Totally bonkers situation

freeatlast – it occurs to me that the woman may not be flying over, and he is just saying that to get you upset. The U.S. is locked down, and I find it hard to believe that anyone would take such a chance. As of yesterday, the U.S. is recommending against travel to the UK.

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/UnitedKingdom.html

You might want to ignore his comment and wait to see if she actually shows up.

Hi freeatlast – Well, he might have actually thought of it, but after finding further information – about your countries strict regulations etc., he might have changed the plan about her flying over – but didn’t tell you. In any case, you should research as much information as possible about contact with people from other countries, and if there are any special laws to protect underage children etc. Perhaps contact WHO ( World Health Organization ), hospitals and even a solicitor for all the info you can get about your children’s safety and your rights. And Donna’s link. The more information you have, the more empowered you will be and able to take whatever action is necessary without becoming upset. I understand that it is an upsetting situation, but as I said, armed with facts you will feel much more empowered.
Blessings

Free, I’m not sure whether anyone here can answer your question about what legal rights your ex does and doesn’t have under UK law. Particularly in this unique situation with the Coronathing. You might try simply calling the police for advice, or possibly something like a domestic violence hotline where counselors are familiar with custody issues of that kind.

Wow, you folks really have it tough over there with such rigorous enforcement of lockdown! I’m reading of UK citizens actually being arrested for violating petty lockdown rules. It sounds awful! What’s life like under these onerous restrictions?

Here in the U.S. of course many businesses, restaurants, parks and so forth are also closed, and I understand the police have taken action to break up groups of people who recklessly tried to form large gatherings. But other than that, “social distancing” in stores and whatnot, I haven’t seen any restrictions on normal movement or so-called “unnecessary” travel. (Who’s to say what’s “necessary” anyway?) We’re not going to infect anybody by going for a drive, or a walk down an (uncrowded) road. My dog needs a walk too! And nobody has bothered me while I’m walking her.

There’s nothing to stop us visiting anyone we choose in each other’s private homes, or going to the grocery store, the gas station, or any business that happens to be open. Trader Joe’s, a chain of small grocery stores, has only been letting in so many customers at a time to maintain “distancing,” so there’s a bit of a wait to get inside, but my local Fry’s grocery store with much more floor space has no such restrictions. Same with Walgreen’s drugstore, which sells all kinds of stuff apart from medications.

As for “businesses that happen to be open,” these include (remarkably) swimming pool supply stores, deemed “essential” because pools need to be kept sanitary. And here in Phoenix where’s HOT, believe me!–we get 115ºF and more in summer (if you think in Celsius that’s 46º)–there are lots of pools to keep people cool. And sporting goods stores, including those that sell firearms–here in Arizona at any rate (though not in next-door California due to their leftist politics). A good many people have been buying guns here, many of whom never owned one before. It’s paranoid thinking: in a crisis like this some people become deadly afraid of some catastrophic social breakdown in law and order, and think they’ll need to defend themselves against marauders.

Just for the heck of it I drove to a local sporting goods store to see what was going down. There was a line of people waiting to get in because they were only letting 50 people into the store at one time (more “social distancing”), but there was a two-hour wait for anyone who wanted firearms. This has to be so different from the UK, which has grown so restrictive that you can’t even own a pistol there anymore! (Except for criminals, who are exempt because they don’t give a damn what the law says anyway.) Good old England ain’t what it used to be, that’s for sure! I just hope someone is teaching basic gun safety rules to those first-time buyers here before they end up shooting somebody by accident!

When it comes to travel, Uber and Lyft are operating as usual for those who need them, despite the risks involved when “social distancing” is hardly possible inside a car! Subway trains are running too, in those large cities that have them. (I take it the Tube is still running in London? And the Tunnelbana in Stockholm too, with its beautiful vandal artwork. since Sweden has been notably “liberal,” i.e, “free,” in their approach to “lockdown.”) As for air travel, domestic at least, my daughter’s fiancé lives in San Francisco (though he plans on moving here to Phoenix very shortly where we live), and he’s flown back and forth a couple of times to see her during this crisis. (We all spent Easter together.) He felt pretty safe flying because the aircraft have been 90 percent empty! Plenty of room for “social distancing” there!

All in all, considering the difficulties imposed by the CoronaMonster I can’t find much to complain about. We’re all lucky to be alive. The Black Death of the fourteenth century, as we know, was far, far more terrible. (That originated in China too, as did the Asian flu of 1957, SARS, “bird flu” and other pandemics. So much for the much-vaunted powers of “traditional Chinese medicine”!) Anyway we can only do so much to contain a disease on this scale–losses, I’m afraid, are bound to happen. It does sound to me as if British authorities are being too needlessly heavy-handed in enforcing “lockdown” rules, which won’t make much difference in the long run anyway. Here in the U.S. we’re more insistent on our individual rights and freedoms, and won’t put up with petty officialdom telling us what to do. It’s sad to reflect that so many of the rights and freedoms we prize were actually <b>proud British</b> traditions, exported here to the U.S. by English-speaking people, and have continued to take root here, more or less, while poor old England has fallen victim to the tyranny of petty laws and restrictions, many of them imposed by a pack of “bloody FOREIGNERS” in the European Union. Every time I ride my bike along a sidewalk, which is perfectly legal here (the roads with their fast-moving traffic can be risky anyway), I think of how people can get fined for doing the same thing in good old England, beautiful country that it is in so many other ways.

Well, I apologize for my lengthy rant, which has little to do with your own problems, though I do sincerely thank you for “pushing my button” and prompting me to vent on certain topics: always with sympathy, of course. It’s always good to vent on anything that bothers us, as I’m sure you have plenty of your own to vent about right now. I just hope I wasn’t committing the cardinal sin of BORING anyone with what I had to say, irrelevant as most of it was. I hope you succeed in keeping this rotten bugger at bay and away from your precious children. I hope you can <b>exploit</b> the Coronacrisis to help keep him away, temporarily at least. You will recover from all this in time. <i>”This, too, shall pass,”</i> as the saying goes. Time is the Great Healer. I wish you the very best of luck for the better future to come.

Redwald

Totallybonkers and redwald — I enjoyed the commentary on our current situation and the differences between USA and England – fascinating. I live in a rural area on the west coast of America and so far we have been blessed – our county only has 4 cases so far and 3 are recovered. Most of the locals take the restrictions seriously and in stride — what is annoying is how many from out of town feel they can still come into our area for camping, RVing, fishing, recreation. I won’t go out on weekends because it is impossible to maintain a safe distance in our small local stores – and many of the visitors do not wear face coverings. Locals still go out, pick up take-out food, walk the beaches and parks, grocery shop – but most don’t do it daily. Redwald is right, though – Americans would never put up with the tough English restrictions – unless it is their idea!

Bonkers – I am so glad your ex has “changed his mind” about bringing in his latest victim. But I agree with Donna — he was most likely just yanking your chain. I hope you can get some good legal advice on how to proceed from here. Considering the current restrictions, you should be able to make a case for the children NOT being exposed to his reckless behavior.

Glad you got your key back – but now change the locks — he could easily have made a copy.

I wish you the best – and stay healthy!

redwald- Friends from OR are spending winter in AZ. They like the warm weather.