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

@elliejjtiny of course you're right OP and your MiL is wrong. Lockdown was incredibly difficult for many people.

I don't think that's universally true. My primary school aged child sailed through lockdown, loved being at home doing things with us, enjoyed his home schooling. Whereas our teenager secondary schooler really suffered from 6 months missed socialisation.

Single parent to child with SEN, a job I had to keep going.... Lost my relationship...caught COVID.....developed MEcfs.... Feel like I never quite came out of lockdown.

A few years ago I met someone at a party and she was saying how she’s a consultant and during Covid worked in A&E. I commented that that must have been v difficult and she said “oh not really- much better than being locked up at home”. So I think it’s a case of everyone having different things that they find tricky. If I’d been in uk in Covid I’d 100% have just gone and got a job in Tesco or Amazon or something just to get out of the house. I can’t be inside all day. I find it mentally oppressive. My parents, although retired, are the same and also found it tricky- the dog got walked a LOT 🤣. They’d take it out separately to get some space from each other.

Mixed bag here- first one we were in UK, worried about our business and to be honest I'm not a 24/7 round husband kind of person, I found that hard as my H moaned non stop -but we got through it without going bust thank goodness- however lots on our industry basically had their income cut dead overnight , so we had lots of friends in difficulty

We had also been planning to move overseas post Brexit and hit obstacles as couldn't fly anywhere to view rental houses etc-

Second one we were living in Copenhagen and it was easier to handle- they used the Covid app passport too and if tested twice a week there was a fair bit you could still go to plus had a gorgeous beach an easy drive away and a cute fishing village that was doing great ice creams and coffees to take out

So much of this depends where you lived, what space you had inside and outside, whether you were dealing with parents or young kids, whether your relationship was good, what your job was etc

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

I hated lockdowns, 2 young dc at home whilst me and dh wfh, no furlough, no time to make fucking banana bread and read Hilary Mantel. Doing the same things every day - working, washing, cooking, tidying up, going for your daily allowed walk, listening to the death toll on the news. It wasn’t living, it was existing.

And we were lucky as we weren’t ill, we weren’t alone, we had a garden and we had jobs that weren’t frontline key worker ones. I don’t know how anyone’s looking back at that time with nostalgia.

I enjoyed lockdown even with young children.

I always say one of the actual nicest summers we have had was the lockdown one.

Like the planet was happy with less pollution from less flights and fewer cars on the road.

Yes, my lockdown was bloody lovely tbh.

@elliejjtiny your MIL sounds exceptionally thick. How could anyone with knowledge of your situation blame you for struggling?

My SIL goes on about how great lockdown was and how she feels "blessed to have experienced it"

I'm sure it was great for her, since they both illegally scammed the government out of furlough money, while still working full time getting cash-in-hand, managed to put loads aside and buy a house.

For me, lockdown was horrible. I'll never be the same.

I find it hard to.hear that some people found it great as it was torture for me. I was not able to.see my partner, I live alone and was working from home. The isolation messed with my.mental health. I'm.still not the same.

Lockdown was the worst thing that ever happened to me & I grew up in Belfast during the height of the troubles. I lost all sense of hope , joy and positivity. I kept my job & have a nice house and garden but the feeling of having no control over my life, that the government could impose laws to keep us locked in our own homes, that you would be judged harshly for questioning it nearly cost me my sanity. It was the absolutely worst time of my life.

Yes, I completely agree with this. Particularly the bit about the glibness.

We were 'lucky' in that both of us continued to work outside of the house and had that routine and normality, but I am still not recovered (for want of a less dramatic word) from the battering my mental health took.

2dc at home plus schoolwork plus business plus HUGE loss of income = awful

You are not alone

Lockdown for you sounds like it was very understandably awful, and your MIL is a twat.

It was mixed for me. I owned a business and the work I did was much, much nicer during lockdown. I then sold it right at the end and well above what it was worth because it was COVID proof at an uncertain time, and it's made a huge difference to my life. But my friendship group was decimated, even now socially many people I know haven't really recovered, and I really miss those people.

I found the first lock down OK- mainly due to the weather and us having a garden
The Christmas one I found very very hard.

Roll your eyes and just accept your MIL is a silly bint. I hope things are on the up for you now.

Seriously ? You can't imagine people single people working from home in a small flat with no human contact difficult? Or the elderly person who is scared that going outside will kill them? The people whose medical treatment was put on hold?

I do believe that some form of lockdown was necessary in the early days so I wouldn't describe myself as 'anti' but even so it is blindingly obvious that it was a difficult time for so many people.

Some people loved it, some people tolerated it, some loathed it.

My SEN son loved it as he always hated leaving the house anyway. DH loved it, working from home suits him as he hates mixing with people unless he knows them very well and he worked from home a bit anyway before lockdown. I tolerated it as I had to go to work anyway as school was still open for vulnerable children but missed our DD who lives on her own a few hundred miles away.

It was a very difficult time for a lot of people. I know people who died because of Covid. I know people who couldn’t say goodbye to dying relatives because of lockdowns. I know people who couldn’t go to loved ones funerals because of lockdowns.

“Being more organised” wouldn’t have changed things really.

My nearly 12yo is excited for her birthday and counting the days.

After a rough few years, especially around March as her birthday is the time the world changed, she's stopping seeing her birthday as a bad day.

She was fine in first lockdown. It was the subsequent ones, and the isolation periods etc which messed with her mind. She basically lost trust in people as people could disappear overnight.

I think some people's lifestyles and personalities were more suited to lockdown. Some people even enjoyed having it to take it easy , especially if they didn't have extra worries(financial, having to work and homeschool, caring responsibilities etc.) .

That doesn't mean that people who struggled were weak or disorganised or that in was in any way , shape or form their fault. Thinking that is just stupid and narrow minded.

100 percent this. Even if it suited someone personally, they should shut up about that- because the lockdowns gave British society the biggest kicking since the end of WW2. The OP’s mother in law is clearly someone who fails to see the big picture.

Oh and your MIL is an idiot

It wasn’t horrific, I acknowledge we were lucky in that I was a sahm and my kids were 2 and 4, so getting easier to manage and not really aware of what was going on, and I didn’t need to bother with online school or anything. And we had a house with a garden and DH working from home.

It wasn’t great either though. Keeping the kids quiet so DH could work, and basically just alone at home with them all day every day from 9-5. Previously I had had a good routine of friends and activities to keep me sane.

My in-laws had a great time. Retired and chilling in the garden. I don’t remember the time fondly at all!

Don't let your idiotic MIL bully you, @elliejjtiny What was the response of your DH when your MIL was saying those prattish things?