Social Distancing with Young Kids: Experiences?

[Ianno87]

Hello all,

For the forum members who have young-ish children (lets say 5 and under), I'd be interested in how they've been managing social distancing, at playgrounds and the like.

I've got a 4 year old and 2 year old. I'm taking a policy with them of trying to gently 'encourage' them to distance (e.g. hold their hand but with a "wait your turn, please" whilst waiting for a slide, or encouraging them to move to a quieter part of the playground), but not get massively hung up or punish/tell them off if they don't.

Whilst I find most other parents are reasonably relaxed about not being too harsh, had a couple of "interesting" experienes with other parents in the last couple of weeks....

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First one was on a small spinny pole thing in a playground, which the 4 year old likes. He was trying to jump on it whilst an older girl was still using it, in spite of me asking him to wait (he was getting tired at this point, which does not help his listening to instructions).

He wasn't trying to push the girl off, but spin round on it with her, and actually stood waiting for her to get on with him (being what he would do at school, where distancing isn't expected and sharing very much is).

But every time her did, the girl ran back to her Dad to complain, to which he replied (quite obviously intended to be in my earshot) "well that little boy should wait his turn, shouldn't he!". I was so incensed by that remark, we left immediately (and I took some time to calm down).

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Second one was yesterday, at the Swindon STEAM museum, again with the 4 year old. They've got a shunting game laid out on a carpet with coloured wagons so kids can crawl around and play at rearranging the wagons into a different order, etc.

Whilst my son was playing, a boy (called Teddy**) came over and started to play. Within 5 seconds he and my son ended up close to each other, to which the other Mum immediately pulled the other boy away, lent down and said sternly in his face "Teddy, we have to distance, remember" and took him away. To say the poor kid looked miserable was an understatement.

(The dad also had a very elobarate looking face mask, and the family can't have been in the museum more than about 20 minutes when I happened to see them leave)

**Immediately set off my middle class virtue-signalling internal alarm bell, if I'm honest.

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What actual, practical experience do other forumites have of trying to distance with young kids?

I'm finding it a difficult balance between gently encouraging distancing, and letting my kids be kids (and be continue to be sociable rather than scared of everyone and everything).

Thankfully, most other parents are quite relaxed about this, but a minority really, really aren't!

 

[adc82140]

To be honest socially distancing the under fives is nigh on impossible. The fact that young children neither spread Covid easily nor become ill is fortunate.

I suppose one of the reasons why soft play centres are high up on the closure list is the proximity of adults to each other rather than the children.

I'd say let kids be kids, and only encourage distancing when they are old enough to understand why.

 

[Richard Scott]

Oh well it seems one of the mods didn't appreciate my tongue-in-cheek previous reply. They do say that my humour can be an acquired taste. I guess deadpan doesn't translate well to the written word.

To be honest socially distancing the under fives is nigh on impossible. The fact that young children neither spread Covid easily nor become ill is fortunate.

I suppose one of the reasons why soft play centres are high up on the closure list is the proximity of adults to each other rather than the children.

I'd say let kids be kids, and only encourage distancing when they are old enough to understand why.

Even teenagers struggle, people will say they're being stubborn or awkward but they're not. They do genuinely forget.

 

[Bikeman78]

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What actual, practical experience do other forumites have of trying to distance with young kids?

I'm finding it a difficult balance between gently encouraging distancing, and letting my kids be kids (and be continue to be sociable rather than scared of everyone and everything).

Thankfully, most other parents are quite relaxed about this, but a minority really, really aren't!

I've had no bother with other parents at all. I took the kids for a bus ride to St Mellons (living the dream!) around Father's day. Whilst waiting to come home, there was a mum with a three year old and a baby. My son went bounding over and started playing with the little girl. Her mum wasn't concerned at all.

More recently I took the kids to a large playground. There was an optimistic sign stating max 25 people. In reality there were more like 50 in there. The adults were generally keeping apart but the kids were not. The queue for the biggest slide had five to ten kids the whole time. No point trying to keep them apart. I didn't hear any complaints. Everyone appeared to be relaxed and having a good time.