To miss the first lockdown?

I am allowed to feel angry by my life effectively being destroyed by the pandemic. A comparison with people in China is totally irrelevant . I am responding to comments by people in the uk who enjoyed a slower pace of life following decisions by the Uk government while others were going through various different types of suffering

The only thing I miss about lockdowns was getting to play lockdown arbitrage and stick it to the man, so to speak. I went on holiday to Portugal in June 2020 where they had already lifted their lockdown and though they had a midnight curfew we found a hostel bar that continued to serve us into the early hours of the morning where we met other Brits and Irish people who had done exactly the same thing as us. It was fantastic. Similarly, as London was plunged into “tier 4” (basically full lockdown) in December 2020, I took a staycation to Bath and Brighton, two of my favourite cities which happened to both be “tier 2” at the time, and got to go shopping, eat out, go to the theatre, go to a spinning class and go to the cinema. Amazing.

If I didn’t have work, I have gone much further and relocated to countries that didn’t have a lockdown, like some of my friends did - one lived in Sweden for a few months, another with a French passport moved to Réunion and a couple went to Dubai.

I don’t miss it one bit. I remember sobbing on the 2 week announcement from Boris, telling my husband that this would be 12-18 months, and him trying to convince me that no government would ever do this to an economy for more than 2 weeks. I guess my gut was working overtime. It was utter shit. I did not stay home EVER. But of course most other people did. I’m not massively’ out there’ socially but it was really hard. My business had to shut down & while Dishy Rishy said that no one would be left behind, we certainly were, and got sweet FA. Used up our life savings to keep afloat. All for what? I get there are vulnerable people (my mum) included. But for everyone else life should have continued as normal. You just need to compare the Uk & Swedish figures to know the true picture.

And there were so many better ways.

Yabu. It was hell. Dh had the first covid and honestly thought he die....he only just sort of better now. I worked NHS at the time but left due to childcare issues and the stress of no money, very ill husband and juggling a toddler ...so many of my friends got mental health issues and there is a whole generation of children still struggling...year 11, year 5 and year 4 seem the worse effected. Look at attendance rates recently for children. .I know so many children who never returned to school and are still scared to go outside as the government told them it was dangerous at a vital point of their life...if no idea what toddlers and babies since covid are like as my dd was the age she was ..so many playgroups closed as they lost their volunteers and a lot of my elderly patients died due to loneliness....

Self reflection is always a good thing - it motivates change and growth.

I'm sorry I know someone will point out in a minute that everyone has a right to experience what they experienced etc but I truly hate posts like this. They are the 2020s equivalent of Marie Antoinette playing in her fake village: the epitome of bad taste, lack of judgement and failure to read a room.

Anyone who misses lockdown is, by definition, incredibly privileged. My lockdown was utterly awful, I was working in an airless room for 16 hours a day while my daughter in the room next door came close to a full breakdown. And I was lucky I got to keep my job and didn't have to work in a COVID ward or a supermarket.

I find people with their Elysian memories of romping through forests holding hands with their children and husbands and their self-indulgent maunderings about "slowing down" and "connecting" unbelievably decadent and self-indulgent.

Sorry, you can feel as you feel but please keep it to yourself.

It was nice for me. But I recognise it was completely horrific for others.

50/50 on the AIBU responses. It's heart-breaking to read the stories of those who were badly affected by lockdown, especially those in the NHS or whose elderly parents were in care homes. But OP is not looking through rose-tinted glasses - 50% of us really loved lockdown, and found a special kind of peace and happiness in the enforced slowing down and isolation. Personally, I look back on that period with real affection, despite the awfulness some people experienced.

I absolutely adored it. BUT - I was 24, in a well-paid wfh job, and living with my boyfriend. Now I have young kids, and often think about how I'd genuinely lose my mind if I was trapped at home with them for months on end, let alone while working.

@TidyOchreReader OP are you me???? I was thinking the exact thing today. Before people come to chew my head off -
i worked in the NHS during COVID
I lost my dad to COVID and couldn’t travel for his funeral which has affected me deeply and I’m on anti depressants
We don’t have any family here and I was petrified that if me or husband got infected as to who would take care of our daughter who was 4

Therefore I’m on no way minimising the physiological and physical effects of COVID. When I’m saying I miss the lockdown it’s not the suffering or loneliness which no one wants again - ever.

what I miss is the slow pace which showed life doesn’t need to be a competition or complicated. There are plenty of simple pleasures- which we fail to see and the lock down forced us to.

i really miss this-

You can probably go back to that time if you really want to. Without expecting everyone else to aswell.

I’m an introvert and I fucking hated it, sorry.

I’ve only read the OP post and her updates.
Totally agree OP, I loved it. It was a heady, blissful time for me.
Others find it distatateful to hear it, but it’s true nevertheless. I’d go back to that time in a heartbeat.

Edited to add, I worked part time at a funeral home during Covid so wasn’t immune to the horrors, but on a personal level, lockdown was everything.

5 years later and the world has almost forgotten about it. Companies are going back to work from office policies, pubs are busy, sporting events sold out, Royal Ascot is full of drunken chavs pretending to have class, people are going on holiday, the planes are coming in thick and fast at Heathrow.

Wholeheartedly disagree. It’s a v inappropriate post
People died. The NHS was on its knees
But hey,so long as you had a nice time at a pace that suited you

It didn’t slow down for me. In fact work got ridiculously crazy trying to identify and support our clients who needed help. We had to wfh without any proper equipment or set up, working significantly longer hours than before. Our fertility treatments got cancelled and we weren’t sure when or whether they would get back up (given our ages too). It was a sh*tshow and we actually had it quite good compared to many others.

I ended up on antidepressants by the time we were coming out of relentless lockdowns (Glasgow - just about everyone got their freedom before us). But I get what you mean. At the start the entire world was united against a common enemy. House Party app and Tik Tok dances. Home schooling just about did me in (ND child, single parent newly separated and working full time) but DS was in P1 and I was strangely glad to have unexpected time home with him. Plus the weather was amazing. It was frightening and weird and we all pulled together. And with the benefi9of hindsight we can erase the terror a lot of us felt either for ourselves or our loved ones, and just feel nostalgic.

YANBU @TidyOchreReader - I absolutely loved lockdown. 4 months with DH, having DSD week on week off, no commuting, enough remote work to keep me busy, quality time together - it was absolutely fantastic. I’m sorry for those who didn’t enjoy it or who found is hideous but there’s no shame in saying that you didn’t.

Me and DH loved it. Both kept working full time at home, no kids to home-educate, gorgeous walks on our doorstep and a quiet garden to enjoy the lovely weather we had.

It kick-started a change in our lifestyle that we still live life like today. We got a gorgeous dog and now enjoy uk holidays rather than travelling abroad as much, I moved to permanent work from home job etc. So for us it was life changing in the best way.

However I have complete sympathy for anyone who had sick family or lost people close to them, or who lost their jobs or businesses. Or those who had to home-school. It was a completely different, negative experience for many people and I am therefore careful who I share my opinions with about that time!

I won’t lie – lockdown made my life a lot better. We saved a ton of money. We spent quality time with our children, who were just at the right age to benefit from it. Our jobs were safe and the pressure was off. Our long commutes were over. We are still reaping the benefits today – the money and WFH which allowed us to live where we wanted to.

But is all that worth the atrocities that accumulated because of it? The damage to the economy, the NHS, the livelihoods, the deaths. Absolutely not. If I could go back in time and have it never have happened, I would grit my teeth and would.

No. I am an introvert and hated lockdown.
My social batteries were overcharged and leaking acid. I was very lonely.
It was illegal to see and hug my own mum. Why would I like that?