Now the COVID pandemic is gone, What are your worst, or best, memories?

[Alondra]

I was talking to my eldest son today and we somehow ended up talking about the worst moments we lived trough Covid. For me, the worst was living in Australia with DH and our two youngest, while he was in Madrid. I was beside myself with worry knowing we couldn't do anything. Zoom helped.....but only for a short while. I've never had as many sleepless nights as I had then.

For my eldest, being in a complete lockdown in a 60 square metre apartment without us or knowing what the future would be, was his worst. He did mention as a positive that he now knows most of his neighbours and is close friends with several, something it wouldn't have happened before lockdowns. :)

From the distance now, what are the things you won't forget, good or bad?

It's all a bit of a blur now, probably because we were lucky, and I'm very aware of that. Financially we were better off than before as dh was able to wfh and had no travel costs. DS was delighted when his A-levels were cancelled. No home-schooling duties for us as dc's schools pivoted very efficiently to online learning.

Worst things for us were dd's essential surgery being delayed by nearly 2 years and widowed MIL having to survive mostly on her own in her 80s 200 miles away. I manage a large clinical team in the NHS, and that was not easy or fun, for all the reasons others have said. I didn't much enjoy the performative and illogical 'Covid hygiene theatre', like half the toilet cubicles and wash basins in public toilets being taped off so you spent double the time queuing in close proximity for the ones left. DS's first year university experience was not what he'd hoped or paid for. And I could really have done without our neighbour deciding the great weather in 2020 was the perfect opportunity to try out all his new power tools in the garden.

That is a perfectly reasonable thing to have done and wouldn’t of bothered me.. But we had the same people coming in 3 times a day to check their bank balances and pay cash in, take cash out like it was a day out, not a “last resort” like your husbands case.

Worst - both of us losing our jobs (2each) in the space of a week and thinking we would never recover. Obviously this wasn’t true but you didn’t know it at the time.

Best - the time spent together just the two of us. That when we finally got married after cancelling 3x it was absolutely incredible and the first big get together for anyone.

Worst was going to my DM’s funeral after she died suddenly. Max 20(?) people, England to Wales and back on the same day. Not allowed to hug anyone.

On a slightly lighter note- MIL living with us. DH and DS loved it. I normally get on well with her. Not 22 hours a day for a whole month.

Well the worst for me was that my GS grew up and away. We shielded forever and the bond snapped. Obviously would have changed anyway but it feels enforced.
Best was the clear blue sky.

The whole thing was a nightmare which I try not to think about if I can help it. I recall screaming into a pillow when the school closures were announced as I had no idea how we would cope. Then watching my then-four year old’s mental health decline as it became illegal for her to interact with another child in person. I developed clinical anxiety about my daughter’s mental health which in turn triggered a flare up of my chronic health condition. And while all of this was going on I was being told on MN that my worries were groundless, school closures would have no ill effects, it was fine for children to be completely isolated from their peers for months on end, and that the only thing that mattered was ‘staying safe’ from covid. Now that fears about the effects of lockdown on children have been entirely vindicated, these people have of course disappeared back into the woodwork. I will never forgive them.

Best : 5 months on furlough being paid 80% of my salary & enjoying absolutely glorious weather through the best spring of my lifetime.

Worst : 5 months on furlough not knowing if I would have a job to go back to or if my employer would even still exist when the nightmare was over because our industry was one of the hardest hit and many thousands of my colleagues lost their jobs.

The good things were working from home all the time, the peace and quiet, lack of visits from people (I enjoy being on my own), lots of reading, some baking, gardening, walks in the countryside. My DH who was always lovely and supportive whatever happened.

Bad things were worrying about my DS who were meant to be taking A levels but there were no classes, then the exams were cancelled and marks were set by teachers (some of their marks didn't seem fair, some were). In my view this still affects one as he didn't get the Uni place he wanted. He then went to Uni and there was nothing going on and he was shut in his room, very tough time. Also my Dad passed away very suddenly from cancer, but seeing him until the last day was impossible. I only managed to spend his last evening with him as I literally begged the doctor. Tell Mum that Dad had died was awful (they wouldn't let her in due to her age and risk of CV19).

We had a great time in general throughout lockdown.

Played on fields as a family, went on lots of walks, saved money. DH was WFH and continues to do so, which is great for us.

I HATED the homeschooling but other than that, enjoyed the other aspects of lockdown

The birdsong in the morning..such a beautiful spring

Can anyone else not really remember any of it? It was a very stressful time for reasons not related to covid anyway and as hard as I try I can't remember living through it. It's like a dream but I an looking at it through someone else's eyes.

Lockdown was so different for everyone.

I was lucky, and didn't lose anyone close to me. I was a hybrid worker all the way through, as I'm in a hospital role where some but not all of our work can be done from home. I was in work about 3 days per week. So I feel like i didn't experience lockdown in the same way as people hanging around at home on furlough taking up new hobbies and baking banana bread. I did rediscover knitting, and made a few things.

My DD2 was the year that missed GCSEs and prom. My DD1 was in 1st year of sixth form. I was sad for them with all the experiences they missed out on. However, I think they became closer to each other with all the forced time together at home, and they are still quite close.

Many of my colleagues struggled to wfh while also homeschooling younger children, I got off lightly as my dds were not of an age where I could help them.

DH hated working from home, but got through it.

Worst part was working from home with nursery closed, and having no separation between home and work, and no daily interaction with work friends, and being introduced to new members of staff and having to work with them without physically meeting them.

Best part was the summer - beautiful weather and total peace and quiet! We live in a crowded tourist area and it was amazing seeing it silent and letting DD run around. Felt guilty about all the times I’d said ‘we need a new plague’ trying to push through the crowds of tourists…

For me personally.
Best: release of the enormous constant pressure I was unaware I put myself under.
Worse: Realising that I didn't have the social connections that others had, so lockdown wasn't as big a deal for me as it was for them.

Not really best or worst but I worked all through Covid and it was just strange
driving through London was like a scene from a horror movie empty streets no planes queuing to land at Heathrow
i once drive from Heathrow to east London in 30 mins !! Unthinkable at any other time

Being made redundant
The greed of people in supermarkets
Clap for the NHS
Care homes and funerals
Politicians spouting shit laden lectures.Nicola sturgeon
Nicola sturgeons absurd rules.
Jason Leith as above.
Hated all of it.

Leitch not Leith, bloody phone.

I live on my own. There wasn't anything good about COVID or the lockdowns. Nothing at all.

Worst:
some competition for this…

• a good friend the same age as me with DDs the same age dying by Covid after spending ages on ECMO as the team desperately tried to save her.
• living abroad and the genuine fear that society would collapse and we would never get home (got over this one, but had a bit of a bad time mental health wise)
• having to watch my uncle’s funeral via zoom (he also died from Covid)
• having to decide if my child (asthmatic) was safe to stay living with us as a family in a foreign country with limited healthcare resources, or if I should agree to her being sent to live back in the uk, possibly with me, but certainly without DH. Having a ten minute phone call to decide this with no warning. She was 7, she stayed with us but I spend a long time worrying that I had made the wrong choice.

best?

• we were lucky that neither myself nor DH lost our jobs. The country we lived in didn’t do furlough so we would have been royally screwed if we had lost our jobs.
• I had a change of career as a result of lockdown and now do a job I love.

The only best was that I saved money.

Worst: Having my first baby and mat leave in lockdown. Horrendous hospital care and allowed no support round afterwards. No breastfeeding clincs open etc (i had to give up trying).

Worst: All the impact i’m hearing about on kids. I also have the utmost respect for any parents who had to still work while having little kids to look after.

Worst: After always being very caring person who played by the rules, I no longer give a fuck. I will never forgive that i was made a prisoner without having committed a crime and that society didn’t give a shit how lockdown would impact anyone except who they saw as vulnerable. Now I do what I want and don’t give a shit.

Best:
The quietness and peace.
Cooking and baking. I really feel like I improved my skills in the kitchen simply by having time.
Having the kids at home and spending quality time with them.
Family walks.
The beautiful weather.
Re-evaluating my life and changing career.

Worst:
All the vaccine bullshit and pressure to get them. Hostility towards those that didn't.
The ongoing lockdowns and change of goalposts everyday.
Not being able to visit my elderly parents. My brother received a fine for seeing them whilst our 'leaders' were out having parties.
All the clapping on the doorsteps, although we did participate, seems absolutely ridiculous now.

Trying to do a full time job where I had flexibility of how and when to do it while nursery and school were closed and DH was working fulltime and being forced to be on his computer and active from 8.30 - 4 every day…. DD were 9 months (just settled into nursery) and 4 years (reception) at the time.

I remember doing a work presentation for investors one day by putting one DD in front of a princess movie and strapping the other in the pushchair and walking her in the (rare for that summer!) rain. Headphones on, presenting by sound only while pacing up and down the local park hoping DD would actually be asleep under the rain cover while desperately trying to remember what I’d written in the presentation.

DH was not very helpful, DDs were too young to understand. I looked after them from when they got up (then pre-6am) until they went to bed at 6-7pm and then I had to fit a whole day of work in after they’d gone to bed. The whole set up was exhausting. Weekends DH helped with DDs so I could do a couple of hours of work to try to catch up.

After a couple of months in DH negotiated a coffee break later morning so I could do an hours work during daytime. It was towards the end of summer when I first had an evening “off” and even longer before I had a weekend off.

Working as a nurse having a young child to care for at home (closed school) during covid I have 0 fond memories. Never doing it again.

The government got a lot of things wrong but I distinctly remember Chris whitty saying that we would be in the thick of it for around 18 months with restrictions, tightening and easing as needed
And that was about right .

Worst was finding out that my young colleague had committed suicide. I knew more people who committed suicide due to lockdown than who died of COVID.

Second worst was the point when DH couldn't get out of bed and just kept crying and I thought I was going to end up losing him to lockdown too. I was seven months pregnant at the time.

There was no best.