Will you see more than 2 households at Christmas?

[MummaBear4321]

My family live abroad, so we only have DHs parents and sister to see. We wont be seeing DHs GPs as to us that's too much of a risk. So we dont have any decisions to make about who to see and not see. However, DHs parents will most likely see us, their daughter, and their parents, so basically they will break the rules. I also imagine DHs sister will see her inlaws as well as her own parents and will justify it as 'how can we be expected to choose?'. I have seen lots of people on MN talking about choosing between one side of the family and the other, seeing one set of parents but not the other. Also, I see people struggling to get their head around the idea that if you see both set of parents, you are in a bubble, and none of you can see anyone else, despite both sets of parents not meeting each other.

So, my question is, will you be sticking to the 2 families, or just ignoring it and seeing who you want? Or will you just be staying at home and seeing nobody?

Its because of people like @Tigerbear that we will be in lockdown in January and beyond.

My parents & my brother are in a bubble because my brother is single. We will be seeing them for dinner on Xmas day.
Won’t be seeing anyone else so we are within the rules.

Parents have massive house so for dinner mum, dad & bro will sit at one table while dp, dd & I will have a different table (in the same room)
It will be a bit weird but we will be together but still with a bit of space!
Nobody is old or in an at risk group (patents are both 65 and fit/healthy)

It won’t be a normal Xmas but we all feel doing it like this will reduce the risk a bit while still giving us a Xmas.

No we won’t be - will wait for the vaccine.

@EmmaGrundyForPM

Its because of people like *@Tigerbear* that we will be in lockdown in January and beyond.

definately and the selfishness

It wasn’t my decision, we spoke to PIL last night, and they were just so excited and were kind of like ‘great, we can all meet then!’, FIL asking if I could buy the beef and turkey etc
I’ve now told DP that I’m uncomfortable with it all, and we’ll decide what to do tomorrow, whether it’s just us and PIL and his sister and husband, or something different.
Things made more complicated aswell as it’s MIL’s birthday on Boxing Day, so guaranteed other members of the family will want to see her then too.

Little bit unfair of people just to target @tigerbear, when plenty of people have said they are breaking the rules!

That being said, reading this thread and the volume of people that don’t seem to understand the bubble rules has made me veeeerrrrry nervous for the NHS come January. We’ll either just stay home, or see PIL if they agree to only see us.

We'll just be spending it at home, one household, as we planned when we thought we couldn't see anybody. I really cannot be arsed with trying to decide who to see and who to offend. It's only one year.

We are technically going to break the rules by seeing first my parents and then separately the in laws, but neither set of them is going to see anyone else so actually I think it’s fine. We don’t have a big enough house to host them all together. Our kids break up on 16 Dec so after that we are going to basically isolate until Christmas and ask the set of parents we see first to do the same. It’s a risk but actually at this stage mental health is also a consideration.

Thank you @Dryshampooandcoffee, that’s nice of you.
Like I say, DP and I will try to figure something out, but his dad in particular just won’t understand.

Between DH and myself we have 16 siblings. Therefore my mother and mother in law have extremely difficult job of deciding who they spend time with if sticking to rules. How can a parent pick and choose who they see at Christmas. I can see a few families falling out over this!!!

NHS staff here. Working two of the days. Would love to bubble with family but doesn't seem worth the risk.

Quite happy to wait a few weeks until Easter when hopefully my parents can have a vaccine.

No we won’t which is going to be excruciatingly awkward when this is explained to family. All of whom seem to have read “three” as “three that day”.
We are in Scotland and haven’t been able to meet inside for weeks so suddenly doing it seems bonkers. We know of several local cases which doesn’t help.

I really struggle with people who are already talking about breaking the rules like they are naughty school kids. It’s so selfish and I have to really bite my tongue, it’s changed my views on a lot of people, which is so sad in itself. I don’t understand why people would consider themselves more important than other people?

Not decided yet whether to just have a quiet one or try to visit family. If I did break the rules it would be to delay seeing family until the end of the school holidays when the kids have been home from school for 14 days and are low risk for my parents to meet. So one one household but ojtside the legal timeframe.

@jessyjo2

Between DH and myself we have 16 siblings. Therefore my mother and mother in law have extremely difficult job of deciding who they spend time with if sticking to rules. How can a parent pick and choose who they see at Christmas. I can see a few families falling out over this!!!

The thing is the closed bubble idea is sensible in that those in the bubble can agree their own acceptable risk, I.e. choose to participate, and it effectively prevents onward transmission chains. If there are too many of you for one bubble, it follows that there are enough of you for two or more. It really shouldn’t lead to conflict if you understand and accept the rationale and behave like functional adults. It’s one day, in one year. Draw lots to choose groups or something.