Two households only indoors - do people even know about this?

[JeanBodel]

We recently had to cancel a holiday planned for three families in a cottage, because of the two-household rule. I am surprised to find that hardly any (none?) of DH's family have even heard of this rule, and are holidaying and partying with multiple households at a time.

I thought everyone knew about the max-two-households indoors rule. Possibly people are assuming the restrictions have eased by now?

(Whether the rule is right or wrong is a whole other debate. It is hard to understand the government's relative assessments of risk. But in my profession I am supposed to obey government guidelines. Like MPs [hollow laugh] )

We're in Scotland and it's 3 here. We moved from England a month ago and I must confess I thought it was 3 in England too. I think the guidance is a bit confusing (no excuse for not following it I know, but it makes it harder to be informed).

I think people might not know. Certainly I have found it hard to keep track of the rules, even though I try to follow them.

I also think some people might like to pretend not to know. Particularly when some rules are very inconsistent or don't make sense.

I know about it and we've been sticking to it. I agree lots of people don't seem to know (or care)!

The rules are so unclear - and then shops, cafes, etc, are making up their own rules, that the whole lot now seems bollocks to me, so I'm using my own common sense.

But no, I didn't know that it was two households indoors.

That particular rule isn't confusing or open to interpretation at all. It's very clear. But people have all sorts of reasons/excuses not to follow the rules. The most recent one I heard was "but I haven't been ill".

The issue most likely stems from the inconsistency. I expect people know, but when we're actively encouraged to sit on trains with multiple strangers, or cram into packed restaurants and pubs with strangers most people will think it's fine to meet your nan and your mum for tea and biscuits.

Does the virus somehow know who's related to you and who's not? 🤔

The rules for socialising really aren''t complicated.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-outbreak-faqs-what-you-can-and-cant-do/coronavirus-outbreak-faqs-what-you-can-and-cant-do

I would have thought everyone in whatever area they are in would know what affects them and many are just choosing to ignore it. I'm in Scotland too so it's 3 here. I also assumed it was 3 in England as you have often progressed faster than us.

I posted previously about a hotel insisting we were fine to come to them, including 6 people from 6 different households round a single table for each meal. No, that is not fine.

We had 3 under one roof yesterday for a family birthday. Grandparents are retired, the other couple both work from home. All of us have minimal contact with other people.
(Until schools go back tomo for my kids.)

It's not complicated, you can look it up really easily, and yes, everyone I know is sticking to the rules, including my teens and twenties DD's.

Yes I did. Well in Scotland it’s 2 other households so 3 altogether and no more than 8 people indoors.

Part of the trouble is that pubs and restaurants are also supposed to stick to the two households rule, but don’t. They’re supposed to only allow people from 2 households at each table, with 1m+ space between members of different households at the table and then a space before the next table, and everybody sitting down. Obviously that’s almost impossible for them to police, and also to make a profit. So they just say “tables of six” which is an entirely made-up-by-restaurants rule.

But then people say, well we can all meet at the pub so why can’t we meet in my kitchen?

If the government wants people to follow the rules they need to advertise them, and also make businesses follow them.

Yes - I know about it and have been sticking to it.

If the government wants people to follow the rules they need to advertise them, and also make businesses follow them.

I said this only this morning watching breakfast news - apparently the sudden rise in cases is primarily among young adults. They showed several bits of footage of pubs and queues outside these, and restaurants. No masks, no social distancing, tables crammed next to each other.

Re-publish the guidelines in a concise way.
Have some way of enforcing businesses follow the rules, and the power to shut them if they are not. It only takes this to be done a few times to show that it is a possibility and then rules/guidelines will be followed.

Maybe some people are confused between two other households and two households in total (your own and one other)?

All people have to do if they are unsure is google it. A lot of people don't care. We are in a very low case area and a lot of people are acting like CV doesn't exist.

I think many know and don’t care so go ahead anyway.

I’ve lost count of the numbers of times I’ve seen/heard that the children/teens are mixing in schools so no reason they can’t outside of school.

Businesses need to follow the rules but given the numbers back in education with barely any SD i don’t think pubs will be the main concern.

Problem is people talk about guidelines, rules, and the law. Law says up to 30 can meet together (even in private homes), guidelines say two households. These different ‘rules’ are then listed together in the same Govt document 🤷‍♀️

I def know about it and am sticking to it although have been to garden parties with a few more households (unclear if that is allowed or not, it wasn't loads of people anyway).
That said I think a lot of people just don't follow the news/rules so they actually just don't know

Have rescheduled a cottage holiday because of this. Company had no problems with doing this this but did say as far as they were concerned it was guidelines not rules'

well I knew about the guideline but I think lots of people either don't, have forgotten or ignore it anyway.

My parents (high on the anxiety scale), brother (completely neurotic) & sister invited us over for lunch last week. We didn't go because we had plans to visit more elderly MIL but it would have been four households with 15 people in total if we had. It didn't occur to them that it was not advised. I thought it was quite funny given that I'm more relaxed about everything covid related that they are (they are washing shopping & quarantining post).

MIL thinks she's more likely to catch it walking past strangers in the street than from family so she's off on holiday (staying on a boat) with dh's siblings & their partners (three households). She's the only person we've seen indoors but will wait a while before we visit again after she gets back.

dd (20) thought that it meant two additional households (so three in total), most of her friends are completely oblivious at this point. Everyone is very fed up.

everyone knows about the actual law though - no gatherings of more than 30 - primarily because our family has had many large events cancelled as a result (weddings, a funeral, graduation, big birthdays). Unless you are attending a protest gathering of course!

Thanks for replies, found them helpful. There is so much confusion out there, I can understand why people are muddled. Interesting about rules vs guidelines - I have no idea of the difference but possibly some of this stuff is optional?

It's not difficult or confusing. People choose to be "confused" when they don't want to comply