To think some people found lockdown really hard and it wasn't their fault

While we're talking about our experiences.... I'm just watching GTA Hamlet.

It's so relatable for me as a gamer.

l

I hated every second of it.

Financially I was OK but my job. which had until then been a very important and valued part of my life, changed dramatically and permanently for the worse.

I hated all the competitive 'distancing'. The accusations of 'selfishness' and the 'mask up!' hectoring. Speaking of masks, it was so depressing seeing them everywhere, and the general air of tension and the arbitrary 'restrictions' were horrible. I remember for a while I thought it was going to go on forever, which I guess would have suited some people here. Thankfully it didn't, but some things have been permanently affected as a result of Covid. And not in a good way.

I cannot imagine how difficult it was with 5 children with special needs. Unable to call in back up, what happened if one or more became ill. The sheer work of keeping them entertained, home schooling etc…
Like your parents I didn’t notice much change bc I’m retired and live alone. But I fail to see how you could have “ enjoyed” lockdown however organised you got. Unless you had a whole raft of live in staff.

Personally I found it really hard. I live alone, my elderly parents are 200 miles away. My work shut down and went online but became 10 times harder as I worked in student support, and I spent all day online trying to reassure frightened students that things would be ok, but nobody ever reassured me. I'd get up, walk downstairs, start work and do that all day, then log off and sit alone in my house all evening, ready to start again. Every Saturday I'd go to the supermarket and navigate the whole queueing thing, and then stand at the end of my (very vulnerable, heart condition) friend's driveway for an hour chatting to her (and try not to worry about killing her), and go home. I could watch telly, I could phone ny mum, that was about it. It was really shit, and I know I had it easy compared to some.

Lockdown killed my mum, not from COVID but the not been able to go out.
She was a social butterfly, everyones friend. Loved talking to different people
shopping and day trips with her sister.
I lived 15 miles away and it was the not being able to visit. Phone calls were not
the same. Then when we were allowed to visit again I still couldn't as I was diagnosed
with cancer and the chemo was brutal.
My older brother was diagnosed at the same time.
Lots fell on our younger brother but she got scared listening to the news, wouldn't hug him when both were crying out for a big cuddle.
By the time I was well enough to visit she had deteriorated with dementia and couldn't recognise me.
Sad end for a lovely lady.

Yes I'm an introvert too...I actually found lockdown hard because I never had time alone as DH and DC were in the house all the time. I really missed my alone time in the house.

I think if we knew for sure that within 16 months life would be almost back to normal it would have been easier to cope, a lot of the stress was not knowing if this was for ever, and whether it would get worse.

See I'm an introvert in that I do recharge from alone time. That doesn't mean that I can do without social contact completely. Lockdown still harmed me.

YANBU. Lockdown was easy for me, and if people are talking / asking about lockdown , I will admit that. But you'd have to be an absolute numbskull not to understand that lockdown was awful for many people, through no fault of their own.

I'm an autistic introvert who already worked from home so I loved lockdown. I loved the streets being empty and everyone doing entertainment in the street in the evening. I was part of my local mutual aid group and my work was in the NHS so I was super busy, more than usual. My kids loved being at home and going for our daily walk in the peace of the empty town.

But I understand that for extroverts it was hard, and that for people who were ill, and pregnant women, it was awful. My friends dad died of COVID and we lost a doctor at our hospital too.

But lockdown itself without the hospital/care issues was great for me.

@TheWorminLabyrinth Agreed. I actually find it incredibly insensitive how people bang on about their wonderful lockdown

Oh so do I!

I don’t regret breaking the rules but I resent being put in that position.

And yes, absolutely this. The blunt sledgehammer lockdown policy made me into a law breaker. It was ludicrous. I'm the most law abiding person in the world.

I think it can a bit of both, I think it was hard as my kids don't live locally so we couldn't see them, DH is disabled so I was late 60s in the house feeling a lot of pressure. At the same times there were bits that I remember as happy times or memorable times, for example I live near the coast in the south west, lots of ships were docked during lockdown sheltering with nowhere to go. As 2020 turned to 2021 they all sounded their horns in turn as a thank you for what local people did to help them. I stood at my front door and listened, it was a still dark night and the sound was haunting, it still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up just thinking about it. Would I go through lockdown again to hear that? No I wouldn't but it is still a memorable and unique experience.

Some weeks I would tell the Sainsbury's delivery man he was the only person I'd talked to face to face for another week, some weeks I talked to the postman as well, that was a real sociable week when I got to talk to both of them.

We'd go down to the beach on nice days, there were lots of nice days the first year, take a picnic. We were always expecting to get arrested but we went to a quiet local beach not a main beach in town so it wasn't a problem except they closed the car park which was a pain.

It sounds like you had a tough time, take no notice of her.

It feels unreal now.

I forgot just as it was all calming down in February 2022 I got covid quite badly. Dr wanted me to go into hospital, I said no thanks my cough was driving me mad the thought of being on a ward listening to everyone else coughing was not for me. I stayed at home with my antibiotics and managed to drag myself into the kitchen to make meals even if they were just microwave meals and DH did what he could. February 2022 was worse than the previous 24 months all rolled up together, I suppose the only positive thing is I didn't die but I did have long covid for months.

I found it awful and my faith in humanity was more or less destroyed. In the couple of years before lockdown, my dad died, my marriage ended, and my cat died and then it was Covid. My exH moved in with his girlfriend and I had to support my widowed mum from afar, as she phoned me in tears most days because she felt so isolated. I had just started seeing someone before Covid and was just starting to feel happy, when lockdown happened; if, after a few weeks, we hadn't decided that if we didn't break the law, one of us (me probably) would have a mental breakdown, I wouldn't have had social or physical contact with anyone for months. The one saving grace was the weather. During the winter lockdown my sister and her family moved in with my mum and they all found it so all-consuming, that they forgot all about me, living on my own. They barely called me or returned my calls for months. If I hadn't been bubbling with my new bloke (thank goodness for him), I would have been on my own for months in the depths of a really shitty winter. I haven't entirely forgiven them.

That's just one small person's small experience. So many people had it so so much worse. It was awful. It's nice for some people that they had a lovely time with their little family - loads of us weren't so lucky.

It really annoys me when people say they enjoyed lockdown. To me it shows massive self absorption.

people were dying, the world had tilted on its axis, measures were costing billions, children had no school, the certainty on which we based our lives were removed. The repercussions have proven to be devastating which were easy to foresee at the time.

for me personally it was horrendous: massive loss of income, worry over DH taking immunosuppressants, my mum losing her sight and having to navigate hospitals in chaos.

The first lockdown when it was sunny and a novelty was fine, but winter where I had a choice between breaking the rules or losing my mind were shit. I don’t regret breaking the rules but I resent being put in that position.

It was fine for me. I live in the country and had company at home. I’ve also never had covid. For those who had to work in the NHS and other services, those who were lonely, Ill or bereaved, it must have been awful, and nothing whatsoever to do with how ‘organised’ they were.

I think the weather and time of year is making many reflect as at our post gym class coffee session this am, we were reminiscing about lockdown too.

Everyone was saying how lovely it was, but also saying how they’d never stick to those rules again!

Personally, I was very happy during lockdown, apart from the worry for others. Like someone else, my house was good, I had plenty of garden space and an assured income. I was returning from maternity leave in the March, and my return to work was much more flexible than it would have been. My elderly relatives were safe, and I wasn't giving birth (although I did give birth with lock down visitation rules later on, and we managed well)

I'm not naive enough to think that it was like that for everyone, and my heart broke for others that struggled.

ETA: I do often think about how the lockdown periods may have impacted DCs development though. Six months of being held by no-one other than DH or I...

For me I suspect that there were periods in my life where I'd have been less affected by it. I was quite socially isolated for a period after university and lockdown wouldn't have made it any worse. I don't know how I'd have reacted though.

We also found it really difficult
Newborn baby and a toddler with SEN and trying to teach 2 other children at home.

While everyone else was panic buying, we was wondering if we would be able to feed our son who at the time was living off aldi cheerios (later was diagnosed with ARFID and autism) dp would go to aldi and there would literally be no cereal for him.

We In a way become prisoners in our home and didn't go for any walks etc because he is a bin/lamp post licker.

It was extremely isolating especially as everyone's focus was on the fact we had a newborn baby at home to our selfs and how that must of been so "nice"

But the knock of effect was I didn't leave the house for over a year because my anxiety was so high regarding our son that I became really unwell.

I found lockdown really hard because both my DDs were primary school aged then, the youngest only just turned 5. I was expected to WFH and look after them and try and get some school work done with them. DH could only WFH 2 days a week so most of the time it was just me.
My DM kept making comments like wasn't I washing all my shopping before putting it away and should I really be taking the DC out for a walk every day - not really what I needed! They would also call a couple of times a week to talk to the DC but never really wanted to talk to me, check I was ok and coping etc (I think they just thought it wasn't that bad for us).
It did actually affect our relationship a lot and it's taken a while to recover

Every time we talk about lockdown I think about how incredibly lucky we were as a family. We had plenty of space, a garden, secure jobs, and no one close to us was CEV. Yes, it was quite stressful with primary aged children and work life that really ramped up due to the nature of what we do, but for us personally it was quite a good time. But I recognise we were lucky to have that experience and think that we were the exception rather than the norm.

People lost their lives, their livelihoods, their loved ones, and it drastically impacted peoples' mental health in a variety of ways - not acknowledging that does them a disservice. Your MIL is out of touch with the ways it impacted people in the real world and an idiot.

It was shit. My dad died, my mum had to go into a care home which I never even saw since she then died, my MIL was terminally ill, I had to clear and sell my childhood home, and couldn't have a funeral for either parent.

Your mil sounds self absorbed. And presumably, if lockdown didn't affect her negatively, friendless.

I think the overall effects on society were dreadful. Maybe a few individuals enjoyed it but surely even they aren't enjoying the way that services and leisure amenities have been since then.