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

YANBU. Lockdown destroyed my mental health. It was illegal for my daughter to see a single other child in person for months on end, and my worrying about her triggered clinical anxiety. She also developed mental health symptoms herself and became unhappy, anxious and volatile. I can’t think about that time without feeling sad and panicky. Plenty of people clearly had a great time but that absolutely wasn’t universal.

I personally needed the lock down. I was so unwell with my mh, and dd was almost one. It saved me as it became okay to stay home

But I fear it's impact on dd. She's autistic so has delayed speech. But in the back of my mind, I blame myself for needing the pandemic as she needed to be socialising 🥺🥺

If we had a lock down now, i wouldn't cope as her needs are too high and unlike me, she needs to be outside

Edit, yanbu

When I say that the pandemic saved me, i always caveat it with, just for me and acknowledge others struggles or losses x

I think this is more to do with your MIL being spectacularly self-absorbed than anything to do with people's experiences of lockdown.

It was a mix for me. The first few weeks were incredibly tough. I was a first time mum and my baby was 4 months old. I had just been finding my feet as a mum, starting to go to some groups and I was addressing my postpartum anxiety. My husband was away with work the night it was announced with no idea when he would be able to get back to us so I alone with a baby. I remember crying for hours. Frightened to go into the supermarket in case the baby caught it but I had no choice. Got tuts and judged for taking my baby in there. The small friendships I had tentatively started building all moved to online. Luckily he was home after a few weeks and while he went out to work, we did have days where he could work from home which did give us some nice days as a family together. But god I was so isolated for those first few weeks. For me it got easier but no I did not enjoy it. Most of my family and friends are medical and none of us would do it again.

No, it wasn't THEIR fault.
But it was the fault of the powers that be and the pressure we put on others to follow rules which were for SOME PEOPLE callous and inhuman. Like not letting small children in playgrounds, asking parents to work and homeschool, or expecting single people or old people to live or die without companionship or touch. Manipulating people into extreme positions of self sacrifice where they felt unable to complain or resist.

I also know someone who spent it living in a flat with scaffolding on the outside cutting off most of the natural light. That seemed to do a real number on them that they don't seem to be recovering from.

I hated it. I'm a community nurse and people were horrible and stressed with us. People need to remember that we are human beings too
I was terrified about family who are CEV and wept when I had my covid immunisation before them.

It was hideous. Had my first baby during this time. Very lonely, anxious and isolating experience. Hard or impossible to access support. The whole thing was a very bleak time in my life that I can hardly bring myself to think about properly. Husband feels the same way.

Having subsequent babies really highlighted in its own way how shit the experience was first time which we can never get back.

I am super glad my eldest won't remember any of it. I certainly won't be telling them about it with rose tinted specs either when they're old enough!

It was hideous. I’m glad people who were unaffected had an okay time, but for a lot of people, it was a nightmarish time.

Very very variable. I enjoyed it, except for the worry. But we have a big house, a garden, assured income. Very different in a small flat with money worries. And we didn't get covid

It was horrendous, I hate this glibness of people thinking it was all a jolly good laugh and time out from society. Society has now gobne to utter shit

Women giving birth on their own, people dying in hospitals on their own, care home residents being isolated for months on end worsening their conditions, children isolated and illeducated, society becoming more anxious and stressed and isolated, never to recover it seems, services going down the pan, some fucking companies still have a 'we're keeping our staff safe' banner (well 3 did when I last logged in ages ago)

Yes I hated it....was absolutely awful.

No one should feel bad about struggling with it...it goes entirely against nature to keep people separated in such a way

I think that people's experiences of lockdown were so different that you can't really compare. My mental health went to absolute shit during lockdown. I lost all the day to day things that kept me and my young DC happy and there wasn't anything that I could have done differently.

She told me it was my fault and it would have been fun for us too if I had been more organised.

Really? She had actually said this words?

MIL’s comment was bollocks! Hope she’s less dim, self absorbed and nicer than that in general.

Weirdly, I was thinking about this earlier. I think the weather today reminded me.

I felt guilty about how much I enjoyed lockdown. I easily get overwhelmed, so being forced to take things slower was quite a revelation. I became more creative; the house looked nice, and we ate better. I had just had major surgery, and I took my physio seriously, meaning my recovery was really successful.

BUT… we had our son home from uni; we have gardens, and we are on the edge of countryside. I know that we were extremely fortunate.

No it’s not your fault at all. I found lockdown great too. No more childcare bills both my husband and I kept our jobs but worked from home. I had 3 small kids so that part was hard as we were home schooling 2 of them. Hated that part. But overall I loved it. Sure i missed holidays abroad and restaurants. But that doesn’t mean it was your fault that you hated lockdown.

I imagine lockdown was particularly difficult for parents of primary school children, they wouldn't have understood the magnitude of what was happening