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Covid

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Original poster

To burst all of these bloody bubbles

203 replies

kirktonhouse · 11/01/2021 19:52

A single person can bubble with one single other household, yes, I get it, it's really useful for those living alone, however there are so many other bloody fake bubbles.

Single elderly parents having 'bubbles' with every one of their children's families

Work bubbles

School bubbles (different in the morning and the afternoon)

Sport bubbles (stupid fucking footballers)

Camping bubbles (yes really, some friends in the summer)

Play bubbles (with whoever happens to be at the park/beach)

Dog walk bubbles

You can't call everyday life a fucking bubble. Just stop seeing so many bloody people and calling it a bubble to pretend that it's ok when it really, really isn't.

I feel better for that. I'm going back to my miserable bastard bubble, does anyone want to join me?

OP posts:

HarrietteNightingale · 12/01/2021 10:41

I never heard the words Christmas bubble ?

I thought the government just talked about mixing of households and the limitations?

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/making-a-christmas-bubble-with-friends-and-family/making-a-christmas-bubble-with-friends-and-family

Grenlei · 12/01/2021 10:45

Support bubbles are vital for those who live alone, or are the only adult in a household. Scrapping them because SOME people aren't following the rules is just throwing the baby out with the bathwater. There's no need to punish those that need it, aren't the current restrictions already difficult enough?!

HarrietOh · 12/01/2021 10:49

Exactly, just because some people are creating their own rules and bubbles doesn’t mean the people who are following the bubbles should be punished. Thankfully they’ve said they won’t stop the support bubbles. Even if they did, I would then have to break the rules because I’m not spending weeks alone with no other human contact again, just because selfish idiots were misusing the bubble term.

Londonwriter · 12/01/2021 10:50

What someone else said earlier in the thread...

We have one little boy (aged four) who is currently being investigated for autism after being excluded from kindergarten, and a second little boy aged 11 months. I had both little boys 24/7 for 10 weeks, not seeing a soul except my DH (who was working full time), in the first lockdown before we, finally, got some extra help with childcare.

Support bubbles are not for fun. They are not to socialise. They are literally to save lives. We had enough emotional and financial resources to manage, but I could see other people not coping at all. It was no surprise to read a mum committing suicide alongside her child with severe additional needs. I don't even want to begin to imagine being locked down two weeks after a c-section (rather than, as I was, five), with an unsupportive partner, or with mental health issues while caring for a very young child.

JinglingHellsBells · 12/01/2021 10:53

I agree OP.

IMO the only bubbles should be 1:1 for 2 single people, of any age but especially the elderly who are housebound.

IME I know of an elderly person who bubbles with her family (son, wife, 2 older teen kids) and both the kids and the DIL have jobs where they are in contact with lots of people.

But in any case, it would be better if the bubble was just the old person and her son.

Xenia · 12/01/2021 11:01

It is certainly very very complicated to understand and keep up with. The sooner we abolish all mandatory CV19 laws the better and then people can just take their own choice of risk.

peak2021 · 12/01/2021 11:16

You can only have one bubble. A fixed one, not changing from week to week or day to day. As Matt Hancock mentioned.

Of course, when bubbles were introduced, this could have all been explained, but Mr Johnson does not do detail.

ParisJeTAime · 12/01/2021 11:19

@Xenia

It is certainly very very complicated to understand and keep up with. The sooner we abolish all mandatory CV19 laws the better and then people can just take their own choice of risk.

I imagine we have completely opposing views on politics, but I'm beginning to come round to this way of thinking; they have done such a piss poor job of this, that it might have been better if they hadn't done anything at all.

My preference would be though, for that joker to leave No 10 and for a grown up, (even if it had to be another Tory), to take over. For some reason they won't listen to me though

Xenia · 12/01/2021 11:25

The last thing I want to do is bubble with anyone as I have never had a day of my life when I have been able to interact with others as little as I would prefer; even now with my student sons living here, lovely though they are, I still prefer my own company so I am not trying to form bubbles with all and sundry. I just hear about them in the background. I think if you work and the grandparents care for the children that is one bubble but can;'t a single parent have one with another single parent or do they lose that one because of the childcare bubble?

EngineeringFix · 12/01/2021 11:28

This happens with teams in work too. You get lax with those you are comfortable with and any initial concern of the multiplier of all their contacts fades away.

PinkTonic · 12/01/2021 11:33

@89redballoons

Am I the only person who hasn't seen anyone abusing the support bubble/childcare bubble rules?

I am in a support bubble with my mum, who lives alone. We also have a childcare bubble with MIL and her partner. (My mum can't do full time childcare - she's only in her 60s but has an illness that makes her very fatigued some of the time). We have a one year old and both work. DH genuinely drops our son off with his parents when he goes to work, doesn't stay to chat when he picks him up. My mum comes round to our house once or twice a week and watches DS or we have a meal together or watch TV together etc.

We moved house in May 2020 and mum is genuinely the only guest we have had inside the house since we moved in.

I actually only know of one other household with a bubble - my best friend has a baby and a 2 year old, and they have bubbled with her parents now her DH is back at work. I haven't seen my friend face to face all year, apart from in the park/garden during summer.

As far as I know my neighbours aren't having visitors. I'm not a curtain twitcher but I do live in a terrace so it would probably be quite obvious if my next door neighbours were at least.

All I see on social media is photos of people outside for walks with one other. (And screenshots of zoom calls, and people moaning about not seeing anyone).

Just thought I'd add some perspective.

See I think you have quite a lot of interaction there, but you think you’re all good and an example to others. You both work outside of the home, yet your mother comes to your home frequently and your husband interacts with his parents through your child. It’s a lot and your in laws probably go out as well given they’re happy to do childcare with you working outside the home. This is how the virus spreads. From someone in your workplace to someone your MIL encounters in the supermarket, who only ever goes out to buy food.

ArchbishopOfBanterbury · 12/01/2021 11:39

I think the only legitimate bubbles are support bubbles for single people, those with a baby under 1, or a disabled child (where you can socialise), or childcare bubbles (where you can't, childcare only).

Christmas bubbles, and school/nursery bubbles, work bubbles, Costa bubbles etc etc muddy the waters and "excuse" socialising outside restrictions.

whatsthatnow74 · 12/01/2021 11:40

We have a non standard bubble. Our household - me, DP, two DDs plus my mum (widowed) and DP’s mum (also widowed). There is no other family and we could not choose one over the other so agreed that we would bend the rules slightly. We have no other bubbles and, at the moment, we’re only seeing my mum and DP’s mum outdoors

FOJN · 12/01/2021 11:42

Support bubbles are not for fun. They are not to socialise. They are literally to save lives.

Not sure isolating single people until they feel suicidal is a particularly ethical social experiment.

How does anyone predict how a prolonged period of isolation will affect them. I don't know if I'd have been OK without a support bubble but being able to eat an evening meal with another person once a week has made all the other restrictions seem doable.

alreadytaken · 12/01/2021 11:43

Ah Xenia, you just want to kill off the old and disabled. Is Doris not doing it fast enough for you?

Abraxan · 12/01/2021 11:45

@peak2021

You can only have one bubble. A fixed one, not changing from week to week or day to day. As Matt Hancock mentioned.

Of course, when bubbles were introduced, this could have all been explained, but Mr Johnson does not do detail.

This isn't quite true. Your childcare bubble, for example, can different to your support bubble if it isn't practical for them to be the same.

However, with the childcare bubble the only mixed social interaction should be the child. Parents are not supposed to socialise with the childcare bubble.

boymum9 · 12/01/2021 11:48

I am very cynical and frustrated with the last year and some of the rules and annoyed by lockdowns and not being able to see my family etc, but I do agree with this.
I'm a single parent with two young dc, I have a bubble with my partner who also lives alone, I've barely seen anyone this last year, don't break the rules (even though don't agree with all!) and don't do anything I shouldn't. Yet I know people who have bubbles here there and everywhere, and my ex h has "work" (including playing golf etc with) bubbles, formed a bubble with the girl he started seeing yet she has bubbles with a load of other people, people I know have formed childcare bubbles to do home schooling with, people I know who don't work who are somehow sending their children to school?! So frustrating!!

Abraxan · 12/01/2021 11:49

Support bubbles are not for fun. They are not to socialise. They are literally to save lives.

Again not quite true.
Support bubbles for single people living alone ARE to allow them to have social interactions, without social distancing, etc.
Somebody shouldn't already be pushed to the limit of feeling suicidal before they are allowed to have some indoor close social contact with another human.

For example, it allows couples who live separately and alone to spend time together. Because to force couple to have no close social contact for months on end isn't practical.

alienspiderbee · 12/01/2021 11:55

See I think you have quite a lot of interaction there, but you think you’re all good and an example to others

I think it's interesting to see how much perception differs. I've seen people say we've been really careful, I don't know how we caught it and then in the next sentence reveal they have teenagers going to school.

DumplingsAndStew · 12/01/2021 11:56

This isn't quite true.
Your childcare bubble, for example, can different to your support bubble if it isn't practical for them to be the same.

See, I don't understand this. Bubbles are for essential reasons. If you need someone to provide childcare, and also need someone to provide emotional support to you, make them the same person.

Chloemol · 12/01/2021 11:57

Personally they need to make it one bubble and that’s it, you choose a support bubble, or a childcare bubble and it’s one, with one other family.

WhatWouldPhyllisCraneDo · 12/01/2021 12:01

@DumplingsAndStew

This isn't quite true. Your childcare bubble, for example, can different to your support bubble if it isn't practical for them to be the same.

See, I don't understand this. Bubbles are for essential reasons. If you need someone to provide childcare, and also need someone to provide emotional support to you, make them the same person.

What if you're providing the support bubble to one person, and also need a childcare bubble? They can't be the same in that case.

MessAllOver · 12/01/2021 12:02

I've posted this picture before. People really need to think about whether their bubbles are ending up looking like this...

Besom · 12/01/2021 12:02

@MattTebbutsForearms

Yup.

My cousin works in a care home. My uncle delightfully told my Mum that she had all of her 'work bubble' round for a NYE party.
I fucking give up with that side of my family. They surely must know that they are deliberately twisting the definition. I reckon they get off on it.

That should be reported to SS

89redballoons · 12/01/2021 12:22

Actually, I work from home. My husband goes out to work but his job is mainly outside, and they have reduced numbers at his workplace.

My mum literally never leaves her house except to see us, and has all food delivered - her interactions are exactly the same as if she lived with us. My in laws are semi retired and work from home, and just do a weekly food shop and walks outside.

As I said, my husband picks our son up from his family's house but doesn't stop to "interact" with them when he does.

I don't think I'm an example to others but I know I'm acting within the rules. All I said in my post was that I don't know anyone with a "Costa bubble" or "Park bubble" or whatever, and that everyone I know is sticking to the rules.

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