdown light' when it comes. These are the people building up the immunity. The chance for ALL of us to return to a normal life.

Any people who are sitting on a bench eating food now aren't some tip of an awful iceberg. They are simply folk doing what we're arguably allowed to do right now and what we will definitely be allowed to do in a few weeks ... While the vulnerable still have to shield.

well if you’re shielding it won’t bother you then will it? As you’re staying inside.

It does bother me because I've got family still having to go out to work, because they are frontline staff. So, they are potentially coming into contact with people taking risks and potentially getting ill themselves. If my husband gets it then he risks bringing it home to me.

So, yes. It does affect me.

But we have to get ill.There isn't a vaccine.

We cannot hide in our houses for the rest of eternity.

Then, finally, there is nothing else to do but scoff the whole bloody tube of Pringles that I have bought with me as I smile smugly, yet serenely, at anyone who may pass by over two metres away from me

Point of order - it was probably about page 12 that we decided that Pringles were not crisps and should not be thought of or described as crisps.

I've got family going to work. One is front line one isn't. When we come out of lock down i'll probably catch it. My DD will probably catch it. We may or may not have to be looked after by a member of the frontline.

Laiste

If you catch it, having taken every precaution, then that is one thing.

Going out of your way to catch it is quite another. If you want to do that then of course it is up to you but, in my opinion, it is incumbent on you to make sure that you don't infect anyone else.

I think you are missing the point - as long as people are staying 2 metres apart from people that they are not living with it doesn't matter if they are sitting down or eating a bag of crisps!! No ones needs your petty interpretation of the rules.

Im following guidelines

Havent touched or sat on a bench in weeks (i know thats not in the guidelines) or eaten crisps outside

So if i want to have a laugh on a forum about crisps being a picnic or box jumping on a bench is fine but not sitting...

I blooming well will

Going out of your way to catch it would be licking things in supermarkets.

Lockdown will end before the virus is gone. How will you cope in your own mind with folk doing normal everyday things while you still shield? Because i think you're setting yourself up for a terrible time mentally.

Someone sitting on a bench isn’t ‘going out of their way to catch it’, FFS. They’re just sitting on a bench. Like the guidelines say you’re permitted to do.

Some of you though are acting like defiant children, hell bent on proving just how tough you are. Remain in denial but as it stands, touching an object and then touching your face (eg sitting on a public bench and then eating) is a route of infection. Of course, you are free to take your chances but you are putting others at risk by doing so. I'm failing to see what's so funny about that?

Again, if you sit on a bench and spread covid all over it, then a person comes along and also spreads their hands all over it, then touches their face and doesn't wash their hands and catches it, the problem is with people putting their hands all over benches and not following hygiene

The problem isn't sitting on a bench. Plus the person who caught would also have had to sit on the bench. Why is person number 2, ok to sit on the bench but not person 1?

Anyone rubbing their hands all over benchs and not following hygiene guidance, need to get a grip. Not the people actually just sitting on a bench.

And yes it is hilarious that someone thinks sitting on a bench isn't OK, because someone else may want to use that bench for tricep dips or for jumping on. That definitely hilarious.

As is the fact that some posters think being virteous, means you can do what you want. Especially, when it's not virteous at all.

Sorry, but that is funny.

Lockdown will end before the virus is gone. How will you cope in your own mind with folk doing normal everyday things while you still shield? Because i think you're setting yourself up for a terrible time mentally

100% this. However much anyone dislikes it, lockdown will be lifted while the virus is still in circulation. People will be sitting on benches, having picnics and going to parks while the risk of contracting the virus is still there. I think there are a lot of people in this country who haven’t accepted that this will happen, and will have an extremely tough time accepting it when it does.

I think you are missing the point - as long as people are staying 2 metres apart from people that they are not living with it doesn't matter if they are sitting down or eating a bag of crisps!!

Hear is the patron saint of missing the point. No logical argument will get through to her.

beachysandy81

You see, before you start accusing others of making up rules maybe you should check your own understanding first.

It isn't just being in close contact with another person that is a risk factor. Touching an object and then touching your face is also a risk. So, touching a bench and then eating food is very much a risk. It doesn't matter if there's no one else anywhere near you. If someone with the virus has contaminated the bench and then you touch it and touch your face there is a risk that you will catch it.

I'm not telling you what to do. Sit on the bench, risk catching it. That's up to you, but don't tell people that there is no risk in doing that.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/health/gloucestershire-health-chief-how-use-4026504.amp

HearHooves, here's a health expert talking about how important benches are for resting. Especially for the elderly and frail.

OMG!

And arguably, 4 weeks into lockdown, when people are working from home, not using public transport, staying 2m from anyone not in their household, washing hands more than usual and when anyone with symptoms of a cough/fever is in self isolation, this is actually one of the safest times to sit on a bench and eat crisps.

I find it kind of sad that some people are working themselves up into a frenzy over this. It’s not as though coming on Mumsnet is going to stop people eating / drinking on a bench.

I think some people are going to be VERY disappointed when this ends and they can’t try to tell people what to do.

So, touching a bench and then eating food is very much a risk

Again, I am very capable of sitting on a bench without touching it with my hands! In fact surely that’s a more normal way of doing it? I don’t recall ever touching a bench with my hands, just my arse!

So, touching a bench and then eating food is very much a risk.

So don’t touch the bench then. Simples. Able bodied people are perfectly capable of sitting down without touching anything.

Again, if you sit on a bench and spread covid all over it, then a person comes along and also spreads their hands all over it, then touches their face and doesn't wash their hands and catches it, the problem is with people putting their hands all over benches and not following hygiene

But those are the very people on this thread.

the problem is with people putting their hands all over benches and not following hygiene

These are the people who are on here, insisting that it's their right to sit on the bench and eat. So, the very people who you say yourself are the problem.

The rules are clear, if you're on a long walk it is ok to sit and rest and have something to eat. If people abuse that then they are wrong but stopping to have a pack of crisps on a bench as part of a long walk is not a problem, it is allowed. Stop judging people.