Soft play etc opening!

[Piixxiiee]

15th August softplay, ice rinks, more beauty salons,indoor events etc..... not sure what to think of that move.

I think it’s the right decision, a local soft play has announced this week they’ve gone under. It’s personal choice to go, not mandatory, but the people that want to should have the option and with a LO who has become a fully fledged walker over lockdown I can’t wait to go!

It seems ridiculous that you can go pretty much anywhere indoors now, but still only meet 6 people or 2 households outside.

Softplay is a massive mistake, as PP, they are so germy. It's a vomit lottery at the best of times.

Wonderful news. The closer we edge back to normal, the better. Cases may be rising slightly (or possibly just more testing) but hospital admissions are very low. We need to be sensible about this and take precautions but still function as a society.

The anxious do not need to visit these places.

Typical of Mr Johnson government, last week their focus was let’s stop corona virus so we need to close pubs and restaurants so we can open schools. This week they are focusing on the economy again so it’s let’s open higher risk places. I predict within a week they will talk about stricter measures again.

They don’t have a plan.

Absolute madness. I am in the GM area, I can't take dc to visit grandparents in their house or garden but will now be able to take them to a germ-ridden soft play centre!

I genuinely don't know what is going on anymore. I've been worried sick for weeks about school going back and now the infection rate is going to be even higher. So many disabled and vulnerable people like me are going to be screwed by the incompetence of this government. Not to say I want the world to stop turning, but soft play is really a step too far imo.

I am a bit surprised at the soft play decision but did wonder how on earth the lovely centres near us were managing

It depends a little on the set up but I can think of three near us that would actually be ok as long as they removed the balls. Other than that it's just a large climbing frame and akin to outdoor play areas although I appreciate the virus spreads far more readily indoors

I would love toddler groups to reopen but think it's probably more of a risk, as all the toys are shared and often mouthed, and in most cases there isn't an economic advantage. I'm sad to say it though as we loved toddler groups and went nearly every day

No but in September my children will be in the classes with the children of parents who do take their children to soft play

They'll also be with children of parents who have travelled on a plane recently, who have been to pubs and restaurants, who have house parties every weekend. And those of some parents who's jobs put them at an added risk of catching and transmitting covid.

I'm surprised BoJo hasn't announced that children under 11 don't need to social distance like in Wales to be honest.

The anxious do not need to visit these places.

It doesn't work like that though does it. The more "back to normal" things become, the more vulnerable people's freedoms are curtailed.

As grandparents who have some health issues, we have shrugged our shoulders and taken on board the extra risks we face as childcare providers and family supporters. The latest announcements are the final straw for me. I fully support schools opening and my grandson's school are very caring, and I hope careful. My husband and I would have justified the added risk to ourselves. But soft play and beauty treatments? No way!

I should add that I don't think my daughter would take her children to soft play, but what about other parents of children she has contact with?

No more to add really, as I'm perplexed by the decision making by this government.

Boris is on holiday isn't he? It's like he forgot and someone rang him and he just said ok go for it.

Seriously though, these businesses surely won't survive if they aren't allowed to open. I would imagine there will be guidelines about capacity and extra cleaning. I think in Wales the ball pits aren't allowed.

Seems a bit mad two weeks before bloody schools reopen.

I can't personally see why bowling is any more risky than the pub?

@Uhoh2020

No but in September my children will be in the classes with the children of parents who do take their children to soft play

They'll also be with children of parents who have travelled on a plane recently, who have been to pubs and restaurants, who have house parties every weekend. And those of some parents who's jobs put them at an added risk of catching and transmitting covid.

I'm surprised BoJo hasn't announced that children under 11 don't need to social distance like in Wales to be honest.

I know!

Which is why I want SD in secondary schools!

My point was it is not like smoking or drinking which doesn't affect me if you do it.

We have a business on the brink because of Covid so I really empathise with the soft play centres and all the other businesses unable to trade all this time (during their peak/ only trading time). We’re now at the stage where we need to consider the health implications which will occur due to the huge recession.
The more businesses go under, the less tax the government will receive, that puts more strain on the NHS and will result in poorer treatment. The more businesses go under the more people are unemployed and the link between economic deprivation and poor health is clear.
I’m very, very worried about the state our economy will be in for the next 10 years (Or more) and subsequently, the state of our health care system, education system and welfare system.
I think it is difficult for people to understand if you have a job which has continued to pay you throughout and will continue to pay you beyond this crisis. Imagine no income for 18 months. If you are in an industry where your main income is in the summer, that means the last profitable month might have been September 2019. They now have to wait until March 2021 to get the chance to make any more money.
We need to retain jobs as much as possible and ask the most vulnerable to continue to shield themselves.

I can't personally see why bowling is any more risky than the pub?

Shared shoes, shared balls, group games, noisy, loud voices.

I think it is difficult for people to understand if you have a job which has continued to pay you throughout and will continue to pay you beyond this crisis. Imagine no income for 18 months. If you are in an industry where your main income is in the summer, that means the last profitable month might have been September 2019.

My family is in this situation and I still believe we are opening too fast and in a way that will cause greater economic damage for a longer period.

I can't get my head around soft play. All along we've been told how kids are prominent carriers of the virus. A typical soft play 'structure' (can't think of a better word to describe it!) has thousands of surfaces that are going to be touched, sneezed on, coughed on and the rest. How are these places planning on regularly sanitising every surface, every plastic ball in the ball pool??? It's impossible. I feel for the businesses and the parents who rely on these places on rainy days but to me this is unnecessary and unsafe. Mine are too old for soft play now but i certainly wouldn't be going.

Latticechaos every time I've been bowling the shoes are optional. So they could just do away with the shoes.

Balls can surely be cleaned between each group?

Limit number on groups as they are supposed to in pubs so groups of up to 6.

No reason you'd shout at bowling anymore than you would in a pub.

Patbutcher in Wales the ball pits have had to be removed I believe. I would imagine guidelines will say that a lot of the lose toys will have to be removed.

Personally I won't be going to soft play, but our local trampoline park is open. Can't see how it's all that much different.

I think it's pretty obvious that pretty much everywhere (hopefully barring nightclubs) must be allowed to reopen as the furlough scheme is ending. Its also pretty obvious that all of the things that are not yet open are far less risky than pubs, since the riskiest places are clearly pubs and factories (from outbreaks so far). Economically, we cant just close all pubs and we certainly can't close factories, so will have to carry on testing around large outbreaks. Sorry, but there haven't been any large outbreaks in schools (except possibly among staff) so why on earth do people think there would be one in a soft play?

I’d like to hear the scientist views given they said we were at the max of what we could open safely and that was before schools.

There’s nothing on the list that is necessary so we will avoid like other places.

All the mixing indoors is only going to mean a rise in cases.

It’s not a personal choice.

Pandemics don’t work like that.

The people that go, if they catch and spread the illness, will increase spread.

Two and a half weeks before schools go back.

A lot of pupils and/or siblings will be children of those who exercised so called personal choice.

Two weeks ago Whitty said we were at the limit of what could open. Infections have risen since then.

Good to see the announcement of this and the France quarantine knocked a levels off the front pages though isn’t it

@Chaosalways

Patbutcher in Wales the ball pits have had to be removed I believe. I would imagine guidelines will say that a lot of the lose toys will have to be removed.

Personally I won't be going to soft play, but our local trampoline park is open. Can't see how it's all that much different.

Our trampoline Park is open too we visited last week. They have half hour cleaning slots between each session. Maybe soft play will do the same rather than the turn up and hope for the best stay as long as you want like you could before.

Hour or 1.5hour precooked time slots, ball pit removed, and it cleaned in-between every session would make more sense and probably people feel better about going

@Tfoot75

I think it's pretty obvious that pretty much everywhere (hopefully barring nightclubs) must be allowed to reopen as the furlough scheme is ending. Its also pretty obvious that all of the things that are not yet open are far less risky than pubs, since the riskiest places are clearly pubs and factories (from outbreaks so far). Economically, we cant just close all pubs and we certainly can't close factories, so will have to carry on testing around large outbreaks. Sorry, but there haven't been any large outbreaks in schools (except possibly among staff) so why on earth do people think there would be one in a soft play?

Schools have been running for just keyworkers, with SD, outdoor play and minimalist staff.

Come September when there is no SD/PPE and it will be a very different story I imagine. Six hours a day in a room with no distancing and likely little ventilation and germs will spread.

There were between 100 and 200 outbreaks in schools in the run up to summer hols. Schools were socially distanced and largely outdoors.

Soft play areas are very hard to socially distance and nearly every toy, ball and bar gets touched, bitten and licked by dozens of kids an hour.

How will there be outbreaks? It’s not hard to see how.

I think soft play and facials etc are ridiculous to open atm. I agree with previous poster didn't Chris Whitty saybwe had reached our limit of what could be opened if we wanted schools open in the next few weeks?! What the fuck are they playing at?!??! At this rate I give schools a month before they need to close again 😭

At the end of the day we have to get back to normal.

There are less than 1000 people in hospital with this illness across the country. Less than 100 on ventilators across the country.
This is never going away. NEVER so it is time to pull up our big girl pants realise that every single day we risk dying and have done every single day since we were born.

Hundreds of people die everyday in this country, for all sorts of reasons, some of them young and apparently healthy, some of them from accidents some of them from conditions they knew nothing about. Children die, its horrible to think about but children die everyday and not from Covid from congenital disease, from complications of any number of viruses that are mild for most of us, from accidents, from neglect. They could even fall awkwardly and have a catastrophic injury at soft play.

People die you can't stop that. Even if Covid cases went down to zero in this country it would come back. It is part of our lives now, anyone who thinks different is fooling themselves. Do you really want to lock everyone away for a vaccine that might never come? That might only work for a few months? Do you really think that you are going to wake up one morning and the newsreader is going to say 'it's all over' because I am telling you it will be with us forever and the sooner people regain their ability to accurately risk assess the quicker life will be back to normal.

I get that people are frightened, I get that people are vulnerable but life goes on. I know that some people will think I am heartless and selfish and maybe I am, but if you are vulnerable to Covid then without doubt you are just as vulnerable to any of the viruses you have lived with your whole life.

I am 37, perfectly healthy, healthy weight and fit. If I get meningitis there is a good chance I'll die. If I get sepsis there is a good chance I'll die. If I slip in the shower there is a good chance I'll die.

When I was 17 my best friends mum fell on the steps outside her flat banged her head and died - literally from stepping out of her front door.

If you are going to live in fear of dying there is no point living at all, death is the only certainty in life and I for one would rather live 40 fulfilling years than 80 scared and alone.

So yes open back up, life is too short to hide forever. Kids need to play people need to live. Yes you might catch Covid and die but you might also trip on your doorstep like my friends mum.