ADs may have buggered boilers but we haven't got the clap

[BogRollBOGOF]

The saga continues to continue with more sequels than a trilogy of trilogies...

I think actually that the messages we've been getting about how you are a terrible evil person if you dare to go out really don't help.

But I think you have to grit your teeth and do it. Fresh air is good for you whether wet or snowy or hot or windy. It clears your lungs.

I am about to grit my teeth and do something that has now become anxiety making for me. I am going to go into a shop to purchase milk. I have gone weeks without going into a shop since the mask mandate came in, but we need milk and DH can't do it.

Let's try together. I am holding out a virtual hand @Packingsoapandwater. I will go into a shop every day and you could try going outside just for those 15 min every day? I hope I am not sounding patronising because I genuinely do want to help.

@TabbyStar

Which is reassuring, but I’m now just waiting to see which part of my anatomy will join the percussion section next...

Benign fasciculation syndrome. I started with my eyelid then it spread everywhere for a while, my fingers were the freakiest thing, I thought I had Parkinson's. I was massively stressed, it's calmed down now.

Aha, yes I think GP might have mentioned that. It does seem to have lessened today, especially my lip -- my body is like this, I get stress responses, get worried about them, they get worse, then someone diagnoses it as stress and I let it go.

This morning - I'm trying to do a fairly intensive bit of speech transcription for an assessment - while the kids decide to do a conga around the living room and DH interrupts me to demonstrate how his new frying pan has come out of the dishwasher nice and clean.

Then DD1's ipad keeps connecting audio to my airpods randomly so my video gets replaced with the horror of a screeching tweenage youtuber full blast. Can't get on with anything seriously important as I'm waiting for a call at some random time from the doctor as well to review my declining mental health.

@NastyBlouse I'm wondering if magnesium might help. Epsom salt baths or a supplement.

Third virtual handhold for @ISaySteadyOn and @Packingsoapandwater because I know the feeling of wanting to go out and stay in at the same time, and the psychological hokey-cokey that it entails.

I've had to gear myself up to go and do some nuisancey jobs. Today I did it, I've just come back from town. It was very quiet because a) raining and b) early-ish. But there were a few other people about, doing their thing, so it wasn't totally 28 Days Later.

It was quite good I was able to do what I had to do. And I had brief little chat-ettes with the checkout zygote-- boy in Sainsbury's and the man in the dry cleaner.

It sounds sad but it's actually lifted me a bit.

[quote Buzzinwithbez]@NastyBlouse I'm wondering if magnesium might help. Epsom salt baths or a supplement.[/quote]
Ooh good suggestion @Buzzinwithbez

Virtually no excuses needed to get me into the bath.

Muddy Puddles is an actual clothing brand by the way. Realised that wasn't very clear from my post. Mountain Warehouse also have cheap waterproofs.

Homeschooling starting to unravel for my 12 year old with ADD. School are trying to implement a normal school timetable plus weekly assembly and I feel it’s to much for him. He struggles at the best of times but trying to keep on top of the work remotely is much harder. We’ve had a meltdown this morning already. It doesn’t help that school are still issuing negative ‘ipoints’ for work not completed or handed in late. Are all secondaries being this strict?

Morning all. Better start to the day today than yesterday when DS started in a really negative frame of mind. Despite having twisted his ankle on the trampoline yesterday afternoon, he finished the day better than he started but is now in pain and unable to go out for exercise.... sigh....

@Packingsoapandwater - definitely get out regardless of weather. My DC think that I'm a lunatic about fresh air but I believe firmly that it makes you feel a million times better (when you're out in it, not when you've got it rushing in through open windows....).

It's a Nilson sort of day (Everybody's talkin' at me). Around 4 weeks since I had quiet time on my own. Very evident from the state of the house...

DS2 crying because I'm not doing his work for him

I'm finding it hard to get out now. I ploughed on into December, but the homeschooling consumes the daylight, and boredom and lethargy had set in anyway. Normally I get the new yeàr drive with running to tide me through to better months, but because December was stripped dry of all festive activity, I didn't get that natural break of pace. My neighbourhood is pleasantly dull and I don't have the time or daylight to get further afield (so yes I'm staying local, but no one should be pilloried for going further from home).

My imagination feels like its dried up, or drowned in mud, or just crowded by formation pedestrians, or policed by a certain constabulary (we didn't take Starbucks when we went in the summer )

I have decided at this point to prioritise psychological and physical well-being over schoolwork.

And I made it to the shop, lanyard and all (DH says I oughtn't to use one because no one should be asking, but I am a timid middle aged woman and therefore a good target). It was fine 🙂.

Despite the vitriol that comes up regularly on a certain topic, it's now a point of principle that I keep going to the supermarket. It is a bit of a slog some weeks (not that it ever was fun!) but it's clinging onto a shred of normal and it's quite grounding and an exercise in "feel the fear and do it anyway". It's easier at night for lack of crowds plus I doubt that the Ds are that nocturnal somehow. I do worry that if I gave it up, it will be a lot harder to restore to normal social function. Plus my shopping needs don't naturally fit with one supermarket for delivery.

It's hard, because using SM like MN or FB is a way of connecting beyond your walls, but it's very much a double edged sword if you'll be helped or hindered.

I think you're quite right, BogRollBOGOFF, to keep on going to the supermarket. I got a bee in my bonnet about going on trains, back in the spring/summer and when I eventually forced myself onto one and found it all fairly familiar, with people spread out and pressing the door buttons with their elbows, it was such a relief. Afterwards I felt as if I'd conquered Everest. Now if I hesitate to do something I remind myself of that. But I've been forcing myself to go into some kind of shop at least every other day (and the D's can shove it) so that nothing builds up into difficult again.

I go to the supermarket too. Its my little rebellion. And I don't sanitise the trolley, AND I take the kids with me! #livingdangerously

I am really not cut out for homeschooling, my life is just falling apart at the minute and I'm struggling to find the motivation to get the 5 year old motivated. Zoom is hard enough let alone doing anything else.

checking in

@LivinLaVidaLoki glad your brother is doing better

@Packingsoapandwater - i dont know if youve already said this and ive missed it but are you able to shift your hours a bit so you can get out the house for an hour in the afternoon and do that extra maybe when the kids are in bed or something? i do feel much better for getting some fresh air i have to admit. even when i dont really want to! im going to start going on a walk round the block on my lunch break on the days i work from home.

@SirSamuelVimes

I go to the supermarket too. Its my little rebellion. And I don't sanitise the trolley, AND I take the kids with me! #livingdangerously

🧟

There's a rather sensible thread running on the other side in case you've missed

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/4134062-Exercise-isnt-the-reason-for-high-transmission?pg=4

OH went to Lidl this morning no security outside but it was pretty empty. He then went to our little Asda, which last week was chaotic, people talking to friends they had seen in the middle of aisles, not letting others pass, chaos at the checkout queues for self service. Ignoring arrows on floor social distancing. I did think it was a bit lax. This morning girl on door with sanitiser said they were to refuse non mask wearers and couples. This lass would blow away in a puff of wind and the little Asda is in the centre of a very deprived area with a high crime rate, when I say crime they burgle you for drug money mostly, not sophisticated Kardashian thieves.

The thread Taswana linked to is refreshingly sensible. I’m so angry at the refusal to acknowledge the elephant in the room of hospital transmissions, while spitefully trying to crush one of the few respites most of us have.

I have reached a homeschooling low; I’ve been watching white rose maths videos because DS refuses to so I need to be able to explain the methods to him. I just got one of the practice questions wrong too.

I’m so angry at the refusal to acknowledge the elephant in the room of hospital transmissions, while spitefully trying to crush one of the few respites most of us have.

This is how I'm feeling but couldn't put my finger on why it was bothering me so much. It is spite, isn't it? This horrible feeling of punishing those of us already complying with the rules further because they can't control hospital infections and the small percentage of rule breakers.

It reminds me of the injustice of being kept in at break on school as a small child by useless teachers who thought it acceptable to punish the whole class because one kid (likely with undiagnosed SEN) wouldn't sit still.

Thing is, I have a certain amount of sympathy for rule breakers as all these rules go massively against normal social primate behaviour. I don't break the rules myself but I can see how you reach a breaking point.

I do think there should be a discussion on hospital management but you can't do that without being accused of wanting to privatise or destroy the NHS.

I think the gov and media is actively encouraging us to blame our fellow citizens in an attempt to deflect scrutiny from them. The more divided against each other we become, the less likely we are to look at what the gov is doing in a way that is in any way critical.

They can shut down as much stuff as they want - it won't work unless they get hospital transmissions under control and provide meaningful support for those who actually have to self-isolate to enable them to do so (financial, practical). In the interim, banning outdoor exercise with one person from outside the household will achieve fuck all in terms of controlling infection rates.

It also never ceases to amaze me that there isn't more discussion in the press and between ourselves IRL of the catastrophic costs of shutting down the country for a year. Covid is not the only thing that kills and destroys lives and futures. Not enough people are saying so in my view. Lockdowns don't appear to work and they destroy lives. But that is OK, because we as individuals are clearly all to blame.

Had my monthly mental health check in with the GP today. I strongly believe she is one of us as we were discussing how catastrophic the isolating people from social interaction and their support networks for nearly a year now has been - and how the load of the home educating is falling disproportionately on women.

Friend's child I mentioned before is now self harming and scratching her face after getting in such a state about feeling school closed as she didn't wash her hands enough... still no room at the inn for a vulnerable kid!

Good news from me. School have agreed DS1 can still attend even without doing the covid tests. Feeling very relieved.