To feel like we are just existing now

[Ghostlyglow]

In a miserable, joyless world of queues and masks. A couple of friends have lost their jobs this week. Where are we going with this?When will it end?

I agree, I call it ground hog day too. Work, eat, sleep repeat.

@HollySideEyes

I will never understand the people that voted Tory clapping.

Maybe the went to a really good play?

Oh shit I forgot, thousands of years of drama is banned in the New Normal.

The younger generation have been sold out completely, young families, young children, young adults. I say this from someone who is not young.

I'm not young either but making huge sweeping statements maybe isn't the way forward?

I have 2 AC and they have their friends, their health, their futures.

It's relatively OK for us too, both still working, DD is getting good online schooling, DS is coping better with losing his GCSE exams, and all the fun stuff afterwards better than I thought he would, we have hobbies, but it still feels shit. I love baking, crocheting and gardening, these aren't new hobbies for me, I've always done them but it's not enough, I feel as though I have gone into some sort of retirement mode, pottering round the house, going for walks, watching TV every evening instead of being out doing sports.

I want to be out shopping, at restaurants, going to the cinema, football matches, the pub, but most of all I want my DCs back at school and it's the lack of planning for this from the Govt that I am most angry about, together with the withdrawal of statutory rights for vulnerable people and those with disabilities. And no, I didn't vote Tory.

I totally get why people are fed up and agree it's not right that essential health services have been decimated - if proper PPE and screening/ track and trace had been available we would have been able to isolate and carry on with essential treatments. It's also true that there will be many more deaths from the recession and lack of treatments for other things, rather than covid.
But that doesn't mean the lockdown shouldn't have happened. Go into a covid ward where 40% of people don't come back out and instead drown slowly in their own fluid and tell them it's 'just a bad cold'. Lockdown in my opinion should have happened earlier and harder and this would be over by now. Infections were doubling every few days, if we hadn't locked down people would have been dying in hospital corridors all over the UK.

I know it's shit and it's boring but for those of us that haven't got any health worries, haven't lost a relative, and haven't lost our jobs or are in danger of losing them....I think personally it's a bit over the top to say it's not living just existing. It's a few months of staying inside, not solitary confinement. Out of a whole lifetime it's not that awful. I personally have enjoyed spending more time with my pre schooler, she has changed so much since lockdown and I would have missed out if I was working in the office. Yes working around childcare and home schooling has been hell but again its only for a short time and I'm not sure a few months out of 14 years of education is going to have a massive effect (although I do feel for older students and appreciate it is a much more critical time for them). We've got so much tech now we can video call most friends and family, we can watch any film or tv program we want, we can buy anything we want to pass the time and get it delivered in a couple of days. We don't live near any green spaces and I'm missing travelling further for proper fresh air but the roads have been quiet, I've taught my 5 year old to cycle on the road. We've been lots of scoots and walks round the streets. We've now been able to see friends in the garden and that's given us a big boost so we will plan to do more of that when it stops raining. My own feeling is that things will get back to normal and all this will be forgotten at some point. I find it helps me to try and think of the positives and when I start thinking about them there are more than I thought if that makes sense. But I have a long term illness and have had periods in the past of being confined to the house too ill to do anything and not being able to see anyone. So I think I have had to develop a different mindset due to that of trying to take pleasure in small things like looking forward to getting a takeaway or something and am used to taking one day at a time and thinking yeah it was shit but it could have been a lot worse actually

Oh wow I agree! And I feel so normal after reading this thread.

I felt some kind of normal ish after a trip to Homebase yesterday.

I don’t think life will ever be the same though

@LavenderLilacTree

It will end when a vaccine e is available or when they find effective treatments. Existing is better than dying.

Isn't that just so sad though? Yes, you're right, we should be thankful we are still here, but my god, I know I miss lots of things, pubs, shopping, village fetes, exam worries, its all just....gone

No sacrifice is too great in pursuit of a low R number.

Unless you are Dominic Cummings, in which case every sacrifice is too trivial.

I know I sway between it's getting better to it's never ending .
It's 12 weeks in almost now isn't it I don't know I've lost track.
Things are getting slightly better but it's a bit like limbo not lockdown not normal either.
I'm just watching the news and it's all how bad the economy is which is not surprising.
Me and my family are ok no Money worries yet but I've not heard from work for a few weeks so I'm worried if they will want me back .
So in July more things will probably open but I imagine there will be redundancy's .
You can't really relax while furloughed because you are constantly worried about your job .
It is existing not living is it better than dying I don't know some days , I'd rather live life to the full .
My dd has really struggled this year anyway on her last year of uni so this lockdown has made her very anxious and depressed.

I can't face baking another banana bread or another craft session. I just haven't got it in me

The tv is going to be on a lot today and I am genuinely past the point of caring 😭

The only people I know who are currently thriving are introverted homebody’s who hated their jobs. Everyone else is slowly sinking into depression.

Yes it’s hard.

I’ve been diligent keeping bed lunch and dinner times completely disciplined. Think that’s helped.

My kids work from 8-1

But I am literally dragging my (fat) ass out of bed to achieve this. One day I sat in the sofa nearly all day looking a crap on Reddit

Its not that people do not want to care for their own children seriously look at the bigger picture. Il stop there because I could go on and on about this all day

I’m well aware of the bigger picture. It’s outrageous that medical treatment for some people has been cancelled or postponed because of covid. And the impact it has on the vulnerable is all too obvious, particularly in the job I do.

However read the responses on this thread. And many others like it. That’s actually not what people are primarily complaining about.

The first page of this thread is people moaning about their job now being dull, taking no enjoyment from being with their children, and the OP about queues and face masks.

That’s what I’m sick listening to

I have great sympathy with real problems. Cancelled medical care, redundancies, the economy.

No sympathy for someone moaning that they’re sick of making crafts with their kids.

I've been very fortunate in that I've a fairly secure job and have been getting full pay for essentially part time hours, I've a decent garden and the weather has been good.

But I'm sick of the constant unknowns. I'm so scared of my ds failing in education, he's the youngest in his class by a long stretch and was struggling before lockdown. I'm in NI so there was never any chance of him returning to school before September, that's 6 months of him missing out and being forced on into P2.

I'm sick of not being able to spend time with my parents because I'm not allowed to travel 70 miles and enter their home.

I'm torn between saying fuckit I want full old normal back and stay at home.

It's all a bit shit now.

The only people I know who are currently thriving are introverted homebody’s who hated their jobs. Everyone else is slowly sinking into depression.

That's me and I'm still depressed!!

Totally agree and I've had a relatively 'easy' lockdown, no young children to home educate, a teenager who has been self motivated to do his own studying, DH WFH with just a small pay cut, I am on furlough but as my job was part time and employer guarantees to pay the Real Living Wage no actual difference, a volunteering role to legitimately allow me to leave the house, a garden, living in a rural area with plenty of nice walks etc etc .... but it is all so tedious. I have been called back from furlough to start work next week and am ridiculously excited about it.

Ah well, as long as Covid is dealt with at all and any cost, it's apparently OK. It's also OK to die of anything else, or be ill with anything else.
Or to not send children to school. Or to oversee rises in things we used to want to see being lowered, like loneliness, the isolation of the old, unemployment, mental health issues, children's screen time. Basically anything and everything, however disproportionate, ill-informed, pointless, or harmful is absolutely fine.

No sympathy for someone moaning that they’re sick of making crafts with their kids.

I'm not sick of making craft with my child. I'm sick of having him clinging off me 24/7 and never getting a second alone. I'm sick of not even having a garden I can entertain him in. I'm sick of seeing him heartbroken and crying because he can't hug his nanny and aunties whom he adores and previously saw every day. I'm sick of having to tell him that no he can't play with his friends yet despite the fact that this illness will almost certainly not affect any of them.

Am I allowed to feel like that, or do you judge me not worthy because my problems aren't big enough?

I'm also sick of people like you policing other people's feelings.

I fear youmay be right@Iamapixie, the challenge is how to deal with this as an individual? Do you let it drive you to insanity or do you fight on?

@dotty12345- could you go for a walk with them?

I think I might be properly depressed.

The realisation that schools will not reopen full time in the autumn really knocked me. My workload is about 3x what it was, but I am not a key worker and really can't see how this can last. How can I keep this up?

I am not complaining about dealing with my kids. I am complaining about trying to do more than a full time job in the exact same moment I am trying to be a good mother to a four year old.

I feel like am failing at everything, but of course, it is an impossible task.

I'm also absolutely sick of going for a fecking walk but I'm not allowed to feel that way because others aren't going out for walks at all so how dare I.

Constantly we don’t need your sympathy. We are venting in the same way that others vent about all sorts of spurious shit that I have no interest in hearing. It’s a forum. People moan.

Existing is better than dying

The fact of the matter is that for most of us it isn't a choice between death and living like this.