Children thinking lockdown lasted years 😢

[Mayflower282]

Was talking with my kids about Covid (they were in primary school when it started, now in high school), they asked how long lockdown lasted and I couldn’t actually remember, but I said around 6 months…they were shocked and said they thought it was 2-3 years. I guess their perception of time at that age it felt longer. Felt so sad hearing this 😢

Anyone else had similar from their kids?

it is a massive portion of a childs life but not so much of an adult. Of course it felt like a long time.. I’m not sure why that is sad?!

Yep and it felt like forever

Between lockdowns and restrictions it did last a few years.

ds started uni in sept 2019, unis shut normal classes down beginning of March and they worked online , Lockdown happened March 2020 and my ds didn’t set foot back into uni until Sept 2022. His only normal year at uni, attending lecturers and classes was 4th year. He didn’t get the usual student experience and didn’t know many people from his course at all.

so your children are right, we had a few different periods of restrictions for those 2/3 years.

Because we were in and out of lockdown and there was variation between lockdown rules and various phases and regimes of restrictions, it's easy to conflate it all as "lockdown".

I tend to think of the restricted/locked down to some extent or another as being from March 2020 to March 2022. Which was (2) years.

Our office closed in March 2020 and so did our kids schools. There was a limited return to school in September 2020 but schools shut again in November for a fire break lockdown, my kids went back in December but only for about 10 days because then "bubbles burst".

School reopened March 2021 but was very restricted, no wraparound care available. My office reopened Sept 2021 but closed again early December. I didn't go back permanently until March 2022 but even then there were still social distancing rules, masks on the tube etc. Went on holiday abroad summer 2022, masks on planes, had to show vaccination certificates. I'd say things only started to normal after that though ironically we finally caught covid on the way home from that holiday.

I think the numpty was Nicola Sturgeon. The bit that gets me is that must have been discussed and rehearsed before she did her press conference.
Did nobody point out the obvious opening the doors would be free??

They might not have an automatic door close but all or nearly all classroom doors are fire doors.
Replacement costs would have been wild.

Yet people esp south of border think she was a Goddess

It is sad. I'd like to see a current survey on age groups affected.

About a year maybe two into it a study by Oxford reckoned 7year olds were worse affected.

I wonder what they would say now?

Yes, it started just before St Patricks day, the parades were cancelled. Then it dragged on in different forms until Feb 2022. When I was pregnant was DS and caught covid! Maternity remained very strict, he was born in July. DH was allowed in for the whole of the time I was in, but he wasn't allowed to attend any prenatal check ups - bar the big scan.

Here in Wales the first lockdown started in March 2020 as everywhere else in the UK. We had a firebreak fortnight and then we had full lockdown from December 20th through to April 2021 and restrictions such as face masks in care homes lasted well into 2022.

Actually thats a very good point. Schools closed and full lockdown was end of March but restrictions started before that.

Remember there was a week or so of advising people not to go to pubs before the pubs closed.

Much longer than July in many places. In Wales pretty much all Christmas events were cancelled in 2021 as well as 2020, even outdoor ones. Places in the highest "tier" in england were similar. Lots of people stayed fully wfh for the whole time even after "lockdown" had ended.

And as pp's said, lots of places started restrictions before march. We had a suspected case in work so the whole place was shut down to be cleaned (mad to think of it!) a week before lockdown actually started, and we just never went back.

I had my babies over covid, the restrictions were put in place in March 2020 and the final restrictions weren't lifted till just after my daughter was born in Feb 22

My husband was in hospital in April/May 2022. Until two weeks before he died, I couldn't visit - and my sons couldn't visit till the day before he died. So for us, restrictions certainly lasted for two years.

Yeah it's absolutely crazy thinking back about how long it all actually lasted, between the real hardcore lockdowns and the full lifting of restrictions.

I finished cancer treatment Feb 2020 and was looking forward to getting back to normal life, barely a month went by and we went into lockdown. I then had all the fun and games of being clinically vulnerable and told to shield, while staying with my inlaws who insisted on continuing their daily routine of walking to the co-op to get a newspaper 🙄

DS1 was born May 2022, I got covid in March 2022 and still had to be isolated when I went in for a checkup. Facemasks were still everywhere. Things felt pretty well back to normal while I was on mat leave so I guess I count mid-22 as the return to normality. 2+ years of craziness.

I'm not surprised they are confused about the timeline. It feels like yesterday when all of that nonsense occurred. I have PTSD from it to this day.

This. Your children are closer to being right.

I was sent home from work in March 2020, my DC was born a year later and restrictions were still in place. We couldn't go to my parent's for Christmas 2020. A big event I go to, which usually should have occurred in May 2021 was cancelled.

I definitely remember it affecting more than one school year.

Ds has a March birthday too so missed 2 years of celebrations. Dd turned 18 at the end of September 2020, she had a party of 6 people at home, her friend whose birthday is early September managed an outdoor party with (I think) 30 people. Her friends had a variety of 18th birthday walks and zoom quizzes!

@WimbyAcemine too! And then I went back to work in late 2021 and it was still very much a WFH culture, with no pressure to attend anything face to face for work at all. A very lonely time to have your first baby.

She had excellent PR skills.

Did the Covid enquiry not conclude there was zero science behind most of her nonsense?

Oh, she couldn't recall. And had unfortunately deleted all the relevant messages.

I am no fan of Nicola but … I think we need to be careful not to look back with the benefit of hindsight. At the time her measures attracted overwhelming public support. I believe that she and her team were genuinely trying to keep people safe.

Many of us and particularly our young kids teens and first year uni students suffered psychologically from lockdown and other social restrictions. However its possible that deaths would have increased without them - or at least that’s what the consensus was at the time.

God help us if anything really bad happens to us if that's all it takes.

It did last years. How do you not remember OP? It went on for ages. I remember it lasting for at least two years.

I know Im right because I remember it affecting two different exam years of students in the school near me.

In England restrictions lasted from March 2020 to July 2021 I think. There were still some international travel restrictions after that though.

It was on and off for 2 years in the end.
March 2020 started the first lockdown.
Lifted a bit in June 2020
July 2020 local lockdowns started
Sept 2020 rule of 6 started
Nov 2020 second lockdown
Jan 2021 third lockdown
march 2021 end of third lockdown
April to end of 2021 covid vaccinations

There were still restrictions around in Jan 2022. I had a terrible time in lockdown with a stillbirth, 2 MMC and finally a successful pregnancy so very aware of what was in place when as I went through alot of it during the peak of lockdowns.