Outdoor meet-ups

[MKCH]

So as of 4th July the rules for meeting up outdoors are the same (in terms of no more then six people, socially distanced).

Does this factor in babies (in pushchairs/prams or on their own blanket, for example)? So it would only be able to be three parents and three babies total? Or are the babies 'extra'? I mean babies rather than toddlers.

I realise this sounds daft, but I don't want to break the rules and I run a parent/baby group where I live and I'm desperate to organise a meet-up on the park, but not sure how many mums/dads could be there...

I'm erring on the side of caution and think that the babies count as part of the six. But do they?!

Considering the crowds at the protest and Liverpool winning the league, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. They were allowed

I always assumed a baby did count as one of the six 'technically', however I'm not bothered about that anyway and would happily ignore a baby from an equation. My friend's DH is a police officer and they meet up with people with their toddler where they don't include their toddler in the number. E.g. when we could only meet one person from another household outdoors, she was taking her toddler to meet her DM outdoors.

But honestly nobody is going to do anything about it anyway. The only policing that is taking place is in respect of mass gatherings.

God no. Six mums and their babies is fine.

I’m friends with a police officer who said they aren’t actively policing it anymore as there are so many infringements.

@heyheyho @MeadowHay

You're both quite right in terms of the official policing, but sadly I live on a new build estate where if you even put the slightest foot wrong, not even COVID related (ie noise post 11pm, making and selling cakes from your kitchen without a food license etc etc) it merits a phone call to the police, apparently. Or at the least a public shaming on the Facebook group. It's draining. And I'm sure the police have much more important things to think about than whether Doris at number 9 should turn down her radio 🙄 ugh anyway.

Maybe I need to loosen up!

@Haggisfish
Good to know! Thank you

Legally, the rules prohibit gatherings of more than six persons, and as a baby is a person, he/she would count towards the six. As others have said, I would think the chances of the police actually seeking to enforce this rule against six parents meeting up with their babies would be extremely low!

I would meet away from your estate. As a family of 5 can't wait for it to increase to 10. Fortunately dc are a bit older so we tend to send them off independently so we can catch up with our friends.

Yes I met at a local country park.