Are you still sticking to ALL of the rules?

[CallTheSheriff]

Our family has followed all rules to date but with two weeks left until social contact restrictions are lifted I see more and more people using a ‘common sense’ approach for their own risk.

My DC go to school (primary), attend swimming lessons, attend dance classes and indoor football classes but we decline the offer of play dates with other DC in their class.

DH and I have not mixed indoors with any other adult since last March. We both WFH and are both partially vaccinated. We do not attend gyms etc as we didn’t pre covid anyway.

Our friends and family think we are being OTT, especially in not allowing DC to visit others after school but allowing them to attend classes.

It made me wonder how others are doing it?

"I know several NHS workers who aren't following the 'rulez'"

I do too. Lots of them.

Nope. I'm seeing my parents and parents in law inside now, along with DD, she misses her grandparents and I can see no good reason to keep them apart when we've all been vaccinated and are wearing masks, keeping our distance and washing hands when out etc.

It's time to exercise common sense now IMO, COVID is here to stay and we must learn to live with it rather than in fear of it.

I broke last June, the week it became clear that my children weren't going back to school for another 3 months. A friend asked me how I was and 3 months of the juxtaposition of lonliness and constant company poured out and I ended up sobbing on her sofa and getting very pissed. It was just what my soul needed. By that point, my usually cheerful, bouncy 7 yo was lethargic and depressed, so we started climbing over fences into playgrounds to do something other than yet another fucking walk.
In September, I illegally sat in my mum's lounge after legally sitting at the same table in a cafe (localised restrictions)
I illegally went for walks with another family at a time when it was legal to sit with 5 other people inside a pub.
I had DS's best friend over for a couple of hours in December for his birthday. They are in the same class all day, due to family at a distance, neither party had plans to meet anyone else over Christmas and I wasn't letting DS have a totally ruined Birthday and un-Christmas in the same week. (DS2 had already had a shitty birthday in April when you couldn't even get a sensible delivery time on "non-essential" items)
I gave up on face masks and visors in January after too many panic attacks/ meltdowns. Shredding my own face to bleeding point was my final straw.
I refuse to engage with the ridiculousness of masks outdoors on a windswept playground. By that point I was wearing a visor which is beyond pointless tokenism in an outdoor space, and I was not messing around with panic attack roulette for zero benefit.
In January and February, I illegally supervised my autistic 10yo "exercising" on a park with a friend.
Many of these laws I've broken have been because the law has been extremely inconsiderate to the needs of children such as the original incarnation of the rule of 6.

DH has been WFH throughout. All my volunteering ground to a halt. Our only significant risk is through the DCs' small primary school. We're not eligable for any other bubbles for wider human contact. My petty infringements have been low risk and are far more low-risk than many people living perfectly legally through work and bubbles. I've done what I've had to do to endure this and haven't placed anyone at significant risk by doing so. There's no prizes at the end of it, I'm just trying to keep my family and myself as undamaged as possible.

No.

@BogRollBOGOF your post resonates with me. My DS is also autistic and at 10yo his speech and language skills are way behind his peers. From December to March, he had not seen a physical version of another child other than his siblings and refused to engage with his classmates in lockdown learning. He has returned to school and his teachers have noted he is behind in his development more so prior to lockdown. I think older children have been hugely missed out in the rules.

Personally I think my attitude (and those of others I know) towards the restrictions has begun to change now things have started to open up and numbers are so low and a lot of people are vaccinated.

‘Selfish’ or not , some of the rules do not make sense now. No matter how many times people say that allowing DC who have sat in a classroom all day together, to mix in each other’s houses after school when it’s bucketing down with rain, is wrong, selfish and not on, I’m struggling more to agree with them.

@DeadButDelicious - that's ok then. You tell us what to do. Scientist, virologist, epidemiologist? But you know best.

Um what is the difference between two weeks and now?
Is coronavirus going to suddenly disappear in two weeks so that’s when it is safe to meet indoors? I mean I’m not encouraging people to break the rules but sometimes it sounds so stupid. They made rules (like last year, meeting up to 6 people from Monday like coronavirus doesn’t start till Monday )
Or not being able to go see your family who you would know would have coronavirus or not with a simple test, but you can sit on the bus with a bunch of strangers or go to work or school with loads of other people next to you
Didn’t Boris and a few other break the rules too??

That's ok then. You tell us what to do. Scientist, virologist, epidemiologist? But you know best.

I believe I do know what's best for me thanks. You feel free to make your own decisions. I have absolutely no issue with those who would rather err on the side of extreme caution. You do you. I and my family, who are the only people I'm seeing outside of socially distanced school gate drop offs have discussed and made our own decisions.

The virus is not going away. Learning to risk assess and exercise common sense when it comes to it is something we are going to have to start doing in order to live our lives. Unless people plan on staying inside for the foreseeable future.

A friend and I have visited each other’s houses quite a bit since being vaccinated, and I’ve had the odd hug. Most people I know are still following the rules (not having indoor guests etc) so there’s not that much rule-breaking opportunity even if this was sought.

"Um what is the difference between two weeks and now?"

2 more weeks of the vaccination programme, 2 more weeks to assess the impact of the most recent lockdown easing. That's the difference, however, there are lots of rules that make very little sense now.

Hopefully all the rules will
He gone soon any way

You tell us what to do. Scientist, virologist, epidemiologist? But you know best.

There are plenty of human needs that the scientist/virologists aren’t paying much attention to. Plenty of non Covid vulnerable who are getting shafted by restrictions. It’s not at all unreasonable to realise this and act accordingly.

No not for a long time.

@TheKeatingFive

You tell us what to do. Scientist, virologist, epidemiologist? But you know best.

There are plenty of human needs that the scientist/virologists aren’t paying much attention to. Plenty of non Covid vulnerable who are getting shafted by restrictions. It’s not at all unreasonable to realise this and act accordingly.

Totally agree with this. In many cases the restrictions are causing real harm but unless it's directly covid some just don't care.

I am seriously worried about the long term effects on mental health, something that was already underfunded, and will likely now be more so for many years.

Given it will be allowed to meet people indoors within weeks....no we are not following that 'rule' anymore

[quote ReviewingTheSituation]@MissMaple82 and everyone else happily stating they're not... Why? What makes you more important than everyone else? What is it that means the rules are for everyone else, but not for you?[/quote]
I don't think I am more important than anyone else. I am living my life how I want to live it and refuse not to see a few people indoors having seen no one for 4 months.

I have I think followed most guidelines but I hugged my parents this weekend. It was nice but I feel guilty now.

Yes I probably still am following the rules more or less. But all that really involves now is wear a mask where required, give people space and don't go inside someone's house.

Broadly yes. Although we've had two childcare bubbles as morally wrong IMO to say the children can see one set of grandparents but not the other. Since the grandparents were vaccinated (quite a while ago), both sets have been keen to come and help with childcare and was I heck going to choose which had to stay away.

We've also met friends in the park which including the children have meant breaking the rule of 6.

We've had playdates in the garden but they've been allowed in the house to go to the toilet etc.

This weekend shock horror a group of friends (8 of us!) are meeting in a garden. If it rains I suspect we'll end up indoors. But the intention is to stay outside if possible. Most of us vaccinated now.

Later in may we will have a back garden birthday party for DS (he'll be 6). He wants six friends to come, and so we are allowing it.

@DeadButDelicious - in the whole of this pandemic the words I loathe the most are 'You do you'. People who feel they know best, that they can assess their own risks. Such entitled nonsense. Unless you live in a field on your own, then every action any one of us takes has an impact on the community and all of us. That's how a highly infectious respiratory disease works. So excuse me for calling out your flawed selfish logic.

No. I have had enough. Had a friend at mine (not bubbled) once a fortnight all through this year's lockdown. Saw plenty of people in my street do similar.

I’ve followed all the govt rules. Work have introduced extra rules such as me and my office buddy aren’t meant to be in work at the same time even though in the office we’re more than 2m apart. Both fully vaccinated, so we’re ignoring that rule and not even mask wearing when it’s just the 2 of us. I’ve got work to do.

Oh I fib, I went to an outdoor marquee gym class today. The rules are three sides of the marquee must be open.

Other class goers shut two sides to keep the rain out.....I pretended not to notice! But technically it wasn’t me.

in the whole of this pandemic the words I loathe the most are 'You do you'. People who feel they know best, that they can assess their own risks. Such entitled nonsense. Unless you live in a field on your own, then every action any one of us takes has an impact on the community and all of us. That's how a highly infectious respiratory disease works. So excuse me for calling out your flawed selfish logic.

I see no one but family members who also see nobody but us. In essence, I have formed a sort of unofficial bubble with my parents. I wear my mask, I wash my hands, I don't go to the supermarket etc, I maintain social distancing with the general public. I and the people I am socializing with (my family) are fully vaccinated. I'm not out on the street licking people. I am taking every feasible step to minimize spread.

I have obeyed the rules for over a year. My mental health and the mental health of my 4 year old daughter has taken quite the kicking during that time. We aren't the only ones, I am well aware of that but I have personally reached my limit. So yes, I'm assessing my own risk and widening my circle a little and breaking one of the rules, by doing what I will be allowed to do anyway in 2 weeks time. Selfish and entitled it may make me but at this point I can live with that. Because I sure as anything can't carry on much longer with the alternative.

And I'm not even a little bit sorry about it.