Hasn't everyone broken the rules at least once?

[Jourdain11]

I'm not (intentionally) stirring, but genuinely curious. I come across so many people who say, "I've followed every rule" but has anyone actually, literally, done this? I struggle to imagine that anyone can have complied with the letter and spirit of the regulations every minute of every day, since 23 March. Even if it was something as benign as going to the supermarket for non-essentials or going out for an extra, non-necessary walk.

Hmm?

That should have said higher incidence in pregnant women over 28 weeks obviously

I've broken the rules everyday from the start
I've exercised twice a day,
I've brought 'non essentials' from the shop e.g. false eyelashes.
I've traveled to Wales to visit my brother
I've had too many people over for non socially distanced BBQs
I've been to friends houses
I've been in the office and sat at a desk that is less than 2m from my closest colleague
I haven't used any hand sanitizer

And I'll keep doing so!

I broke the rules mid May. I went into my parents house on my mums birthday to give her her birthday present, it was a tablet and I had to show her how to operate it as she's 76 and shit at tech. My dear outgoing sociable mum was getting desperate with loneliness and giving her the ability to video call and Facebook her tech savvy friends and join in church groups etc stopped lockdown being hell for her and I'm not sorry at all.

No. I haven't broken the rules at all. Still caught COVID. Still not breaking the rules and it's pissing me off the number of people who are.

We stuck to them for a good while but as soon as they allowed bubbles we started seeing and staying over with family without making the kids distance.

Living well within restrictions in this household, as are my friends, family and neighbours I've seen. Numbers are very low in this area, so I do feel for those being really careful in high case areas.

Before it was allowed we let teen DD's boyfriend visit her in her 18th in the garden. We went for a walk so they were alone for half an hour or so. I doubt they were SDing in that time tbh, though they were outside. It was her 18th birthday, her grandad has died 4 days before, her celebrations were cancelled and she was becoming increasingly down - that hour made a huge positive impact on her mental health which kept her going for a fair while until they could meet up officially.

I hugged mil and my nieces at fil's funeral. We also allowed BIL to stay at our hour for two nights before it was allowed so that he could visit his dad when he died and just after.

I hugged my parents when they called at my house after my nana's funeral (I couldn't attend as over the numbers) - we also eat inside together before it was allowed on that day.

I will hug my parents again next week at my other nana's funeral too.

I've been careful and sensible mostly, especially as I'm clinically vulnerable, but there are some situations where we've taken a common sense approach instead and if it means breaking a guideline then we will.

The law, no I've not broken any.

Random mumsnetters assertions of what the law is, then I've broken loads!

Once, a school gathering that took place in the last two weeks, where people constantly came over not social distancing. Am now in bed with a sore chest, headache, sore throat, waiting for the results of a covid test

The rules brought out my inner rebel.

I haven’t. Not once. I’m still living the way we were advised to in March. Not because I’m ‘holier than thou’ but because I am terrified. Logically or not, everything about thiis pushed my buttons. I didn’t even go for ‘exercise’ until last month when I started walking the lane behind my house now and then. Haven’t been in a supermarket since first week of March. Can not fathom having a face to face conversation with anyone outside my house.
I’m not sure how I feel about my reaction but I know I was hugely affected by the way this has been handled and I was one of the ones who took the ‘rules’ and put them on steroids. I felt massive distrust and was so sure that they weren’t acting fast enough.

It transpired that while they were saying Wash your hands and sing happy birthday, nothing to see here’ tens of thousands of people caught it and died.

So when ‘They’ suddenly said we should all stay home, I felt like actually it must be 200 x worse than they were saying still and I had to go 200x harder to stay safe.

I cannot switch it off and most of it is because I cannot trust any of the stuff that should alleviate my anxiety. Because anything that was said early on about it not being that bad, feels like it was a lie. So I can’t trust that it’s safe, when the people who were saying it was safe before, were either wrong or dishonest about it.

Not sure why I’m contributing. Would really appreciate not being dismissed as a hysterical dementor. I guess I thought I might just explain that not everyone behaving like me is doing it for martyr points. Or because they are in the covid stasi. Or because they love the drama of it all.

Some of us are just terrified. And we were given this idea of what would keep up safe. And it’s all we could control. And its therefor been terrifying watching people so willing to not bother with those basic measures and citing boredom or ‘sick of it all now’ as their logic.

Not an attack on those people. Just my explanation that seeing people bore of it and disregard it all has only made me more scared, and made me go even harder to the opposite way

I’ve mostly followed them. In about the same way that I drive my car “according to the rules” but I might occasionally drive at 75mph on the motorway.

I did something 4 hours before it was technically allowed. And my children aren’t religiously two metres apart from others while playing outside (but I think they knew that was inevitable when they opened playgrounds), although I do make them distance to a degree. But in terms of minimising shopping trips, wearing masks, exercise limits, who I’ve met, who’s been in my house etc we have followed the rules. But it’s not been that hard for us to do so, others in other circumstances might have found it much harder. No one gets a medal either way.

One evening DHs colleague, who he shares an office with, who was living in the work accommodation where they basically had to stay in their rooms in the evening as the communal rooms were closed, including having meals delivered, came and sat with DH in our garden for a few hours and had a beer.

I gossiped with two different neighbours at once in the street... Several times!

Obviously I've not kept 2 metres apart at home from DH and my DCs, but yes, outside the home we have

Though I think I read that the WHO has only advised 1m, so that makes things easier

I've followed most of the rules most of the time, but I've also used my common sense and now that we've been largely released from lockdown I've gone back to shopping when I want to, rather than only going once a week. I respect others' boundaries, but if I'm with people who are pretty relaxed (like I am) then we don't religiously SD. I went in a car with my DM, but I wore a mask to protect her, I've met people and not been 2m apart or even 1m apart as long as they're not bothered. I'd say I've been moderately careful, as have the rest of my family, and none of us have caught Covid, despite living in an area that was initially hard hit.

I think we will be more slack once school goes back in terms of mixing with other DC that they are in a class with all day anyway though.

When I say we've stuck to the 2 metre rule I mean we haven't broken it intentionally. There have been times when other people out walking or in the supermarket have come closer to us than 2 metres but we've done our best to stick to it.

I do think people who are nearby to family or use them for childcare would find it harder. Our families are hours away so it's not been an issue hut if they lived in the same town and we relied on them to look after the DC and I can see we'd have found it much harder to stick to the rules.

I did my exercise. Then I exercised the children. Social distancing was not an issue in empty fields.
I sat on a bench mid-run and had a snack.
At the point that you could meet a person in the garden, I was really struggling and ended up around their house. It was pissing down with rain and cold so I chose Covid on their sofa over hypothermia. They were both working from home. I'm a SAHM and DH is WFH. The risk of hypothermia by playing by the rules was far higher than the chance of any of us having Covid.
I've hugged my mum. Once. For the only time since Christmas.
I've climbed over fences into playgrounds since June. Still doing it in the next village because it's still shut.

I've kept track of the data at a national and local level. I've done what I've had to to keep myself and my family sane. When your normally lively 7 year old looks like a lethargic zombie because they've been so understimulated for 3+ months, the minimal risk of going to a quiet play area is worth it to bring life back into their expression again.
I respect social distancing and have had less than one hug per month with low risk people. The chances of me harming others with petty breaches was absolutely minimal. Our social lives revolve around school, activities and voluntary activities so we are still feeling a big hit that hasn't changed substantially in 4 months. Still very not normal in this household.

@Bimbleboo that sounds so difficult! Do you think you’d like to change how you feel? I doubt that you’re alone and there are probably resources out there to help with “re-entry” if that’s what you would like.

We followed the rules for health reasons but also because not too many temptations to break them.

Like I said I don't judge what anyone else is doing particularly. I just hope where the rules aren't being stuck to people have good reason.

Eg. using family for childcare so you don't lose your job is far more okay than people organising a big house party because they're bored

I let my children play naturally with other children now. Frankly after 3+ months with no school or contact with other children, it would be emotionally abusive to expect them to maintain social distancing.
Especially for my child with ASD who would need to relearn that humans are not dangerous to interract with. He does not need any encouragement for social anxiety.

We did at first, it had a horrible impact on our MH though and we struggled. When things began to loosen slightly we did sit slightly closer than guidelines when in a relative’s garden, and went out for non-essentials.
We even went to a supermarket together, totally forgetting that it wasn’t allowed. Nobody said anything, and it was only the next day that we remembered it wasn’t allowed!

Bimbleboo, it's the authorities playing mind games to terrify people into submission, the clickbait media and holier than thou types scorning people for not following overzealous "rules" like the mythical one hour exercise rule or willing to risk shaming people with hidden disabilities/ trauma over non-mask wearing who are the "dementors". Not people who have been quietly terrified into submission and anxious overdrive to the point where their normal functions are inhibited.

Please get some support. It really is very disproportionate to be so anxious about leaving your home especially if you have not had specific health concerns. It is now "safe" enough for shielding to end and in most places community transmission is very low and even non existent in parts of the country. I hope your confidence returns soon

I always did 2x exercise a day. The dog needed walking and then I needed something more cardio. I live in a village and perfectly possible to not see anyone in the fields. If I’d lived in a crowded town with lots of people in the streets maybe I wouldn’t have.

I've completely lost track of what the "rules" are now!
And going by the questions on some Facebook groups I'm not the only one!