How different would your life be if Covid hadn’t come along?

[Username721]

Just curious really!

Work? Relationships? Did the pandemic bring any long term life changes for you?

I moved my partner in way sooner than I would have ordinarily. I'd only been with him 4 months which is shocking really but we could see what was happening with lockdowns and restrictions on meeting outside the household. I've got a daughter too and really looking back I can't believe I did something so rash, but it's worked out for the best and we have a very happy family unit. We're still together 3 years on, he's the only person my family and friends have even liked let alone loved, and he and my daughter get on so well.

Another bonus was my "lockdown dog". My ex husband asked me to look after his French Bulldog puppy temporarily as his house purchase had been delayed due to covid, he'd split with his girlfriend and his landlord didn't allow dogs. I'd always refused to have a dog, and a Frenchie would have been literally my last choice of dog ever due to the health issues. But 3 years on he's mine now, he sleeps on my bed every night and I love him more than I realised was possible to love an animal.

There have been negatives too of course, I have a different job that I hate due to the economy, everything costs more, my older kids had a shit time at Uni.

But I've got my dog and really he's been life changing 😍

I could have said good bye to my grandmother.
I wouldn't have been unable to visit my family for two years.

@violetcuriosity
That's wonderful!! What a gorgeous story ❤️

We had a lot of changes in our lives that coincided with the start of the first lockdown but I'm not sure what would and wouldn't have happened if it hadn't been for Covid - as many of our changes were only possible due to an inheritance after FIL passed away just before first lockdown (not Covid related).

Being able to work from home has been a big bonus for me and that was certainly the result of Covid.

It also gave us a break from the in law's.

Im so sorryvtonread about those of you who lost loved ones!

I wouldn't have missed almost a year of work and still be struggling with health issues due to long covid.

But I likely would not be with my partner, we met online and became very close during those early lockdown days talking for hours over text and phone when there was little else to do...

My life now looks very very similar to pre-pandemic. I think if it wasn’t for the pandemic I would have bought a house by now but the housing market has changed so much in my area I now can’t afford the houses I could pre-pandemic and houses I can afford are now very scarcely listed so I am still renting, I think without the pandemic I would own by now but that’s the only difference I can think may have been,

It also has given me longevity at work because I get frustrated with people so it's been lovely to have a break!

I really do feel for anyone who lost a love one during this time though. It was absolutely scandalous and inhumane that people were sick and dying and having to say goodbye by ipad.

And the carehome deaths/murders.

I'm sorry if my previous post was insensitive. I'm lucky that I wasn't affected in this way.

Well, nobody can say for certain but...
I was made redundant and covid was blamed. I also had some pretty big trips booked for 2020, obviously didn't happen.

Most importantly, my aunt would still be here. I'd do anything for her to be here.

Haven't read all replies, but so sorry for the losses so many of you have had ☹️

I don't know for sure but I strongly suspect that if lockdowns and isolation hadn't happened when they did, my 15y old daughter wouldn't be anorexic now.

@louise5754 we had big holidays and weddings we wanted to go to first. Then they were cancelled/ postponed

We would have a much happier steadier family life. Life was on a good even keel and balance. Covid struck and my work turned insanely busy, being at home meant working round the clock, DC have had far less of our time and attention even when at home more with then and had a far worse version of us than they would have. Has been very difficult to get back to the “normal” we had before and still not close, won’t ever get that time back with DC

Ah ok

I have a raally good friend who blames lockdown for her daughters gender dysphoria. She'd (unknown to my friend) been going online and convinced herself she was trans due to the forums she was going on. Her daughter is autistic which I've read are more prone to dysphoria. They've had a really tough couple of years with CAHMS and private therapists but recently it does seem that her daughter is in a better place now. She's recently decided she's female but just a non feminin lesbian. Which she probably always was but she'd been escaping into an online world.

My abusive ex would have probably wormed his way back in as he’d have been able to show up at my house whenever he wanted. I wouldn’t have met my current partner and we would never have had our beautiful baby.

@euromum

Sorry, I meant to add I'm so sorry about your daughters eating disorder. My eldest is bulimic. She's 22 now and she's in a good place but it's always there. I'm an ex anorexic myself but it's a difficult demon to face. I really do hope your daughter gets better x

I tested positive for Covid the day before I was to attend an update workshop which would enable me to continue to hold a professional ‘niche’ qualification. As a result I have lost that qualification and the work associated with it, about 25% of my earnings. The awarding body was unsympathetic.
The other 75% of my earnings comes from a source which has subtly changed direction due to Covid and it looks like that job will terminate at the end of this year.
Professionaly, I’ve been wiped out, though it has taken time to happen.
Fortunately I’m not that far off retirement.

I'm so so sorry for those of you who have lost loved ones

Long Covid. Complete physical and cognitive unravelling. Coming up for 3 years now, and still not better. No income throughout. Zero UKGov financial support, one of the excluded self-employed. Savings completely wiped out, now getting into debt. Living out of boxes in a shitty flat with the bare minimum.

I will hopefully recover my full health and capacities, it's just infinitesimally slow. Fingers crossed. Financially, my life is fucked now, forever.

I would still be working in my high powered job and only have one child.

Instead lockdown made me realise how much I was missing, and that I needed to think about what my life priorities really were.

Ended that job and am now pregnant with baby #3.

I worked lots of bank shifts during covid and made extra money, so I paid off my overdraft and managed to save a couple of grand. I probably would have become pregnant a lot sooner than I did, we didn't start trying until end of 2021 as there was too much uncertainty during the height of the pandemic.

Dead! I was working stupid long, stressful, late night hours and had been very ill, but struggling to keep people fit and happy.. then came Covid! It literally halted me in my tracks. However, 3 weeks in to the first lock-down, my family home was flooded with raw sewage from the new build properties just above us, up the road. So life was certainly extra challenging for us at the time. It was life changing in many ways for me. Home and Career.

COVID gave us a break after a really tough few years. DH was furloughed then made redundant from a job he hated, went self-employed and never looked back- earns more whilst working fewer hours, from home, which suits him down to the ground. He really enjoyed pottering doing projects around the house and garden during the first lockdown. My work (self-employed barrister) was much quieter, which provided ideal conditions for our last fling of the dice private fertility treatment after years struggling to become parents. DS was conceived in October 2020 as a result.

Very conscious though that our experience was far from typical. My heart goes out to everyone on here who lost loved ones as a result of COVID or delays in receiving medical treatment for other conditions.

In lockdown, I had a catastrophic accident. It nearly killed me, and most clinicians wonder how I made it through. I didn't have surgery quickly due to lack of availability of specialists and surgeons, and the usual pressures of the NHS. I was diagnosed with a very rare condition, and few surgeons are qualified to operate on. When I did get in the operating theatre in the year 2021, the surgeon paralysed me in one arm so I cannot use one hand anymore and I am in constant severe pain. More surgery made matters worse, but equally it saved my life as internal damage was so bad it would have killed me sooner or later. The surgeon is devastated and has retired himself. Onward care has been outrageously awful as no one appears to want to deal with the elephant in the room (i.e. the patient made worse, not better). My surgeon was a man under enormous pressure, and this has changed his life more than mine in many respects. I feel so sorry for him as he feels very bad about what happened, and is haunted by it. My mother died suddenly from a cardiac event brought on by this family trauma. My children and partner were very upset too, and the pandemic changed my life forever. All the medical events were in the middle of the pandemic, and while juggling home schooling, working from home business etc. On dark days when I start to feel angry and frustrated, I reflect on the many people who didn't make it through the pandemic through COVID, missed cancer diagnoses etc. I am still here, and still able to function albeit in 'new' adapted ways. Life goes on.