To ask if the lockdown has had any positives

[Carrotv]

I'll start, bad news is I'll have no work for months, good news is I've had to be honest with my partner about my credit card debt and the discussion went better than I'd hoped.

Bad news is my mental health has been a hit of a roller coaster ride, a family crisis yesterday made it hit home how awful not being able to see and hug family is, really miss OH, I’ve come to really resent queuing at shops, I’ve drunk too much.
Good is I’ve nearly finished back garden, I’ve got back into old hobbies, I’ve realised what I need to do more of to keep my head straight, spent more time being a mum which kids have loved, so have I, the house is generally tidy.

I learned to crochet and made a large blanket.

The environment is healing itself without our pollution.
Neighbourhoods are working together to fight this and help each other.
The NHS is now seen to be grossly underfunded and an essential service for us all.
Petrol bills are lower.
Shopping locally is seen as a positive.
This government have been exposed for their incompetence in acting fast enough to halt the spread of the virus and to equip hospitals and staff.

We are loving lockdown - sleeping better, getting stuff done we never had time for before, getting more work done ... don't want it to end. But I know we are fortunate - kids are late teens/ early twenties and are either at uni or have left home, we get on well together and we both can WFH. It's a dream for us - no awful commuting into London and all the grief that goes with that. But really appreciate it's not the same for many others and we are very aware how fortunate we are. Much more birdsong too.

The kids seem much more relaxed than they have in months and I’ve spoken to my neighbours more in the last couple of weeks than I have since I moved in. There is a silver lining

For me and DP we are actually getting more work and more money for basically the same job pre lockdown.

I found out I am pregnant with my second on Friday.

My husband is finally doing the garden!

I hesitate to post this because I know so many people are suffering.

We are loving life under lockdown. Working from home, child having more open-ended project based school work so she can adjust to her level, fewer obligations and appointments. Aside from supply chain interruptions and fear of the virus itself, life is great for us

DD is 7m old and had a rough start, prem, IUGR and a couple of hospital stays with severe bronchiolitis. She spent all winter picking up every bug going.

We love lockdown- she's not been ill in AGES!

Really worrying times. But I just had THE best day with my family.

My dog who is very nervous of the busy outdoors is much more confident since it’s been quieter out and about and yesterday he went for a walk along the side of a normally busy road. He normally refuses to leave the house unless we drive to a quiet area away from roads. It’s wonderful to see him growing in confidence.

My DP is furloughed on full pay and we’re enjoying spending time together, getting plenty of sleep and getting jobs done around the house and garden that we wouldn’t usually have time for. I’m cooking lovely meals, baking, reading........

I’m rather enjoying it.
Shopping at the local, extremely reasonable farm shop (not over-priced fancy stuff) and refusing to queue for the big shops is a big plus. Don’t understand why anyone does it!!

I’m actually enjoying having DH at home - he is very disciplined and will shut himself away to work, but it’s nice to have lunch with him, and the DC love it too. Plus there’s obviously no commute so when he shuts down at 6:30, he’s home.
DS starts school in September so I’m enjoying having all this extra time with him and trying to soak it up.
We’ve discovered new walks around our village.
Everyone we pass on our daily walk says hello.
I’m using up leftovers and cooking with what I’ve got, so that I only have to go to the supermarket every 7-10 days, so I’m saving money and enjoying cooking again because I have to be a bit creative.
I’m actually “seeing” more of my friends than I normally would - me & some uni friends did a quiz on zoom the other night, and we’d never normally do anything like that. I think it’s made a lot of people, myself included, appreciate the relationships they have.

Obviously I would rather this wasn’t happening - we all would - but I am trying to look for positives as I think it’s quite easy to get down about things otherwise.

Our street has been amazing - from knowing only our immediate neighbours, we now have an active WhatsApp support group and a Facebook group on which we swap gardening tips and seeds, food and recipes. All the local streets are decorating their fences. It's lovely in such a worrying time.

Congratulations @GrandTheftWalrus that's lovely news.

My positives are:

• Family dinner together every night even including teenagers.
• At work it is clear that everyone can work at home at least some of the time, which will give us long term gains as office space is a big issue
• have had Zoom chats with friends I hardly ever see.
• reduced my carbon footprint

Thanks majestic. Was a bit of a shock.

I’m loving being able to get 2-4 hours a day exercise (indoors) and work on my own schedule (just has to be done not fixed 9-5. I’m an outdoorsy person but honestly although I miss my sports particularly my cycling I’m a lot less stressed in general and not running around from activity to activity my mental and physical health seem much better. Also some creative cooking to get round missing ingredients has been fun. People who think the rules (and the spirit of the rules rather than trying to push the boundaries of the literal translation) don’t apply to them still piss me off a bit though.

Spending quality time with my little kids which id probably never have done so much so unless forced to. They seem so much happier

Honestly? It’s been great.

It’s lovely and quiet, I can hear crickets and bees, birds and the gentle hum of the countryside. No aircraft or traffic noise. Can sleep with the window open.

I work from home three days a week, covering two days per week (NHS Supply Chain). Travel to and from work takes 15 minutes not 45 minutes. So peaceful, I’m getting so much done. Have time to chat to friends and family properly. Time to make lovely food, get out in the garden and exercise. Read and decorate and watch TV.

The only downside really has been the awful circumstances of it all.

I am cooking more. Generally wfh and homeschooling on my own has been hell but this long weekend has been lovely as not wfh. No commitments. Just have to spend time with the children. However, once work and distance leading starts again it will be awful. Other positives... hope I carry on using independent food suppliers..

I thought DP and I would bicker and argue all the time but we're actually getting along better than ever! I appreciate little things in life more such as going for my daily walk and listening to my favourite podcast. I have caught up on so much work and enrolled in a free online course with The OU

Don't get me wrong, I have days where I feel utter shit and cry. I miss my family beyond belief and I often feel very claustrophobic living in a small city flat, but I'm not hard up at all and I'm actually very luckily to be fit and healthy and to be able to sit at home all day every day and effectively do a quarter of my usual workload on full pay!

This sounds like a negative but it’s a positive to me. But it’s really brought out the worst in some people I know, and some have shown their true colours in ways that have deeply shocked me.
But I’m glad I know. I’ve been wasting time or mental energy on people I really have lost all respect for. It’s brought into sharp focus who and what I care about and should be spending my energy on.

Wfh I'm saving money. 100 in savings this month 300 next so I'm hoping we have lockdown for bit longer lol

Air travel has been cut back massively and people have realised that working from home is doable - both of these changes will help the transition to a lower carbon economy.

My kids rather like us being home all the time. We are spending more quality time with them and they seem to be thriving without all the busyness of day-to-day life. It's hard on us as parents but great for them as kids.

We've done lots of jobs that would have never gotten done. Cleaned out the attic, cleaned out the shed, sorted out various piles of shite that had been lying about.

We've explored lots of places in our neighbourhood on our daily (allowed) walks that we wouldn't otherwise have been to.

So it's not all bad.