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

@Modernskylines well it's variable ! But no time has been quite as bad as 2020/2021

@WestwardHo1 yep, wonder how they would feel if they said to everyone furloughed- well if you can't get by for a few months on UC or use your savings then clearly you have been financially irresponsible- it's the same with mortgages- if self employed (even years ) you often have to jump through multiple hoops and have higher deposits, whereas someone employed on PAYE has no idea if they will be made redundant in 6 weeks- with self employment you tend to have far more control of knowing if your business is in trouble.

Lockdowns destroyed my health and the ramifications still continue. I am autistic (didn't know it at the time) single, and have no family support due to dysfunction. The amount of stress not having any support and all of the things I relied on to stay sane (in person therapist, the gym, the library, opportunity to make connections) resulted in major depression and then CFS that took years of my life away from me. I'm one of the "economically inactive" people as a consequence of all of this - there's definitely not enough coverage in the media about how the tragedy of the pandemic wasn't just due to the disease itself (which was of course awful). But that's to be expected as most people working in the media are middle-class privileged people who weren't single, isolated, living in a small flat, with additional needs or any other things that made lockdowns torment and a direct threat to their health.

I'm so glad you had that time x

So sorry you went through a loss too.
That’s how I feel, a blessing in disguise.

I work full time usually and DF would’ve had to get taxis to go for his hospital appointments. I’m a dental nurse and we were forced to close for nearly 3 months. We were off for the first month then went back just 2 days a week on a rota just keeping in touch with patients and giving advice. It gave me the time to devote to him.

@Newname71 I'm so sorry you're in the shitty club too, virtual hug coming your way.

I suffer from a weird conflict around the fact that lockdown meant I could devote myself to my Mum in her last month of life, which was of course a privilege I was grateful for, but the damage it did to my business was terrible. But I would have struggled far more with caring for her and trying to work if we weren't in lockdown so in an odd way it was a bit of a blessing.

It was a mixed bag for me. I was relieved that schools were shut, it gave me some respite from being a punch bag trying to get my school refuser in.
3 days before lockdown DF was diagnosed with cancer so it was a shit time but I was off work for 5 weeks then only working 2 days a week for 4 months (on full time pay) so I was able to take him for his treatment every week day which I would have otherwise been unable to do.
Sadly he succumbed to the cancer 11 months later, I cherish all the extra time I got to spend with him.

Unfortunately, some people used covid and lockdown as excuses to be the twat they'd always wanted to be.

Ah yes, the joy of suddenly being labelled "non-essential" which no matter how robust or pragmatic you tried to be, felt oddly personal. One minute you were part of a functioning economy and community, then you weren't.

We had a shop separate to DPs employment, niche, lifestyle, gifts and clothing which was mine to run. When I shared thoughts on social media, on our sudden transition to non-essential, it was suggested I buy a freezer / fridge and stock foodstuffs to be able to open, or start running as a cafe when restrictions loosened. No understanding of the costs or upheaval or how it would essentially be breaking rules and possibly incur fines and breach usage by-laws etc, never mind we were right between a mini-mart and a bakery. We never really recovered, so we downsized and relocated to reduce overheads, and less than two months after re-opening in late 2021, DP died. After that, it was a steady decline for reasons I just bitterly posted about on another thread exhorting people to support local independent businesses.

The more I think about it all, the crosser I get, especially now when having Covid, unless you're really poorly, is considered no different to having a cold in terms of how you're supposed to deal with it.

I agree,what a horrible thing to say!

That’s not true.
Self employed people received support from the government in proportion to their earnings.
Those who ‘lost out’ were those who has a Ltd company, paid themselves the minimum and had the rest as earnings from the company.

Reading this has actually triggered the rage and upset I felt at the time. DH is self-employed, and trades as a limited company as his clients won't use sole traders. He pays himself the miminum and then dividends, not as some sort of tax dodge, although it is perfectly legal obviously, but because it makes far more sense for someone with very variable levels of money coming in.

We'd had a rough financial period for a couple of reasons prior to 2020, and things were just looking up it all happened and every single job vanished from his diary, and we had no idea if or when his industry would restart.

Having people on here saying we were tax dodgers who deserved to be almost penniless, was really the cherry on the very, very shit cake.

@UndermyShoeJoe
We were lucky. We had a garden, allotments. Good weather. Dh was still at work and I was home with the children. Though one child was affected by the lock downs but now overcome.

I won’t apologise for enjoying the lack of routine and demands on our time, enjoying our nice walks and gardening in the lovely weather.

No-one's asking you to apologise for enjoying it. Simply to appreciate and show empathy for those for whom it was a struggle, or downright horrendous time. By your own admission you were "lucky", so it shouldn't be too hard to imagine that others had a hard time of it.

There were aspects of 2020 that I really enjoyed - I actually look back on that year fondly. No-ones asked me to apologise for that, or is disputing that. But other aspects were horrendous. People deserve empathy for that, for what we went through.

Before Sunak announced the help for the self employed I remember worrying on MN about how I was going to cope without an income. One poster told me that if my business (and therefore I) couldn't survive without income for a few months then I probably wasn't viable anyway and I shouldn't even be thinking about such a thing when people were DYING.

People lost their fucking minds.

We were lucky. We had a garden, allotments. Good weather. Dh was still at work and I was home with the children. Though one child was affected by the lock downs but now overcome.

I won’t apologise for enjoying the lack of routine and demands on our time, enjoying our nice walks and gardening in the lovely weather.

Sure lining up around B&m carpark in the heat to go buy a few things wasn’t nice but we never ran out of anything, didn’t have to play hunt the toilet roll.

And yes honestly in a new now even bigger home with more land. I’d do again almost no problem apart from it being my oldest time to do GCSE’s so yes he was a year 6-7 transfer during Covid.

I have PTSD as a result of the COVID lockdown . I had to watch my disabled son have a slow breakdown over the period of about a year which involved bone curdling screaming every couple of hours including through the night, him running away from home, trying to strangle and hit and kick me, him smashing his head against and wall and trying to break his bedroom windows and I couldn't leave him alone because it was too dangerous so I just had to try to ignore it. Eventually he had a catatonic breakdown and was unable to move and became doubly incontinent. He has only just revived to pre COVID functioning and I am permanently disabled as a result.

There was no social services support available at the time despite us being in crisis and at the point of family breakdown and full respite services only reopened this time last year.

@Modernskylines well he's always been a bit of a moaner- but was hugely full scale grade A moaner at that time.

I refused to watch television at all in 2020: I can proudly say I didn’t watch a single briefing live. I gave up radio 4 that year as well, when I had heard “corrrrrrronavirus” once too many, and in August, Boris saying “we need to squeeeeeeeze the brakes on reopening”, while trampling all over children.

I tried to watch an opera of Hansel and gretel on YouTube… then discovered it was a version filmed in 2021: with actors keeping apart on the stage, and masked musicians. There was just no fucking escape.

No amount of organising could change anyone's core state during lockdowns. You couldn't organise to have had fewer children nor for them to have less complicated health. I couldn't organise to not live on my own nor to not have a garden. People made do with the hand they were dealt but some people were dealt much, much better hands.

I think we need to acknowledge that everyone's experiences were valid, whatever their age or lifestyle. It's okay to have enjoyed it and it's okay to have really struggled with it. Neither side needs to justify their feelings and experience but as adults we should be open minded enough to realise the huge diversity of experiences don't nullify our own.

What was he and the marriage like before lockdown and after?

@iggleoggle I feel somewhat like that - if I had been 'on my own' in our nice house with good garden and same income- I would have coped just fine but my H hated it, moaned constantly and was in a chronic bad mood and I was kind of stuck with that - no kids at home either still to deflect it a bit

Gosh yes.
As a die-hard leftie I have felt very let down by the political left over the past decade, but never more than during 2020. The very people who should have been scrutinising the government's actions, the political opposition - and they were endorsing the government even more enthusiastically than Tories themselves

Yes Me too

Yep Same with the bedroom tax Ppl were moaned at on here for not having a spare room to isolate in Some downsized because of said tax, All gone quiet now though and the same hypocrites still think the bedroom tax should continue.

There weren’t many tv shows being filmed during lockdown?
and I certainly don’t recall much joviality from presenters