Places actively discouraging children

[Allhallowseve]

Just wondering what other people opinions of this are?
I follow a few local garden centres as we visit quite regularly under normal circumstances. Since they have reopened they are advertising as being open but asking people not to bring children.
I am just finding the way children have been treated throughout this pandemic absolutely awful .... I don't know if it's just me?
Yes I know things could be far worse for them and people are shielding not able to really get out. But garden centres actively discouraging children from visiting?!
Adults are able to meet up in outdoor areas yet it's incredibly hard for children to do the same. Adults can pop out to shops now , grab a coffee maybe do a couple of things they enjoy . However the play parks are padlocked and taped up . Most school year groups are not going back until September , all playgroups , clubs and classes are cancelled. Yet they are the least vulnerable group in society and seem to have been forgotten.

@GarlicMcAtackney

‘Our children are bearing the brunt of this’ wise up, 43,000 dead would disagree with you, ffs. Sitting eating crayons and staring at an iPad for a few months at home is not a hardship.

This. ^

Seriously. I locked down two weeks before official lock down. I’m in NI, so we locked down even earlier. I had to do it to protect my youngest. She saw her brothers for the first time, last week, as they didn’t want to risk killing their sister, by carrying it home to us. If having to stay in your house, eat, wash, go out for walks and keep away from other people, in order to protect them, is the worst thing to happen to your children, think yourself lucky. It’s been shit for everyone, but they’re not being singled out as some sort of evil plan.

It’s also less about them spreading the virus, but about the fact that it’s a body taking up space in a shop, that makes it more difficult to maintain social distancing. This is temporary and that’s what you need to be telling them.

It's not children, it's mothers - women with kids. There was an account on here of someone who saw a Dad with kids being let into B&Q with them - even though B&Q are (theoretically) strictly no kids.

Again, it's not kids being discriminated against. Its women with kids.

I completely agree. And I have never been in a supermarket where children are running up and down the aisles and pushing past people, during lockdown and before.

Our local Sainsbury's refused my children entry at the beginning- Lidl and Aldi let us in and we have shopped there instead.

Interesting how other countries view children- my daughter and son have said they feel like they have the plague because the way people move aside.

Really really sad

I was nodding all the way through your OP.

It's a bloody scandal.

Agree wholeheartedly with you OP. This situation has shown very clearly how our society regards children, and it isn’t pretty. It seems that to many on here children are some kind of lesser sub species who shouldn’t be visible in our public spaces - less ‘children should be seen and not heard’ than ‘children shouldn’t be seen at all’.

The debate is far wider than whether children should be in garden centres and shops at the moment - pushing a grumpy two-year-old round a shopping centre isn’t exactly my idea of a good day out either; it’s about the completely dismissal of children’s young people’s needs and wellbeing during this time. Sadly there will be long term consequences to this that go well beyond the costs of Covid.

@tempsperdu - completely agree.

there's another thread with a poster who has the neighbours kids dropping litter and abandoning their toys at her front door, many on here think this is just something to put up with. Look at the mess outside schools or on the routes home to see how many kids are being taught to be utter skanks.

smaller kids can't be expected to social distance or not touch stuff. Add that to the parent with its eyes glued to the brickphone and you have an infection hazard on short legs.

the virus is unfair. Sorry.

Children really don’t need to be at garden centres, they are a business that isn’t aimed at children so I can’t really understand why anyone would have a problem with children being discouraged at a time like this.

They take up space, meaning less paying customers as not everyone will wait in a queue, and there’s just no need for it.

I agree that children have a hard deal at the moment, but it’s really not up to businesses that have also been hard hit to try and make it up to them.

Same reason as supermarkets only allow one person per trolley. One person can shop by themselves. A second person/child doubles the number of people for the same spend. It’s about minimising the number of people. - This with bells on! They only want paying customers at the moment as we are trying to restart the economy but with only limited numbers of shopping spaces allowed. So just as I think it would be unreasonable to go to the shops to just browse without intending to make a purchase, and shops would resent me taking up one of their spaces, they don't want children who are not going to make a purchase in the same way.

Children really don’t need to be at garden centres, they are a business that isn’t aimed at children so I can’t really understand why anyone would have a problem with children being discouraged at a time like this.

Do mothers not matter?
There are mothers who have no childcare, are losing their fucking minds, and could do with a trip out. Maternal mental health is extremely important to protect and right now it's being irreparably broken.

I took my 8yr old shopping with me today, we went to our usual farm shop and I didn't realise until we reached the front doors there was a sign saying no children unless essential. After driving 15 miles there I decided to ignore it, she washed her hands at the door without complaint and managed social distancing far better than some of the adults in there. I wouldn't take my 6yr old though, we'd be run out of town by angry mobs with pitchforks!

Agree - ideally keep kids away from the shops.

HOWEVER, in reality our children have been imprisoned by their parents with minimal social contact for 3 months now. They could, on a rare occasion, pop to the shops with a parent surely?!

Also, think about this, parents with young children, working from home. My OH works long hours albeit from home and I look after the kids for a gazillion hours at home all day. If we are doing a DIY project then it makes sense for him to go to pick the right tools (not sexist hes just better at that than me), that leaves me alone again with the kids at home while hes at the shops. Why cant he go with at least one child and give me a break for half an hour. I'm talking about a 30-60 minute break perhaps once a fortnight.

Please think about the immense strain families are under right now looking after kids 24 hours a day without any help. Please don't judge those who need to take their kids to the shop.

I always take my toddler in a supermarket trolley wherever I go. I could leave her at home but choose not to. It’s so important for her to see that other humans exist outside of her own parents, and loads of people are very nice, smiling and waving at her etc. Small snippets of social interaction that matter a lot for her developing brain.

I wouldn’t take her out of the trolley/pram though as she’d run at people and they’d probably disperse in a panic. I really feel for mothers of younger children.

Why would a child want to go to a garden centre anyway.

Cos they've stuck a lifesize dinosaur.

@Hannah2199 imprisoned with rather than by. I’m in Wales so no school, classes, parks, outdoor sports or going more than 5 miles from our door.

Sorry I lie no outdoor sports for children. Some allowed for adults.

Because we're all still supposed to be going out as little as possible. Because shopping isn't supposed to be a social event these days. Because it is, in general, harder for children to remember and observe the social distancing rules. Because young children in particular aren't safe to wear masks.

If you need to take your children, take them. But don't take them 'for fun'. This still isn't about fun, it's still about saving lives.

I hate it when people say 'shopping isn't a family outing'. I wonder what they will think of the generation of kids become adults who think food and provisions magically turn up in the fridge with no input from them. Entitled brats probably.

@ThePlantsitter

I hate it when people say 'shopping isn't a family outing'. I wonder what they will think of the generation of kids become adults who think food and provisions magically turn up in the fridge with no input from them. Entitled brats probably.

Let’s be honest. Until they leave home, many of them believe that anyway. 🤣

@GarlicMcAtackney

‘Our children are bearing the brunt of this’ wise up, 43,000 dead would disagree with you, ffs. Sitting eating crayons and staring at an iPad for a few months at home is not a hardship.

It’s possible to be acutely aware of the huge loss of adult life while pointing out the significant risks in comprising young children’s socialisation and emotional development during this period. Please do not belittle the role of this in children’s lives and futures. These leading child and academic psychologists at UK universities would almost certainly disagree with you:

drive.google.com/file/d/1zytNGOtnySo-YnyU7iazJUVQ0fS2PC1Z/view

So it’s fine for adults to go on recreational trips to garden centres etc but not children. Yep, exactly the attitude this thread is about. Children rarely get covid, probably don’t spread it but should be stopped going anywhere. Erm no that ain’t happening.

Some parents let their children run riot, which is now not only very annoying but also dangerous. Elderly people should be able to enjoy going to the garden centre without worrying about catching covid from a feral child running into them.

I agree with you, it’s so sad. I was hit by it the other day when it was a gorgeous day, I drove by a kids’ playground in quite a deprived area and it was all taped off and the swings tied up. I could just see some officious council jobs worth prick loving doing it. Poor kids. I get they can’t open every swing but given the ages of kids that go to these things they will be with parents, why can’t people get to go and just clean their hands.

And then when schools go back they are to be treated as if they’re diseased and not be able to hug their wee friends. All for a disease that 99.5% and falling of the population don’t even have and is even less likely to affect them.

But hey at least middle aged men dressed like Rupert the Bear can play golf and pensioners can stroll round garden centres.

LillianBland shhhhh