the exemption to local restrictions for 'informal caring arrangements' is a good thing - the total prohibition on sharing care outside households in lockdown 1 (for most, outside nuclear families) was a catastrophic misunderstanding of the way that caring communities function

but the definition of 'informality' here is purely understood in economic terms: informality means 'unwaged' childcare. these unwaged relationships still have to be 'consistent' https://www.gov.uk/government/news/childcare-to-be-exempt-from-interhousehold-mixing-restrictions-in-local-areas-of-intervention?fbclid=IwAR3nPI3FUtCspGvVp8Abpyma8Q5JQ9ycuk0DKMYj3_paEy-eiNSaxHh1slA

while informal care is understood as unwaged, it is almost by definition something that must be taking place in order for the primary carer [usually here parent] to undertake waged work

ad hoc forms of shared care, especially those that do not absent the primary carer to fulfil waged work ("such as a playdate") are explicitly prohibited

I'm certainly not suggesting that everyone with caring responsibilities continues life as usual but... these exemptions reveal so much about the way that we conceptualise care work - singular, transferable, and valuable only in relationship to £ - that desperately needs unpacking

tl;dr I'm broken. I just need to drink a cup of tea in someone else's house while my child destroys someone else's toys. but fwiw I think this brokenness speaks to a wider issue