Petty Pandemic Whinges. Bring your trivial traumas here and I promise I won’t judge.

[LunaNorth]

Before I start, I know that some fucking awful things are happening to people around the world as a result of Covid19. I’ve had to endure some real trauma myself, so I don’t take it lightly.

But sometimes I think a space to rant and stamp our feet about the petty inconveniences would be very cathartic. So here it is.

I’ll start.

Today my fucking face mask ripped my favourite earring out of my ear when I removed it, and it broke.

My much-loved yoga class, which was the best hour of my week, is permanently closed.

If anyone else has petty whinges that they don’t feel happy to say out loud in the real world, please feel free...

Ds 3 has sen he is on school intervention after school intervention he takes ear defenders to school plus a toilet seat (complex and boring but basically at age 7 he won't poo without it so I bought a spare for school) this September he is supposed to go in shirt and tie previously it was a polo shirt he has JUST learned to do A button this year (I'm velcroing his shirts for September) ANYWAY! found out at 4pm (office closing time) on the last day of term that children can take no bags into school (so no toilet seat no ear defender's) and they will all be remaining in there classroom bubbles eating in the classroom too etc no clarification on special needs provisions nothing about speech and language therapy NOTHING ABOUT HIS ECHP just as of September your child will be neuro typical end of discussion see you in September every email is now bounced back out of office see you in September

My so called friend's who fucking KNOW he has issues say he will be FINE he will surprise you he is brighter than you think (I live with him 24/7 fuck off is he fine) one even told me I just needed to train him to use the toilet "properly" as if I haven't fucking tried that A MILLION FUCKING TIMES the school called me in because he was refusing the toilet and screaming in pain but no no he is going to be FINE (and they implied it was my fault for babying him)

I'm pretty fucked off to be fair he has been assessed as three years plus behind for years he has been at that school since he was 2 even if I wasn't helping him at home he should be counting to 20 just with the school hours alone! I'm resentful of the implications that its my fault and I wish to tell them all to twat off

DS was a month old when we went into lockdown. I go back to work in September and I've never taken him to a café, or to baby swimming classes, baby cinema or any kind of playgroup. He's never been on a bus or a train and he still can't get cuddles from his grandparents. He's never been close to another baby. His great grandmother died during lockdown without ever meeting him. He's never met one of his uncles. He's glorious and gorgeous and I want to share him with everyone I love, and do so many things with him, and I can't.

Grrrrr  slipperywhensparticus. If you ds has a documented need, especially if it is on his EHCP, then they must make reasonable adjustments for him. If the toilet seat is an extra specifically for school, then he should be allowed to keep it at school - no crossing bubbles. Similarly with the ear defenders. If he has only one pair if defenders then the container can be wiped down with disinfectant when he arrives in the morning. If nobody other than him touched them then there is no cross-contamination.

Ih it boils my blood when people don't think. Bloody knee-jerk hysteria when it can be so damn easy.

I get really irrationally angry when people hit reply all on work emails. Since lockdown started it has been incessant....

JUST WHY?!?!

I manage a team of call centre workers who are all working from home now. The support in the office can't be replicated easily at home and tiny issues take all day to solve. My team are coming down with stress, anxiety attacks, IBS flare ups, back pain etc and upper management just roll their eyes (literally, eye roll emoji) as if these hardworking people on minimum wage were simply put on earth to take the piss.

They can't see the real affect it is having on people. There is no office space to return to either, due to social distancing and the traditional 'chicken coop' design of call centres maximising every cm of space to fit staff in. Our building used to hold 1000 'seats' and now can only manage 350 people at a time.

That there's no light at the end of the tunnel for being able to play netball again; none of the "freedoms" seem to cover this.

That Boris has the nerve to tell us we're fat, after he personally snatched away many people's main forms of exercise.

That Boris keeps handing the self-appointed Covid Stasi one thing after another to polish their haloes with, from face nappies to fat shaming.

I miss people shouting 'total lockdown now'.

I have a monobrow that makes me look like Liam Gallagher's angry sister and nowhere round here is doing threading because it can't be done round masks but usual people.

I've booked a wax for next week with associated PPE but am a big wuss...

That I cant go dancing. I will have forgotten all my foot work. On a happy note note so will everyone else. Think we will all need steel tie cap boots for protection as we will all be trod on.

That my daughter 12 refuses to shower unless she's leaving the house, so not often.

All I want is the beat of my family life back.

Swimming on the weekend
Rainbows on a Wednesday
Toddler library on a Tuesday
Playgroups

Ps I am still a fat tramp

@LiveFatsDieYoGnu that is sad. Getting to show of your newborn is one of the few compensations for the horrific sleep deprivation. I’m sorry you’ve missed out.

@slipperywhensparticus that’s not a petty complaint, that’s properly rubbish! I really hope it’s an oversight in communication and the school will make proper accommodations in September, but it’s still crap that you’re left worrying over the summer. DS’s school had a new Senco start at Easter. He has a support plan but no EHCP so he’s been at home with me since March, and we’ve heard nothing at all from her. Even a phone call introducing herself and acknowledging DS’s existence would have been nice. Hey ho.

I miss choir. And ditto on the mountains of plastic bags!

@LiveFatsDieYoGnu

DS was a month old when we went into lockdown. I go back to work in September and I've never taken him to a café, or to baby swimming classes, baby cinema or any kind of playgroup. He's never been on a bus or a train and he still can't get cuddles from his grandparents. He's never been close to another baby. His great grandmother died during lockdown without ever meeting him. He's never met one of his uncles. He's glorious and gorgeous and I want to share him with everyone I love, and do so many things with him, and I can't.

I want to jump into the internet and give you the world’s biggest squeeze. I was completely adrift after DD1 and without such things I’d have been sunk.

To have a baby is stressful enough. To have a baby when all the pillars of support are kicked away is beyond stress x

My birthday fell the day that Boris announced lockdown, so the two events will always be linked in my mind.

It was my 50th, my DS's 21st and my DD's 18th in the space of 11 days in May - it should have been glorious and so much fun. We had socially distant chats with family members on the driveway instead... Trip to NY for said 50th was cancelled.

I'm a runner and every event up until September is cancelled, there's 3 left in the diary but I've got my doubts about all of them. I run for the bling and cake...

I was more sanguine about total lockdown (I continued to work and DH was furloughed)

What's really pissing me off is everything being "normal" when it clearly isn't fucking normal. I don't want to have to book a 2 hour slot to go to the pub, or follow the one way system round Waitrose. I want to be able to get my groceries delivered to my door and go on holiday when I've booked to go.

It's "normal" but inconvenient and time consuming, and quite frankly it can just fuck off

I'm hating all the bloody sanctimonious, judgmental people who seem to have multiplied thousandfold - it was 'Ooh, number 7 haven't clapped for the NHS' and is now 'If you don't wear a mask you're a MURDERER' with no thought to disabilities / trauma

I miss the cinema.

I too hate the increasing number of cyclists on busy A roads. There's a dual carriageway that links our city to the town next door - cyclists appearing on it more often now. I think they're nuts.

@LiveFatsDieYoGnu

I’m so bloody sorry for you. That’s not trivial at all.

My son got a first in his degree.

He was supposed to have his graduation on the 14th July - cancelled.

Instead we had his grandma’s funeral on the 17th - and she didn’t live to find out his results.

More trivially - masks make my glasses steam up. It pisses me off.

Thanks @Mrsfrumble and @SoPanny for your kind thoughts! I don't feel I can really complain because we're all happy and healthy, but that's why I'm on the petty whinges thread! DS is currently asleep on my chest and I'm drinking him in ☺️

Lovely thread! Thank you for providing some light relief amongst all the angst!!!

Thanks also @LunaNorth (we cross posted - I didn't intend to ignore you!)

Sorry also to hear about your son's grandma.

Despite doing 90 days lean with Joe Wicks and PE with him every morning, I’ve put on half a stone. Joe is now riding round Scotland on his motorbikes with all his chums and, from what I can bear to look at on Instagram, not social distancing at all. That’s Just what we need in Scotland with kids meant to go back To school in 3 weeks, more virus....