To ask how you would have reacted to lockdown if it had occurred when you were a teen <can be lighthearted>

[EdithPeston]

I would have danced the fandango if my O level exams had been cancelled!
No proms back then but wouldn't have been bothered if the leavers party was cancelled because it wasn't much different to the weekly disco I went to back then (anyone else remember discos?). Last day of school wasn't A Thing.

I wouldn't have been allowed to stay in bed til afternoon because mum would have kicked me out of the house for part of the day. No doubt i would have gone to the phone box to ring my friend Karen and arrange to meet on the bus where we would travel to nowhere and back, pretending we were sisters if anyone asked why we weren't socially distancing.

Back home, mum wouldn't have put up with any moping around - she'd find me jobs to do if I dared say I was bored. I'd watch Brookside or listen to tapes on my cassette recorder or type articles about my miserable existence on my Olivetti typewriter.

How would your lockdown have been?

I was thinking about this last night. My Mum was abusive and my Dad resented me and would criticise me constantly. It would have been utter hell not to be able to escape them for months at a time,

My life was school where I was bullied and home, so it would have been a slight improvement.

O Levels? Well I already had one I'd taken early, I would have been pissed about History, I was crap at it, no one expected me to pass but I did.

I would have spent my time doing arts and craft projects, mainly in my room with the radio and chatted on the CB radio.

I think there would have been even more arguments with my father over the phone bill! I would have written a lot of letters. I had a Saturday job in a non-essential business, so I would have been annoyed not to be earning any money.

I have wondered a few times if I would have been motivated enough to do schoolwork, even for A level and also not sure how the teachers would have got work to us if they could not have gone into school and photocopied it and got it into the post.

I wasn't sporty, so would have got zero exercise except maybe rediscovering my bike.

But as my husband pointed out, we wouldn't have locked down like this in the late 80s. It just wouldn't have happened.

Also, if we are talking GCSE/A level years the timing would have been bad as my father was approaching retirement so we downsized from a 4 bedroom bungalow with a very large garden to a 2 bedroom bungalow with a postage stamp garden (and a tiny lean to conservatory). Three adults in the house would have driven each other completely mad.

I’ve thought about this quite a lot. I’d have found no school like a reprieve from a life sentence as I had a horrible time, was badly bullied with no friends. That said, I’m not sure I’d have done much with my time. What’s lasted from then is reading and I still read a lot now. I think the depression I suffered later in my teens might well have surfaced earlier though, so it may have been a mixed blessing to be in isolation.

But as my husband pointed out, we wouldn't have locked down like this in the late 80s. It just wouldn't have happened

What makes him say that?

I would have loved it! I'm an introvert, so I would have been reading books, playing games and chatting online. I'm also a bit of a geek, so I probably would have been working through study guides to keep up with the work ;)

Sadly, I'm a key worker with primary aged children, so I'm currently either working or looking after children. Not much downtime to play games :S

I would have failed all my gcses because I pulled it together in the actual exams but my coursework would have meant I failed

I would have sat at home on AOL all day

My parents would have both been essential workers so I would have been worried about them.

I would have been housebound.

It would have depended at what stage of 'teen' I was at. If under sixteen or just slightly over, I would have loved every minute! I'd have stayed in bed late and if the weather was nice, gone out for 'walks', to local parks and possibly met up with people. However I'd have been happy left to my own devices.

16-18 would have been far more difficult because I was more constrained during that time so I honestly don't know.

I would have loved and hated it in equal measures. I was "the fat kid" at school and was bullied by some people. But school gave me an escape from my alcoholic mother.
My dad would have still worked as he worked in an essential business.

Being home all day would've been my teenage dream, I would've spent the day in front of my CD-Player and listen to CDs while reading piles upon piles of books. If not doing that I would watch TV. The only downside would have been not being able to go to the cinema with some friends.

I certainly would have been properly peed off about the cancelled trips to France, Italy and Switzerland respectively (8th Grade, 9th Grade and final year).

I'd have been in solitary confinement. I wasn't allowed to leave the house other than to go to school and would have spent the entire time (as I did) up in my room to avoid the random slaps, punches and shoving I received depending upon her mood whenever I was foolish enough to emerge.

No phone calls, nobody shouting up to a window, being largely ignored when not being told how useless/ugly/whatever I was.

As she had got to the stage of putting on her shoes to walk over and stamp on my bare feet by the time I was 14 and punching me in the side of the head, I think that being trapped without any respite (or school staff physically coming round and insisting upon seeing me) would have led to her seriously injuring me with something like a kitchen knife, actually doing what she threatened with the iron or something with gardening implements.

Mm. Depends when really.
13-15 absolutely no problem. My awful abusive dad was long gone by then, I had several horses at home and my dogs, I wasn’t particularly interested in boys and my friends all lived on farms too, so easy for a socially distanced walk or ride out together.
16-19 slightly tougher. I was a young farmer, and I liked a drink or two so was out every weekend, often both nights, and a thirsty Thursday for good measure.
I’d also started properly surfing by then and would’ve missed that, until they relaxed guidelines. Just would’ve been at our local beach a lot, as it’s accessible enough on foot.
Still had the horses (more bloody horses ) and dogs tho, so that part would’ve been just fine.

School wouldn’t have registered on my radar tbh. I liked it well enough, had plenty of friends and did well academically but I didn’t love the place so wouldn’t have missed it. Would always rather have been riding!

It wouldn't have made any difference for me. I had a chronic illness and no friends. I'd barely have noticed any change.

I'd have been happy to miss school, horrified at spending so much time with my parents, made lots of Fimo animals to sell at a later date, written daily in my diary about how much I missed everyone and gone on lots of bike rides to meet my boyfriend somewhere.

What makes him say that

We couldn't have closed down the economy without the tech we have now to keep at least some of it going.

And I suspect society was more stoic and would have just got on with it. As our (grand)parents had to do with illnesses like polio, TB and measles before vaccines.

It's interesting what you say about being stoic cologne The media keeps going on about the mental health impact lockdown is having on teens and there are lots of posts from worried parents on MN about how devastated and broken their NT teenagers are.

I don't think that would have crossed people's minds in the 70s/80s. Obviously mental health wasn't openly discussed then but we didn't have access to the vast array of entertainment that kids have today (god I sound like my late nan!) so we had to learn how to deal with boredom. And our parents (generalising here) weren't obsessed with enriching us.

It would of made no difference. I wasn’t allowed out except to go to school. I was escorted there until I was 14. I wasn’t a trouble maker or anything just “wasn’t to be trusted”. Frequently accused of smelling of smoke and smoking (my mum was a 40 a day smoker so I reeked regardless).

.

I'd have loved it, weeks on end of not having the trauma of trying to be popular and being "allowed" to be on my own.

I was lazy so would have loved it, my parents would both be at work As they were jet workers and my dad would be raging about furloughed workers.

Being parted from my friends would be hard as we were such a big part of each other’s life’s in our teens.

I would have been cockahoop if my O levels had been cancelled.

Because there was no such thing as mobiles or snapchat et al, I wouldn’t have seen my school friends for months. I did have a friend next door so could have socialised with her over the backyard wall.

I stayed in a lot anyway ( 70s and 80s) but it would have been boring as hell!
Work from school would have posted on i guess! They would have found a way !

The mere thought of having weeks or months without having to face the bullies at school would have filled me with delight.

My dad was a maths teacher, and my mum had been an art teacher until she had my sister and me, so I am sure we would have had plenty of home schooling.

I would have loved it - I worked on a farm - which I would have been able to do for months instead of just the 6 weeks holiday. My O levels would have been cancelled so wouldn't have spent my life feeling that I should have tried a bit harder.

Embarrassingly I wouldn't have been much different to how I was as a teenager. Sat at home reading. Wasnt overly social and didn't have many friends.

I would have been chuffed at the potential of my exams being cancelled though, I never performed well in them, much better at coursework.