The amount of posters who want support bubbles banned is shocking...

[ToHellinahandbasket]

And quite frankly appalling.
Is it just me seeing a lot of this?
The many threads about further restrictions seem to all be posters suggesting things that don’t affect them and insisting those be the things that should go.
It’s a real eye opener.

I benefit from a support bubble as my son was under one on the 2nd December. I had PND and was already suffering from anxiety due to a previous TFMR which developed into quite bad health anxiety. Without my support bubble I don’t know what would have happened tbh, and I’m still not back to normal now so I dread to think how it will be if they do take them away.

I don’t get takeaway coffee but I’m not shouting from the rooftops for it to be banned. I don’t meet a friend for a socially distanced walk, but I’m not shouting about that either.

There just seems to be a very narrow minded view at the moment, I don’t know if it’s just on here, where people are airily dismissing things without a thought for how it can affect other people or their mental health or situations.

I feel like people bandied together a bit to begin with and now it’s flipped completely. It’s eye opening and seriously depressing.

Is it just on mumsnet do you think? I don’t know what I’m hoping to achieve by posting this tbh I just feel really unsettled by some of the attitudes I’ve seen on here tonight and some of the things I’ve read

I know people are allowed their own opinions, of course and that’s what is great about an online forum, but there seems to be a definite lean one way of late. I even saw a few posters proclaiming we should get the army on the streets to “manage” people and ensure that people don’t break the rules if support bubbles are stopped.

There doesn’t seem to be much compassion left :(

Completely agree

www.gov.uk/guidance/making-a-support-bubble-with-another-household#who-can-make-a-support-bubble

Who can make a support bubble
Not everybody can form a support bubble. However, on 2 December the rules changed to widen eligibility for forming one.

You can form a support bubble with another household of any size if

you live by yourself – even if carers visit you to provide support
you are the only adult in your household who does not need continuous care as a result of a disability
your household includes a child who is under the age of one or was under that age on 2 December 2020
your household includes a child with a disability who requires continuous care and is under the age of 5, or was under that age on 2 December 2020
you are aged 16 or 17 living with others of the same age and without any adults
you are a single adult living with one or more children who are under the age of 18 or were under that age on 12 June 2020
You should not form a support bubble with a household that is part of another support bubble.

I find those shouting loudest have often not stuck to the guidelines themselves but feel everyone else should go above and beyond. The only way of ‘abusing’ support bubbles is to be entitled to one but have more than one. People not entitled at all are just mixing illegally, no bubble involved!

There's far too much abuse of the term and it should be tightened up. I know people in 4 person households claim to be bubbling with both paternal and maternal sides of the family and all aunts and uncles. Its ridiculous.

No one in a bubble I know is actually single.

Given the amount of posters that would seemingly be quite happy to lock up the old and vulnerable so they can carry on regardless (despite the absolute lack of logic in this) I can't say I'm surprised. :/

On here and the Daily Mail mainly, Its likely just people that want to post things that upset people the most, its like that all over this forum, some posters just enjoy doing this.

It is the old adage, "We like to judge people on what we think we would do, not what we actually do"

I agree Op.
People's attitudes and the lack of compassion are disgusting.

I for one, will not comply with the "rules" if bubbles are taken away.
It is the one thing keeping me sane right now!

Any tighter restrictions and its getting dangerously close to breaching Human Rights.

Someone in our block is hugely anti support bubbles, she has two children and is a stay at home parent, however she has a nanny fulltime nanny and a cleaner, they’re both still going to her flat, so what she actually does all day I have no idea. Well I do, spying on everyone else.

Our porter had to ban her from hovering around the main entrance as she was being aggresive towards anyone who she thought didn’t live here, and despite having a cleaner herself she found it appropriate to verbally abuse my cleaner when we were still in tier 2.

I have a childcare support bubble, without it I wouldn’t be able to work.

I can really see how support bubbles are useful and know of single people and people with small babies in my own family who massively benefit from them. I guess people are just looking around for ways in which restrictions can be tightened and there doesn't seem to be much left. I have also heard so many people talk about 'bubbling up' to explain why they have gone out with a group of friends or their child has had a play date or they've gone into another person's house despite both having family living with them. The support has definitely been abused.

[quote MercyBooth]@Butterymuffin Cue loads of stories in the media showing sandwich generation women being fined for the unpaid care they provide.[/quote]
Bring an unpaid carer for a family member isn't forming a bubble. Giving care has been allowed from day one of the first lockdown. I've seen this referred to as a bubble several times on MN and some carers are getting worried about this. Providing care is not going to be banned. Who on earth do people think is going to be taking over?

Agree... just like those shouting about schools closing - the ones shouting the loudest were ones it didn’t effect

@Willyoujustbequiet you dont need to be single to qualify, there are different types of support bubble but I agree with what you’re saying in regards for people having multiple bubbles.
People who do that are largely just socialising. Although there are people with more than one childcare bubble which I do understand because some parents don’t have one other household who can be available all the time they need them for childcare and it’s usually shared between grandparents for example.

I agree op. For some people they are lifeline.

Banned no but perhaps suspended for a couple of weeks while people stay indoors in their own homes and we get things under control. Yes theres some emergency exceptions but like with everything else in this country people take the piss and ruin it for everyone else.

I think perhaps people are just so desperate for this to be over that they are pointing the finger and blaming anything and everything that they think is slowing down the process of 'returning to normal'. And that includes, apparently, losing their humanity in the process.

Hi people, look I hate hate this lockdown but it IS going to get harsher as the government have lost total control of this now.

Here is my advice for those living alone: you MUST MUST see your GP ( by 'see' I mean over phone) and get them to say you are depressed or whatever.
Basically, you need to be one step ahead of this now. We all do.

Don't wait, get your ducks in a row.

My hope is that they'll only go as far as a database where you enter the details of your bubble to cut down on people bending the rules.

That would be a deterrent.

Overall, we are heading for a fascistic regime here. It happens incrementally. We ARE not that far from people getting shot on the street. You better believe it.

You think this country's above that? Think all those German people pre-emptive wars were less sophisticated than us? No, they were n't

I will still be seeing my brother even if I get arrested for it. He was discharged from inpatient psychiatric care and his section just before the first lockdown, one of the conditions was that he would have his support worker. The day of lockdown they text him saying sorry we can't run this service, phone us if you feel suicidal . So I have to take that role on, getting him shopping, helping with his personal care, sorting his meds out, checking he is okay- I will absolutely continue to do so.

I don't see it as appalling

If we need stricter regulations and less contact between people, then some things have to change.

Limits on bubbles has to be one of the things to be considered, as are closing nurseries, restricting onsite school attendance, abolishing the +1 for exercise, stricter WFH, limits on what trades go into houses in what circs,

It is better to do this just before hospitals buckle under the strain, rather than waiting until just after.

With hindsight, what would you have done in March?
I wonder what, with hindsight, the threads in summer will say about decisions and public response to what is happening now?

Support bubbles absolutely have to stay and there are many things that could be tightened up first, starting with just enforcing rules that are already there more carefully.

My mummis I made support bubble with my brothers family. ( I'd very happily do it but we live a 3 hour drive away whereas hes 15 minutes from her. )

She would be devastated

Not banned. But tightened. If people really need MH support that's a different thing, but I think many people are abusing the rules.

I think it's not so much people abusing the rules but that they are confusing. I remember Boris himself getting mixed up about them in a broadcast, and Christmas confused the issue further. I think lots of people believe they are allowed to bubble with extended family, or that a childcare bubble is the same as a support bubble, or that they can form bubbles with several other people.

I also don't think it's been pushed enough that people can still follow the guidelines within a bubble (distancing, masks, etc.). They don't have to, but obviously it's going to be safer if they can, and in some bubbles this will be more appropriate than others.

I'm very much in favour of bubbles, but think they have been confusing for many.

We are a support bubble for my sister in law. She was a full time carer for her mum and dad, and therfore never had a job outside of the house or formed her own relationships or friendships. Mother in law died 2 years ago, suddenly in and awful circs, and my father in law died last June due to medical negligence as GP refused to see him due to Covid. She suffers from a number of medical complaints, plus depression and anxiety. If we were not legally allowed to bubble with her, I would break the rules anyway (and I'm a police officer) as I feel the chance of her harming herself is extremely high. We are isolating this week so she has been on her own for the last week and she has found it extremely difficult.

I think support bubbles are essential BUT some people have several support bubbles.