Hello, so I live in Scotland and my Step daughters live in England (age 18 and 15). They had Christmas with their mum at home. Then Boxing Day they drove 45 mins to the mums best friends house and are staying there for two nights.
One of my stepdaughters (18) and their mum are care workers.
I am horrified they have done this. And they are aware they are breaking the rules but “nothing will stop our Christmas”, and “my daughters are more important than covid” - just a few things the mum said to me.
The other step daughter wanted to come up to Scotland to stay with us for new year but we had to cancel these plans due to the tighter restrictions.
Their mum is now saying things like we shouldn’t care about covid and covid wouldn’t stop her from seeing her kids and even if we get covid, at least we would have seen our stepdaughter.
So then a big argument has happened and I’m still reeling from it.
We simply didn’t think it was the right thing to do to have her travel to Scotland while restrictions are so tight. Plus if she insisted on going to this friends house where their teenage daughter is out partying at peoples houses on a regular basis - we thought it was a very bad idea. And suggested the only way step daughter could come up, was if we got her before they all went to this friends house. But no. They wanted their Christmas at home. Then time at their friends. Then to come here.
With their job being visiting elderly and vulnerable people - and the shameless rule breaking - is it any wonder covid is spreading. They don’t seem to think the rules apply to them and say it’s a risk worth taking because they all want to be together.
We eventually withdrew this offer and said it was probably best not to come up at all, given the tight restrictions here. The mum said it was only possible if we picked up step daughter on the Monday. This is another thing that my husband deals with each year. He is never allowed his girls on Christmas Day and is always last on the priority list when making plans.
Other stepdaughter (the care worker) regularly goes to her boyfriends house and he has his family there too. So the whole bubble thing is a joke. She is in a bubble with his family and now a bubble with her mums friends family.
Is this all ok ? Am I being over the top? Are things different in England / Scotland ? I’m so shocked that we have such different opinions.