OK, who else is struggling?

[Thorilicious]

Lockdown 1, I was doing new activities, baking, cleaning and exercising.
This time round, I'm tired, my sleep is all over the place. I end up at least once a day arguing with dcs about doing their school work. I have no escape from the dcs, when normally they'd be at school and I'd be at work.
I know it won't be like this forever, but just need to know I'm not the only one...

To all who are struggling

I am just going day to day at the moment. Concentrating on getting through one day at a time. I'm counting down to the 15th February. I know lockdown won't end then but it is a goal date for the next review. After that I'll set a new date and work towards that.

Hello
We can see some of you are having a really hard time of it at the moment. We hope you don't mind but we wanted to drop by with a few links to resources that you might find helpful. Here are our Mental Health resources. You can also go to the Samaritans website, or email them on [email protected]

Support from other Mumsnetters is great and we really hope you will be able to take some comfort from your fellow posters, but as other MNers will tell you, if you are really struggling it's really a good idea to seek real-life help and support as well.

Some further support links:
Gov.UK: Find out what support you can get if you’re affected by coronavirus
NHS Where to get urgent help for mental health
NHS: Looking after your mental health
MIND: Coping with mental health problems during coronavirus
Young Minds: your child during the coronavirus pandemic

Very best wishes from MNHQ.

Thanks to everyone on here. It gave me the strength to reach out to the mental health support offered by my place of employment. I hope other get some help as well.

Me too. My parents haven’t seen DC1 in 13 months and have never met DC2 and god knows when they will. Currently on mat leave so at least not having to WFH with kids but DH having to do so, so it’s just me all day with 2 DC’s whereas DC1 would normally be at nursery/MIL.

Not how I envisaged spending my mat leave. Know others have lost loved ones and jobs and that really, my situation isn’t so bad but I am finding it very very tough

Yes. And I'm being asked to create and provide resources, advice and motivational support for others who are struggling which is increasingly feeling like pushing a pea up a mountain with my nose.

I don’t have kids so I can’t imagine how hard it is to entertain them day in, day out on top of the other stresses.

I’m trying to write a thesis and I haven’t been on campus or seen my supervisor in person since I interviewed for my PhD place in January last year. I’ve had no real contact with any of my colleagues and I feel so isolated. I’m teaching via Zoom to undergrads who sit silently with their cameras off. I’ve put on two stone in the past year and my house is a tip because I just don’t have the energy to face it. I’m also terrified of walking on snow and ice so right now I don’t even have the luxury of going out for a nice walk like I did when lockdown first came in.

On a more frivolous note, everything I’ve looked forward to has been cancelled. I turned 30 stuck in my living room with a mail-order cake; my Masters graduation took the form of an email; no holidays or seeing friends. I’m an introverted person but even I’m devastated at the thought of another year of this.

Please don’t think I’m not happy to stay at home because I know it saves lives and I know the terrible impact this virus is having, I just childishly wish Covid didn’t exist.

I don't have it as hard as many others but still just feeling pretty shite. I got a job back in December but I quit it in January as they wanted me in the office and with the new strain I just didn't want to catch covid. The job isn't what I thought it would be anyway but just felt like a bit of a failure. My mum had a heart attack last week as well which was a shock but she's ok and had an op to fix the blockage.

Have an only child and find it difficult as he's not getting any social interaction with kids. Screens on all the time to get us through. I want him back at school asap so he can be around children. I know we are getting there with the vaccinations and all that but I can still see a lot of dark days ahead.

I have been feeling really down since Christmas. For me a large part of it is that I have no idea when I will see my parents (who are not in the U.K.) and feeling like there is nothing to look forward to. I spend may days at my desk, trying to find motivation to work. Everything is really irritating me - including a neighbour who seems to spend 24/7 watching loud TV/music!!

Me. I’m knackered. We’re lucky we have childcare for our 2 year old but I miss contact so much, work is same shit different day. I hate the monotony of it all. I just want to sleep for 24 hours and wake up and it’s over

This thread has made me feel better to know I'm not alone in how I'm feeling. I think it's the social isolation that's the worst.

I'm feeling a bit better today. For the first time in what feels like forever it is not icy or absolutely pouring with rain so I managed to get out. I told DS to leave his schoolwork as he had no live lessons this afternoon and we went out for a quick blast on our bikes. Only an hour, but in that our we waved and smiled at people we don't know - other cyclists walkers, farmers at work - it was just nice to see other human beings! Plus I noticed that some of the trees have buds on them, the birds are singing, there are snowdrops coming up in the hedgerows and the first lambs of the season have been born. The fact that the natural world is carrying on with business as usual seems hopeful somehow. Things may never be quite the same again as everyone will be changed in some way. But it will get better. It has to.
Hope everyone else has had a bearable day.

My son looked at me last night and said "you dont look like my mummy, you look much older than her". (he was joking about the not my mummy part but still, I cant pretend it didnt sting).

Oh, and the country I live in has been locked down since December. The day after they announced this my sons father announced he would be on holiday the whole of January (we arent actually supposed to be going on holiday at the moment but anyway). So he has been relaxing for a full month in a tropical country while I home school our children AND work full time. If he wasnt an ex already he would be by now

And even when he does deign to return (not sure when but given the lockdown has been extended I wouldnt be suprised if he extended his stay abroad) he will have to quarantine for 10 days.

Really struggling. My family live abroad and I was also hoping to go abroad this Spring for fertility treatment. Looks like that will be impossible now. Every day is like Groundhog Day, I just count the hours until I can go to bed.

There’s just no end in sight, it seems like everything is getting worse instead of better. How much longer can we be expected to live like this?

Lockdown 1 I was wfh but my patio doors were open beside me, I was sitting in the garden for those calls when I didn't do any talking, walks in the sunlight after work, windows were open.

Lockdown 2, Christmas was imminent.

Lockdown 3, darkness abound, cold, shitty weather, I'm on a diet coz I really don't want to die if I get COVID. I really really need to cuddle my mum and dad. I'm off on Friday and I'm going to start to run again after injuring my ankle last year.

I've got PND and a 7 month old baby who likes to wake up 3-4 times a night. Really struggling

It's the shittest time ever. I have a 23 year old WFH, a 12 year old home schooling and me working in an extremely pressured job (managing a care at home service) all in a 2 bed house. I sometimes feel like screaming and I know my girls do too.
I am so grateful for two things

1. My dog
2. I don't need to like with a man

Trying not to drink as it's good at the time but the next day is grim...

So, so sorry to read so many mums struggling. I wish i could reply to you all, my heart goes out to you.

Please ask for help. Please try and speak to someone in real life - friend, relative, GP or even Samaritans.

This has to be the hardest time now, in a cold grey January. I'm also struggling to keep going. This afternoon I'm repeatedly telling myself "Spring Is Coming": Sun. Longer days. Daffodills. Cherry blossom. Bluebells. Buds on trees. Easter eggs. Lambs, rabbits.

🐤🐇🐣🐇🐥⚘⚘⚘🌼🌼🌼🍫🍫🍫🌱🌱

Agree this is totally shit!

Me! On anti depressants now to cope with debilitating anxiety. Went back to work in December and not coping at all. My toddler is coping OK, and I have I better than most but this has pushed me to past my limit.

Yes. I am privileged. Dh work is fine and I don’t work. Three kids at home, one a toddler, one who needs a lot of help with school work I don’t understand because I have very little memory of my school years. I am in therapy dealing with cse that I went through.
I never get a break as we have no family who would take them but normally there is school..

How do I parent three kids with no break, teach them and also try to heal? It just doesn’t work. And I am privileged so feel guilty for struggling when we have food and money and a home.

@chipsahoy I feel the same way. I'm not privileged in the way that you are, but I feel it in the sense that I don't live in a tin shack at the side of a road with no running water or sewerage, so what do I have to complain about? I have my problems obviously my life isn't utopia. It's the social isolation I think that's bothering me. To answer your question, you can't. I think this situation is about survival mode not healing mode.

I think too that survival mode encompasses education. I think there's too much pressure on people to home educate, where they're not in a position to do so. If people can and want to that's great. But I don't think people should feel they have to. In the UK I feel education is pushed and pushed and pushed as the be all and end all. Whilst it's definitely useful (and free in childhood) it's not totally essential for survival. Children with poor education can survive ok. People can also get an education as an adult. I'm not saying those things are easy, or that life might not be easier/better with an education, but this whole notion in society of children's lives will be ruined if people don't home school is too much and unnecessary pressure. Their lives might be different, but not necessarily ruined. I believe in the phrase life is what you make it. If people need to not home school for a few months or a year, the world won't grind to a halt and children's lives won't be over, same if they fail an exam.

I'm so sorry for all of you. I'm in France and the vaccination roll out is really slow. I don't have school age children so I don't have that problem but I have a very busy job and feel that I am at my computer all day and then just nothing and seeing no-one in the evening or weekend. We have a six oclock curfew here. So it's just work and tv (if I can find anything I feel up to watching) then bed then the same the next day. It's cold and rainy and I can't stop myself from reading all the stuff and worrying about whether we will be out of it anytime soon. Doesn't look like it. It's grim and depressing. Sleeping badly and stuck in Groundhog day. Love to everyone struggling and trying to count my blessings but dear God it's hard.

Hope today is better for you all. Ds keeps coming off his zoom lesson to say he doesn't understand the maths, so I'm in for a stressful time trying to help him with it...