‘Treating isolation like a holiday’

[Theyearofthestress]

Everyone is so angry and it’s doing my head in! Taking the mick out of people ‘treating this as a holiday’ because they’re doing their house up, or some gardening or god forbid have a bbq when the weather is nice.

Why are some people so keen to pounce on everyone and tell them they aren’t doing quarantine right? Haven’t we got enough to worry about? It is shit times for everyone, lots have lost their jobs, have huge changes to routine, worried for their health, kids are confused, adults are scared- why is it so wrong to try and make the most out of a shit situation?

We can’t go outside, so people are doing the right thing by staying in yet online everywhere are people complaining ‘Dave next door is treating this like a bloody holiday, with his gardening’ even a news article I read today condemned people who would have a bbq right now.

It’s like we should sit inside in silence in order to be doing this right.

I wish everyone would shut up moaning about other people, if you are staying inside you are doing the right thing. So AIBU to do whatever I can to pass the time, be it gardening, bbqs, painting... anything and tell others to mind their own business?

I think in times gone past, the critics would be insisting that this was a God-sent plague from which we would not recover without sack cloth, ashes, fasting and misery. Someone on here used the term 'collective penance' and I think there's a human urge to try to impose it, even in a secular society.

I am finding a huge release in doing my garden. Mind you normally I would have been to the garden centre 5 times by now but its been amazing to dig around in the back of the shed for left over seeds and discarded plant pots. We will all hopefully find a more sustainable way of making do after all this.

Anybody that can find the motivation to do something, anything ,deserves praise.

It’s not even like I’m having to try!

My lovely home, sorting out cupboards etc; children out in garden; getting in to the groove re home schooling; no rusher early starts; no busy evening.

Just... living quietly and I love it

We've been WFH all week and today started to tidy up our loft room which we've been saying we're going to do for years! There's books to read, films to watch - we watch ed Finding Your Feet on Amazon Prime this afternoon. Absolutely fabulous. On a 'normal" weekend a day like today would have seen us heading out for lunch and a potter round the shops but it's so nice just to sit back and relax.

Some on MN won't be happy unless you're sitting this out in a darkened room in sackcloth and ashes.

I think many people are terribly anxious - afraid, even - and are dealing with it badly by trying to control everything and everyone around them. Still others are dealing with their own anxiety by affecting a fatalistic nonchalance. It's a bad combination.

It's a common response. I think it will get better.

garden centre bedding plants are just getting skipped, its sad to see!!

My dh just went out for a walk and he said nobody was even looking at anyone else. Across the road he smiled at someone, said hello to another person and they just blank you.
I think this is the way it will be in the future, because we'll become used to living like this.

I agree OP. We don't know what's round the corner, or to be blunt who is going to come out of the other side of this, why not have some bright moments as best we can in this dark and unsettling time?

I wish we'd had at least 24 hours notice of lockdown.

with all due respect, we had at least 2 or 3 weeks!

Everyone in my village is smiling at each other and saying hello. Avoiding each other politely. It's really lovely and it's having a massively positive effect on my boys who have both admitted this is scary.

People shouldn't hide away feeling sad and depressed. It's a positive attitude, exercise and motivation that'll get us through this (mentally) so we're strong and ready to re-adjust when it's over.

with all due respect, we had at least 2 or 3 weeks!

Yeah we really did. My mum collected weeks worth of Newspapers and gave them all to me for DS scrap book. They were on about the lock down way back.

We’re doing the garden. Dh ordered railway sleepers today for delivery on Monday. They’ll be left by our side gate so we don’t have to see anyone.

He’s also power washed the slabs, washed the car and sorted the garage.

May as well use the time wisely and not just sit and mope.

We’re not on full lockdown here yet but it’s coming...

" they have closed altogether"

I thought that all non essential shops had closed though.

It's really lovely and it's having a massively positive effect on my boys who have both admitted this is scary. My kids are old enough now to be scared but I do worry about the effect this is having on their trust of people in general.

I prepped.

I bought in gardening stuff.

I am keeping busy. I have not been to a garden or diy store since lockdown.

I had planned to do the same over the summer anyway.

I am the one in my circle of friends who isn't resorting to the Only Fools And Horses box set after one week.

Its called 'pacing yourself'.

I will get bored about week 8 or 9 if I'm doing badly. Hoping to push it out til longer.

Its called mental health planning, and I couldn't give a fuck if anyone dissaproves. I stopped socialising when directed and I'm cut down on time out of the house in contact with others two weeks before that.

This week we’ve mown the lawn, assembled a trampoline (already bought, was in the garage until the summer) and had three BBQ (the DD’s love a BBQ). Tomorrow DH is going to jet wash the patio (our neighbours did theirs today so can’t moan really, not that I think they would) and if I can find a paint roller in the garage I’m going to paint my bedroom next weekend.

Yes. I left a local community group because there were dozens and dozens of posts essentially saying people aren't doing quarantine right. Or trying to guess who is in a household group and who is not (we live in quite a mixed area, so families, older people but also lots of students and recent graduates in house shares). Some people saying that mothers (never the dads with them in these rants) should not take children for exercise as it's not fair on joggers who have to move out of the way of prams. People criticising others for not beieen to clap the NHS. Another where someone was advocating residents go out and take photos of people who are too close to each other at a local park so they can be shamed online. The lot. There's a lot of good stuff too. But lots of toxicity.

• I wish we'd had at least 24 hours notice of lockdown.

We had weeks to prepare - it was obvious it was coming, it was just a matter of when.*

It was very clear I think? I knew it was coming and did some panic shopping, things like a lawnmower and garden stuff etc that we needed (or “needed”), new shoes for DS etc

It was very clearly coming, for anyone following the news...

That’s why the shops were crazy busy

Diddl - there were numerous announcements and management were separating people and getting them to queue outside the store to limit the numbers inside. We had markers stood for where people were to stand and wait to be served but that did stop them. Repeatedly I told people to go back and leave the appropriate amount of space. That doesn't stop idiocy though 🤷‍♀️

As we also sell building, plumbing and electrical equipment we fall under the category of stores which dont have to close entirely, hence offering the click and collect only for certain items

If you can treat it like a holiday (I refuse to use the L-word), all the better! Because for many people it's an enforced downtime with most of the nice bits of a holiday forcibly removed, so any ways you can enjoy it, great.

It's clear that lots of the baying pitchfork mob want this to be some sort of collective penance, where everyone is as miserable as possible. The same sort of people who might have said once upon a time "war/disease/disaster is a punishment from God".

I think it's fine to have a BBQ and enjoy it, but not very nice to show off about it. Us gardenless people are cooped up 23 out of 24 hours a day so don't really want to hear about you having a nice time in your garden.

As long as Dave next door hasn't invited the entire extended family over I'm not sure how it makes any difference to anyone else or breaks any rules if he cooks on the BBQ in the garden rather than indoors?

I wish we'd had at least 24 hours notice of lockdown.

Says someone who doesn't pay attention to the news.

If you were, you had weeks to prepare.

Its like 2008 and the crash then and people claiming no one saw it coming.

NO LOTS OF PEOPLE SAW IT COMING A MILE OFF AND ACTED ACCORDINGLY.

I’ve not witnessed anyone criticising anyone for enjoying themselves safely at home. Only for doing unnecessary tasks that increase the risk of spreading the virus. Do whatever makes the time better - as long as it doesn’t go against guidance of course.

@Gwenhwyfar oh come off it. My friend has a pool and has been posting pics of her sunbathing near it on Instagram. As envious as I am that I don’t have a pool (and warm enough weather for one!) I don’t begrudge her having one or even posting about it. Jealousy isn’t a nice trait!