If you have broken Lockdown rules then what is your reason?

[beesthatbuzz]

I doubt I'll get a lot of responses as no one will admit but I'm getting a bit fed up of people around me clearly disregarding the rules. Having friends and family around mainly, not just dropping off shopping but going into the house, several barbeques, two families (sisters and OHs) with all their kids in their front garden in a paddling pool this afternoon). And it's not just one person, it's loads of people. Call me a curtain twitcher all you want but I'm genuinely interested in people's reasons and I'm too chicken to ask them in real life.

I am desperate to see my Mum who lives 150 miles away, My lovely Dad died 3 weeks before lockdown so she's grieving and depressed but we are sticking to the rules, even though it pains me to see her in tears on our daily messenger chats.

Many other people seem to be doing whatever the hell they want and I'm wondering if we are actually the stupid ones for sticking to it.

We went for a socially distanced walk with MIL the other day, live by country side and been seeing them from a distance at least once a week so DD recognises her after.

DP dropped me 4 miles out the village so i could walk back. I have struggled so much today she was probably hoping I'd keep walking in the opposite direction.

Ive also took my mum shopping, she sat in the back of the car, not quite 2m away but she hadn't been out the house in weeks and i didn't see a risk.

I

I need to disappoint you. I live in the NL where the lockdown was nowhere near as severe.
Up to 3 people can visit your house if you can keep the distance, kids under 10 have been allowed to mingle and play together. We have been able to excercise as much as we wanted to and if we needed to go and run an errand or buy something we could. Nobody was checking fucking trolleys. In addition, the NL is a very densely populated country. And our death rates, however you want to calculate them, are not catastrophical. Sweden is similar. The lockdown might not be the best course of action and we'll need to wait a bit more to see which country got it right. So the whole competitive staying is just absurd from my point of view. Also, people should be allowed to make the choice for themselves - if they want to take the risk than it's fine, if you want to minimize risks - then stay in for however long. You're not gonna catch the virus because Brenda down the road had a BBQ with her sister two weeks ago. You're gonna catch the virus because YOU went out.

I'm rebellious by nature and also quite fatalistic. Which is a pretty good combo for a lockdown breaker!

Very few of these are actual breaking of the rules. We go out more than once with the DC but we go on bikes to places where no one else is around - even an empty car park etc. We keep well away from others.
Breaking the rules is the families treating it as a social holiday every day.

Took my kitten to the vet to be spayed at 10.30am, went home and at 2.30pm I went out again to collect her

@abraid2 thank you x DM gets confused by technology so I think that makes her more lonely as doesn't do video calls etc. I will teach her when we can be together again. DF is fine with video calling so I'm less worried about him in the home!

It is so.sad reading these. Every person in this thread has left the house for a justifiable reason, no one has broken the Rules.
Me next. I took the dog for a short second walk three days in a row, as my teenagers arent using up their exercise slots at all. I dont even know why I should even feel I needed to justify going out twice. It is utterly ridiculous. My teenagers have been brainwashed by the stay at home message into thinking it is good to sit all day indoors and go out as little as possible, which is bad for their mental and physical health. I follow the rules slavishly,.have met no one for socially distanced walks or garden chats, walked to exercise never driven even, but it is beginning to make less sense to me. It is damaging our health to live like this second guessing every perfectly sensible attempt at cope with an extremely stressful restriction of our natural instincts and care for others (children.and parents)

Police guidance now says you can go and stay somewhere for a few days for your mental health if you have had an argument with your partner and you are also allowed to drive somewhere for exercise if the amount of time you spend exercising is more than you spent driving. I think if staying in isolation if worse for your mental health than not and you and whoever you choose to go and see has been isolating, both showing no symptoms and no one is vulnerable then you should see them. Humans weren’t made to be locked up and ALOT of people are struggling tremendously.

My sister has come for a chat on the garden path a few times, because neither of us have seen our family in the nearest city since March and we live 5 minutes from each other. We coincide it with dropping things off to each other, e.g. gin.

My essential trip to the supermarket was for beer and doritos

I have been teaching my 17 dc to drive. We stop off and pick up essential food or something from the chemist or stop for a walk somewhere en route most days and go the long , indirect route so dc can get some practice. The roads are perfect for a learner .

We have had two afternoons in IL's garden. They're detached, so we enter through a side gate with zero contact with the house or anything inside it.

DS2 sits on a blanket that we bring with us and we bring snacks for DS1 while he plays football at the other end of the garden. I've bought a bottle of wine and glasses for myself and a soft drink for DH.

This started after visiting the park a few times and one particular child pulling DS1's hair when DS1 asked him not to touch him because of Coronavirus and that they should be 2 metres away from each other.

To be honest, I feel safer in their garden than I do any other outside public space. Both our households have been nowhere since before lockdown began apart from an hour or two walking each day.

I left the house on 3 separate occasions each day for a week (3 dogs who for various reasons needed walked separately for a week)

I also took my daughter for a picnic for her 1st birthday.

it was in the middle of nowhere (didnt see a soul) and incorporated into our daily walk.

I guess I’ve broken them because they are quite arbitrary and don’t make rational sense. Also because a family member is disabled so has the rules lessened for him which makes us as a family need to not be as strict about who we see.
I’ve not put other people at any increased risk by my actions so I’m not apologetic really. If other people have stuck to the letter of the law that’s up to them

Yes. I go out twice a day. Once to exercise and once to make my sure my teens get some exercise and have done since day one. I need to run and they won't run with me so I go and do that then come back and get them. I drive to the place where I run too. A round trip of 6 km.

I have been to stay with my mum. My dad died in March. They have been married almost 60 years. She is now living alone.

Once again @YgritteSnow if you are not in Wales you're allowed out for exercise no time limit or number of times specified.

My family have broken the rules pretty much since lockdown began and what's worse they don't seem to think they are going against the rules, or they don't care.
Daily visits to shops (more than one shop), that are not all necessary, going together to shops when one could go, supposed social distancing picnics in parks and garden visits where they sit for hours and go into each others houses to use the bathroom, out for drives just because, coming up with excuses to make lots of unnecessary journeys, driving to go for exercise just to go somewhere more interesting. And then complaining about how hard lockdown is. They're furloughed and have time on their hands. Inlaws are similar. We're a few hours away, surprised no one has turned up on our doorstep.
I can't answer the why they do it though but even if they are somehow invincible they could pass on the virus.

My parents came to my house in the middle of the night as I was having contractions at 26 weeks and after two premature babies I thought I was going in to labour. My partner had to drive me to the hospital and I wanted him with me because I was scared and in pain. Theoretically we could have got the DC up and in to the car so he could drive me there and I could have gone in to hospital on my own. But we know that all of us and my parents have had no contact with anyone else so we deemed the risk to be worth it in an emergency.

I meant to add to OP and others sorry for your loss 💐

I do think there are circumstances which mean it's justified, and some of you have described those, but not 'just because'.

Gatherings of two are allowed

So many people here haven’t broken lockdown but think they have.

I haven't broken the rules yet, but I've been so tempted. Since lockdown began I've thought about suicide more times than I care to think about, I am genuinely terrified that I cant keep myself safe - and that my partner won't be able too either - and I am going to leave my 2 children without a mother. The thoughts get worse every day (I do have support from a crisis team, but they cant change the situation obviously) and I feel like I'm going to end up breaking the rules or hurting myself. If i'm honest the only reason I haven't gone to see my family because I'm still having to go to work and so I dont want to put them at risk.

I have actually. I let my ds1 scoot/cycle/jog round the block as many times as he wants a day. For context he goes 2-3 times for 10 minutes.

Quite honestly I don't fucking care, his life is unbearable right now. He told me today he'd rather die than carry on like this. If scooting round the block is a crime they can arrest me.

The government have thrown me and my children well and truly under a bus. Expecting me to wfh on my own with 2dc one who is still very young.

I've stuck to all the rules to the letter, but if I don't start getting some quality of life back very soon I'll sure as hell be breaking more rules.