What has lockdown highlighted to you about your life?

[Ilovetea09]

Morning. I'm on day 54 of self isolation now. We are stuck in groundhog day and The kids are finding homeschool difficult and they miss their friends.
But we have been so lucky with the weather and to have a garden and are trying to make the best of it. We camped out there the other night which was great fun. Something we would never normally do. My husband is still working but when he's home I've noticed we've spent a lot more time together as a family which has been nice. Just doing simple things like playing outside, playing with toys.
We have been getting more exercise than we usually would which is a positive. We are eating less and spending less.

It has shown me how much I love travelling and going to the seaside /or on holiday. I really need something to look forward to it seems! And going on days out and the weekend, we really miss that.

But it's also shown me just how introverted I am, and my husband. My husband has always been antisocial, he had a few work friends /aqaintencies, but he's let them slip away and now has none. He says he's perfectly happy with this as hes never enjoyed friends!
Im similar in that I don't have a large group of friends. I have one best friend who I've not seen since February as she's living at a hospital with her sick baby for at least 6 months. My only other friends are school mums who I chat to at the gate. I aren't sad we haven't got friends but it has highlighted it to me when I see on social media people hosting quiz nights with friends and having group video chats etc.
Lockdown has also shown me how we aren't close to other family members and I don't know if that's a good or bad thing. We all live locally to each other and we saw my parents and in laws every weekend before lockdown . But it was tedious and I don't have a good relationship with my narcissist father so the meetups were never fun anyway. I feel terrible saying this but to not see them has been quite freeing for me. My anxiety around my father has gone and I feel relaxed for the first time in years.
I don't know what our new normal will be going forward after lockdown but I do know that I want to change some things to live a happier and more fulfilling life than we were.
What has lockdown highlighted to you about your life?

That living hundreds of miles away from my DSs and in the case of my DGSs, in another country, makes my life fairly pointless. They are getting on with their lives and that's good but my life is empty without them. I read, cook and garden, walk the dog but really, is this all there is?

I love staying put, usually we're travelling around the country for various reasons

I only miss a handful of people

I love my home and having us all here all the time

When people talk about lockdown lifting I get the fear!

That leaving London to live on the coast was absolutely the right decision.
That I am perfectly content with my own company and living alone.
That I overeat.

I feel the same,I’ve found this lockdown quite freeing no pressure to be anything 😊

I’ve seen that life is precious and that fun can be had from life’s simpler things. I’ve found it quite liberating to be freed from constant outside visits and activities.
Im NHS and have seen great love, focus and strength. On the other hand, I feel sickened by government’s lack of preparation regarding PPE, been scared about not having enough protection and dismayed when they recall items they didn’t check (after we used then in COVID wards). I Hope lessons are learnt.

That im a very social person and i like going out and being other human beings,I live alone but im not a loner. And i hate rules,though theres nowhere to go aoart from a walk,so you have no real choice not to.Also that i am still a groomed person,i cant belive all these woman who say they dont bother with make up anymore,mine goes on everyday,and i dress smart casual,no slobbing about in Pjs,dont own any.and though i cant have manicures and pedicures,i do my own and a facial.Ive always dyed by own hair luckily and i look after it,with serums etc.Its shown me im defintely not a scruffy person.lol

I feel pretty much the same, I'm still working (Nhs) can't afford holidays and don't really go out socialising much so apart from missing friends and family my life hadn't changed much. I've realised how boring my life is.

It's highlighted that I love being at home and I'm not arsed about socialising. Also that my husband is my best mate and although we usually do things separately a lot of the time, we also enjoy spending time together.

I couldn't agree more with this :). I thought I had written it haha!

That actually my life was perfectly fine before, thanks very much, and that I’d like it back ASAP.

That we were living in a hamster wheel. We were just out all the time at work/after school club/kids evening and weekend activities. All good things in their own right but it is so good to just have some home time and not rush around. My sons football coach messaged the other day to say they would add an extra day training when things are back to normal. I want to weep!

That I'm very glad we have lots of space, both inside and outside.

That I don't miss going out and doing stuff as much as I thought.

That I don't really miss seeing people.

That I'm comfortable in my own skin.

That I'm very happy with my DH.

That I love to read.

That I love yoga.

That we are a lot better off than many people.

I’ve learnt I don’t have anyone in my life I miss apart from my Dad.

I’ve learnt I really love my dh. And we’ve used this time to talk and laugh. We never get time to just talk as we’re constantly working. We’re staying awake at 3/4am just talking. It’s wonderful reigniting our love again. I don’t have best friends and my family I’m NC with, so knowing I have my dh is comforting.

That I'm boring, anti social and a loner even though I do have friends.

That I'm lazy and that my life has been mostly the same under lockdown. That I didn't go out much anyway and that I'm still not going to learn the guitar even though I found free online lessons during lockdown.

That I really don't like my sister and can't be bothered with her.

That my daughters need me to do a little more when lockdown is lifted, we used to do more trips and days out so I need to get back to that as even before lockdown I had slowed right down. Going out 2 or 3 times a week only before lockdown. Maybe just add in one every thing per week.
I may never go out everyday but I need to try.

That mumsnet is great and I like talking to people on the Internet. But that there are some real bitchy, nazi, stasi people on mumsnet, so they must exist in real life too and I need to avoid them at all costs.

How isolated I am (from self isolating before lockdown). How I rely too much on my parents. How great it is that they have a garden.

Sadly that I’m pretty useless human being.

I married a bloody lovely man
I fritter an awful lot of money each month
I don’t actually miss takeaways
I have good friends
As much as she drives me insane, I’m not sure how I’ll cope when my mum goes.
If we had a garden, I could quite happily never go out again

That I wasn’t ready to go back to work full time after 6 months of mat leave. Although technically I am now back at work (secondary, assistant head), but WFH and workload different - not less exactly, but manageable with a LO. In many ways, this has worked out very well insofar as I’m kept busy by work, have a salary coming in, but not missing things - like my DS starting to crawl this week. I think I would have found it really difficult to have gone properly back to work from 7-5.

That I'm going to travel as soon as there are flights. The thought of the rest of the world being locked down was more upsetting to me than my own small world.

That I will go drs and get my health sorted as I'm sure my laziness has a medical basis. It does but I'm sure there's more to sort out.

That my house and garden are a haven to me.

It has highlighted that I don't have any friends, but also how much I love my husband. I wondered how two months in isolation with him and two young kids would be, but he's the best!

How much I love our village
How we pack our schedule far too much - clubs, activities, play dates rushing here and there. I will be scaling things right back after all of this.

I love my partner & my children, everything else is a bonus. Like you I don't have much contact, or a close relationship with family. I also know people in a similar situation. Learning that not everyone is part of a close family is very freeing.

It’s highlighted for me that I appreciate the area I live in more than I realised. That my husband isn’t as unreasonable as I sometimes think- he’s made a huge effort not to let minor disagreements fester; something that used to be an issue.

I know that I’m a creative cook! I also know that I’m not yet ready to go back to work full time after a deep period of depression, but that I want to get there, and I am more resilient than I thought.

I’ve also realised that the first place I want to go to is Wales. I bloody love Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿.

That despite everything we’ve been through my husband and I are ok and very strong. I would not have said that in January. I miss my life where our shared family hobby had us out and about together a lot of the time, but that we’re all running along together well enough here despite everything.

I miss my friends, I actually ache with how much I miss them.

I miss travelling a lot. I’ve always been a wanderer.

I love where I live and am very lucky.

Thanks for starting this thread op.