To miss the first lockdown?

As an example my father in law I think quite liked it at81 - the daily bulletins gave him something to focus on and discuss, his life changed little and he had a big house and lovely big garden . I think he quite liked that we were all reduced to living his quite small quiet life and that we now phoned every day.

Maybe your anger should be directed at the pencil pushers/policy makers at the top then rather than the frontline staff who did what they could to get through?

@GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing yes I think it’s one of those things we can learn from without posting and triggering all those who had a very shit time of it- given there were so many .

@InAFewYearsTime no as I said it’s about 50/50 - but I still think it’s one of those things given the amount negatively affected you should maybe keep in your head - a bit like posting ‘I enjoyed my affair with a married man ‘

I also loved it OP but I do understand how others would feel differently.

Im thankful I didn’t stick strictly to the ‘rules’ and did see elderly family regularly as they have now recently died.

plus long walks all over the place. We had a nice garden which, again, I get that a lot of people didn’t.

However despite understanding how a lot of people suffered I don’t think Covid can be blamed for everything … your 5 year old might have been crap at maths anyway … your teen may have struggled socially anyway …

Thank you.

That does encapsulate it nicely. Because it wasn’t just people feeling differently about the same thing, it’s people having gone through completely different things.

And I’m not even one of those who had it worse - neither was I some one who lost loved ones in tragic circumstances or entirely alone and vulnerable. Or stuck in a flat with young children.

I just find it massively triggering, I think, when someone says this.

It was a time when the inequalities in society were really exacerbated and unnecessary widened.

But all means we can look at what some people benefited from in lockdown and try to extend that to everyone without having the awful inequalities - perhaps we should make it more normal for everyone to be afforded some time off work, to be less pressured to be “busy” etc. And unlike in lockdown, try to increase everyone’s access to outdoor space (I’m thinking those who enjoyed it often spent more time outdoors than previously). But there seems to be no appetite for that.

@taxguru that aspect to me was ludicrous but wasn’t the decision of hospital staff - it was gvt directed.

YABVVVU

I have ptsd from being redeployed to ITU both times.

I voted YANBU. The OP is entitled to feel that way.

From somebody who got paid to sit at home making bread, buried a loved one and lost their job.

HTH

I agree. OH had his chemotherapy cancelled for nearly six months. No contact nor communication at all from the oncology dept. He had to keep ringing and pestering them to get a date for it to start again. Utterly appalling! It's one thing delaying non life threatening treatments, but delaying urgent chemotherapy is unacceptable.

I don't. My mum died on 31st March 2020. I spent the 1st 3 weeks of that lockdown organizing her (pitiful) funeral, stressing about my dad who was isolating (mum had covid), on his own whilst coming to terms with losing the woman he had loved for almost 60 years, having numerous facetime calls with DD (who lives over 100 miles away), and not being able to hold her as her heart broke over the loss of her beloved nanna who she hadn't seen since the previous November, worrying about what would happen to my job as we'd all been furloughed (I was made redundant btw), stressing about my sibling who was close to breakdown as she lived abroad and so could not even come to mum's funeral so had to watch it over facetime (no zoom funerals back then), my other sibling was working as the company she worked for were tasked with making body bags which also affected her MH.

I'm told that the weather was lovely and the pace of life was much slower but tbh I don't recall any of that. The whole of 2020 is just a hazy blur. I'm glad a lot of people enjoyed it and can understand those same people missing the peace of it, I just wish I was one of them.

Can you give an example of a problem AI contributed to during the pandemic?

They're probably the half who got paid to sit at home making bread. Not the other half who lost their jobs, businesses, buried family members, had hospital treatments cancelled, etc.

No doubt, but if it hadn't happened perhaps we would have been able to analyse the impact more as it was being introduced, without being consumed by whether we or our lived ones were going to die, ir whether we were going to be fined for breaching often arbitrary rules. Not knowing what is "real" and what is not via technology is dangerous, and during the pandemic that was a real problem that early AI contributed to, as mostly AI was not "credited" with its output.

I'm sure AI would have happened regardless of covid coming along

Well this random person ended up being diagnosed with advanced cancer when the lockdowns finally ended and there are many more like me too. If the hospital staff were doing their jobs instead of prancing around like idiots there wouldn’t be so many people in my situation. By the way it doesn’t take two minutes to choreograph a dance video.

Not at the speed the pandemic facilitated. And with everyone focused on Covid and "da rulez" so much else just went under the wire.

Perhaps a goady post,it was well documented hospitals and staff were stretched to the limit.
Working with a bin liner as protection against an unknown virus...oh that must have been such a laugh.

Covid devastated our family in that DH contracted it early in 2020, developed long covid, which was unfortunately massively exacerbated by the vaccine in a series of hellish cycle of pain and dozens of symptoms ever since. He lost his job as a result three years ago and its only in the last few months he feels like the symptoms are manageable enough to try to return to work. With 60% of our income gone, it's been incredibly stressful for me carrying it financially, emotionally and practically, terrified that DH would get worse and leave me widowed.
DS was isolated from friends and struggled quite a bit. It was very lonely for him. He was 8 so luckily he was old enough to understand why but it still was tough.

And yet... in the beginning of lockdown, for us it was lovely. My long commute vanished, we live rurally so felt safe from the virus, our local shops had no queueing. We planted trees and vegetables and camped outdoors in our back yard. Life for us was like you describe. Colleagues with teens or toddlers, or who were house sharing had a more difficult experience. Some more social folk in our family struggled with the isolation. A few we knew nearly died but we luckily didn't lose anyone we love to covid.

We've come out the other side with a fresh perspective though. No more running ragged for employers who would sack you in a heartbeat. More work life balance. I work from home half the week now and it's ideal. A focus on cutting out ultra processed food and growing our own. No more blindly believing our politicians, or, health "experts" and going along with draconian rules they impose. When we were struggling financially we got nothing. Absolutely nothing from a system we paid into for decades and yet our government here in Ireland continue to spend billions on immigrants flooding in when we cant house those who already live here. I went into lockdown a socialist and am now veering towards being right wing, thanks to life since lockdown.

@Leapintothelightning I think it says a lot about our media and how tge public jump on any old crap if it’s suits their agenda

Oh and as an add on - my son ended up with 2 years worth of university debt for next to nothing going on - as prior to this there was 8 weeks of uni lecturers on strike . The whole shit show affected his mental health as he was also working 20 hours a week in one room at his shared house and he threw in the towel at Uni , felt he was paying for bugger all, little work and def no social aspect.Absolutely disgusting for those with lots of debt now and very little actual ‘service’

My husband worked in the high dependency and intensive care units during lockdown. I’ll tell him that the time he dealt with 6 Covid deaths in a day he wasn’t overwhelmed because a random person from Mumsnet saw some staff posting a 2 minute tiktok video.

Being reliant on tech- was that not happening before lockdown?

@GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing I totally get your post - it’s about reading the room -

imagine a situation where the economy totally crashed and 50% of the population were suddenly in abject poverty ( and I think those who had an ok time and those who didn’t is around 50/50) whilst people all around you were losing their jobs and businesses, living on streets, trying to sell houses , scavenging etc - and you were busily posting that you had bought some great bargains, got a house at 50% less, holiday at 40% less etc .
We would all say ‘read the room’ - when something like the Covid situation affects so many people , not an odd few here and there I do think you have to read the room before posting - it doesn’t mean that it’s not ok to have been ok or even quite liked some aspects, I just think it’s one of those things to reflect on and best kept in your head given the amount of people whose lives have been devastated by it . From long covid, to life savings wiped out, homes lost, pension savings wiped out - I work in entertainment business , it wasn’t a few months, it was more like 18 months by the time things got back to being rebooked etc. - as I say I think it’s fine to have been ok and count your blessings , but not a great idea to maybe keep bringing it up - just incorporate the things you liked into your life.

I find it hard to believe the hospitals were overwhelmed. During lockdown I had an important medical procedure postponed yet the same week the hospital staff posted a TikTok dance video. Overwhelmed my arse.