How can you do this to your children (and yourselves)?

[endoftheworldaoife]

It has been six months and it's now very clear that covid won't be doing away in our lifetimes. A vaccine won't eradicate it (just as a vaccine didn't eradicate flu).

Most of you seem to be willing to accept social distancing and masks for the foreseeable. And I don't get it. We are a tribal species. We literally die without contact and get sick without communication. Kids are learning arrange, stilted ways of being that will just worsen their digital reliance. OCD is being normalised. Dating will be neurotic and masked. Freshers won't make new loves or lifelong friends like we did. As for their working lives...

I wouldn't mind catching covid (indeed I'm sure we all will sooner or later) so can someone explain to me what on earth is happening in their heads to tip the balance? If it only affected us, I could understand (well, I couldn't but this feels like child abuse on a giant scale).

@hello - why can’t you and your DS visit your DM - so long as you keep to the six you are ok. We’ve had brunch today with friends, three couples = 6.

What you are saying, OP, is that people with illness, who are old, who are disabled, don't matter, that their value to our society is unimportant. That they are expendable. People who have disabilities, who are old, who are very over weight, are all people who contribute to or who have contributed to our society. They deserve the same right to life as you. They are also the very people who will be impacted enormously by recession and poverty but in all but a minority of cases, I think would rather live than die.

Yes, this. As Ghandi said “The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members"

I bet those saying we should just let the vulnerable die wouldn't feel that way if they suddenly got a diagnosis of cancer or type 1 diabetes tomorrow. Or their child did.

I used to enjoy black comedy until it became the lived experience of our times. People who preach about “humanity” yet talk of other people in terms of cattle. People calling out fascism while promoting casual eugenics and the “sacrifice” of the vulnerable. The angst over the mental health of children alongside the utter neglect of character and moral development.
I despair.

Agree with you OP

[quote chocolatesweets]@Oakmaiden if you're in a nursing home. 6 months is a long time without family. I'd rather risk it and have 3 months with seeing them, than 6 without. Wouldn't you?[/quote]
If you’re frail enough to live in a nursing home and are infected with COVID, it will potentially rip through your lungs and leave you gasping for breath within hours. Your ‘three months’ won’t happen. Still worth the risk?

I hate the rules but I follow them. Because if I don’t my conscience won’t let me sleep.

Its shocking how many eugenicists we have living amongst us

I can only feel grateful there are people like you, OP, and wish there were more

I won't bother getting into numbers and the obvious issue around who's died OF Coivid as opposed to with it ... the rational already know this and those who succumb to SM- fuelled hysteria won't listen anyway ... but I will mention this:

By the time an uncertain vaccine ever arrives there's every chance yet another virus will come crawling into view, so are we going to create the same mass panic over that one ... and the next ... and the next?

People are being fined £10,000 in England for peaceful protest

What - like the 19 year old running a Large crowded house party and refused to stop it when requested to do so by the police?

Also the poster saying her DS cant see his grandmother - surely just take him along by yourself? Everything doesnt have to be one huge family trip you know.

I think if one replaced the word “elderly” with “Jews” and vulnerable with “black” or “homosexuals”, one could more clearly see the hate speech of posters for what it is

@Aridane Quite. Its a scary and slippery slope. Interesting how noone has dared to say disabled yet but we can assume that is bunged in with "elderly". Elderly also seemingly 60+.

Real life is very different, imo, from Mn.

Those I know are following the regulations, old and new, wear their masks in shops and other indoor public places (yesterday in Tesco’s I didn’t see anyone without a mask), queue outside smaller shops, observe social distancing but still enjoy themselves having a run or picnic in the park, have a meal sitting outside a pub, DC’s enjoy going to school and we are working either from home or back in the office.
It’s a short term pain for long term gain to get us back to a more normal life again.

What a lot of drama. Children can go out, they can see people just not large groups. So they can only have a small birthday party - how tragic. Have a look at how some children are living, migrant children on Lesbos with literally nothing, children in Yemen dying of starvation and don't worry too much about freshers as their livers will probably thank covid for having to take less of a pounding.

I wonder how people managed to survive 6 years of WWII.

I don't really understand the 'we have 4 children so can't see anyone because of the rule of 6' thing either.

Do some families do literally every single thing as a whole group?

Surely if the kids are at school, you can meet up with 5 friends if you want, or DH could stay home with 2 kids, while mum and the other 2 go for a play date in the park with a couple of friends. Or grandma could meet with dad and all 4 kids.......

It's like some people are trying to make the rules worse and harder than they actually are.

gypsywater Also the poster saying her DS cant see his grandmother - surely just take him along by yourself? Everything doesnt have to be one huge family trip you know. That is far too sensible/obvious/reasonable, you are stopping all the tragedy and drama.

Ariadne unless you're suggesting the virus has been manmade for nefarious purposes I'm not sure how the hateful practice of targeting comes into it

Maybe it's been forgotten in these "everyone's got to survive everything" days that sometimes that's just not possible. We can quite rightly try our best, but sadly we can't save everyone all the time _ at least not without overthrowing the balance on which society functions

I am only 65 - relatively fit and healthy
I would rather die than deprive children of even 6 months of their childhood

RealityExistsInTheHumanMind With respect, that is ridiculous. Children aren't being deprived of their childhood; just certain aspects are curtailed for a short while. In their later life, if they do remember at all, it will just be an mildly interesting story to bore their kids with.

I agree with you OP.

@Aridane Quite. Its a scary and slippery slope. Interesting how noone has dared to say disabled yet but we can assume that is bunged in with "elderly". Elderly also seemingly 60+.

Other threads have 55+ as the relevant age

I have been against the mandatory rules from day 1 and school closure but have followed them. The Coronavirus Act 2020 is an appalling breach of our human rights.

Why are we doing this? Society is utterly divided over the issues and the state decided to lock down. I don't particularly think children will lose out massively as they can n ow go to school etc but young people student age and 20s are probably the ones with the brunt of the biggest impact on them and that is not particularly fair.

I think we get an hyysterical view on Mumsnet.......people seem to swing from extremes.

Back in the real world most people are taking a sensible approach, even kids I know who are shielding have begun to build up to normality but with ways to reduce risks taken on board.

The sad thing is it's difficult to resume normality when so many things have been taken away, so it's up to us to create a new normal for them.

Because luckily the majority understand that not everything is just about them. They understand the need to look after others and are unselfish enough to alter the way they behave to protect society as a whole.

This. It isn't for life, it's for a few more months. Children are resilient, they will soon forget a few restrictions. If we allow the vulnerable to die, on the other hand, this will never be forgotten.

@Parker231

Real life is very different, imo, from Mn.

Those I know are following the regulations, old and new, wear their masks in shops and other indoor public places (yesterday in Tesco’s I didn’t see anyone without a mask), queue outside smaller shops, observe social distancing but still enjoy themselves having a run or picnic in the park, have a meal sitting outside a pub, DC’s enjoy going to school and we are working either from home or back in the office.
It’s a short term pain for long term gain to get us back to a more normal life again.

MN is full of tinfoil hat, conspiracy theorists. Meanwhile, the rest of the world ( and their kids) are quite happily adapting to a life where a few changes and ( shock horror) sacrifices mean that our most vulnerable are being protected until a vaccine is available. I’m so glad I don’t live in MN fulltime 😂😂 It’s the children of people like the OP who are going to be the most negatively affected by the crackpot paranoia.

Where are you hoping to move to OP?Unless it’s Sweden, I don’t think you will find the libertarian utopia you are looking for.

Brazil?

US Republican States?