Aibu...how close to normal is life for you

[jeansandashirt]

Aibu to wonder how close to "normal" (as we know it) is your life right now?

Very far from normal.

No gym, fitness classes, gigs, book group, leisure shopping, theatres, galleries, “live” work, holidays, fun.

It’s bloody awful.

No not anywhere near normal. Can't travel to my other home, see my family. It is awful for me

Half-way. Finding booking for things in advance a pain so tend not to bother. And have avoided all shops as cannot stand wearing a mask. So only online shopping and avoiding all places where masks are necessary. Also no beauty treatments as would be no treat with the mask on.

So OK but not great and certainly not normal.

I usually work from home so that remains the same.

Not very normal socially. Other than my mum have seen no other family since the start of the year. Have not been shopping since pre lockdown and all the days out/breaks away we'd usually take my son on have not happened. Work wise pretty normal now though.

It’s getting closer. In Scotland so the kids are back at school and nursery. Starting to meet friends at the park again.

About 90% back to normal. We both worked as usual throughout. Still can’t see elderly relatives who live in one of the lockdown areas.

Completely normal. Nothing has changed at all for me this year.

About 80% for me since school went back on Wednesday which is amazing. But I am really really burnt out with terrible stress symptoms from the full time wfh/childcare juggle, I wonder how long it’ll take to recover.
I always wfh (but obvs used to have childcare and meetings out) however dh is still at home and NOT coping well with it. He’s also stolen my home office

About 90% also. DD has never stopped going to school whilst I worked. She has adapted the way that she sees friends and we've been out for dinner Mon-Wed for the past two weeks and plan to continue 😂😂. Been seeing family again for months now, just socialising outside in the garden more. Holiday this year was in UK and wearing masks in shops.

I appreciate that some people are still not going out much and are scared. However that's not our experience.

Missing swimming and DD misses dance class, but those are minor disruptions.

Still not back to normal and think we really are quite a way off.

10%.
Working from home in the main.
Eating out - usually several times a week - not since March.
Theatre/ballet /opera - very regular - shut.
Travel outside of U.K. - none since January.
Not been on a bus since March - daily usually central London. Nor a train nor the tube.
Not used a coin since March. Notes only a few times.
Seen children in supermarket once since March.
Hugged anyone other than dp - not since March.
Etc

About 50%. And I'm not prepared to accept this as the "new normal". New "temporary normal," I think.

I'm freelance and lucky that I still have work, but I'm in an industry that has been devastated, will take ages to get back and where every day brings more news of redundancies - so even if it isn't affecting me directly now its affecting everyone I know - and I suspect is going to mean I have less work in future.

Day to day stuff fine, apart from all the petty stuff of not being able to nip to the shops without factoring time to be in a queue and remembering a mask, but all the fun stuff has gone or is much harder to do. No meetings in London, with time to look around galleries or shops before or after. No theatre trips. Many friends only comfortable to meet in gardens/outside pubs, which is fine if the weather is good - but things keep being cancelled when it rains. Many of the activities that make living in my community-minded town so great, have now been cancelled, or are only online, and I'm very bored of Zoom already. Feeling a sense of dread about the autumn/winter already, when meeting up outdoors will be impossible, and meeting indoors won't be considered "safe".

Probably about 80% normal. We see family, I have met up with friends, nursery is back, DH is back in work, I am a teacher so am on summer holidays, I do the food shop with DD.

No softplay or toddler swimming yet, obviously masks make browsing shops a little less fun, and we used to eat out more but I found I was a little nervous when we went for our first meal out last week so probably wont be doing that again for a while. Overall, we feel nearly back to normal day to day.

Not very. Not going to cafes or restaurants, WFH, not going to the gym.
Still washing some shopping and doing temperature checks every few days.

Not much difference. I already worked
From home and ordered online for pretty much everything. I drive dd fewer places, I guess that is the only big difference.

I had a job before lockdown. My DC were at school.

I don't have a job. My DC are "lucky" enough to be in this year's A level and GCSE cohort.

I haven't seen my extended family since March because one of them is having chemotherapy.

I have to wear a face mask to go in shops, which makes me panic.

I can't afford to go anywhere or do anything (see: no income, above).

Life was very good before, and it's completely shit now. It bears virtually no relationship to the life I had before, or the life my children had before.

There's still no clue about when - if ever - my sector might "bounce back". There have already been countless job losses, and no prospect of any kind of salvation.

Not really I'm in Greater Manchester so have extra restrictions,,Dh went back to work after 14 weeks ( underlying health issues) ,maybe when the kids go back to school it might feel a bit more normal.

Not at all, we both work in education (LA) so have worked seven days a week, most weeks since March.

DH is on the critically vulnerable list.

We've had two weeks leave this summer. Couldn't risk going abroad and need to be here for school exam results so couldn't risk needing to quarantine.

Seen both sets of parents separately SD for a couple of hours in the garden. A round trip for each of 6 hours.
Haven't seen any of our young adult DC's or any friends, other than a 10 minute chat from a distance over the garden wall.

A couple of days out whilst on leave, long walks, empty beaches. Didn't feel we could or wanted to risk any overnight hotel stays.

And back to work...feel quite sad really.

Very as it is school holidays - we don't really go anywhere (two autistic kids), only difference is appointments via video and phone, and masks for two - neither of which are a real hardship!

It's not normal at all. The only nice things I've done, having my DD stay with me, going to visit DM and DB and family are against the rules, but I'm totally done with it all. My job has massively changed, I hate masks, and everything takes so much longer now. The winter is going to be so much worse. I can't even imagine what life must be like with small children. It's still awful.

Not very.

One of us is recently deshielded and there is so much we can't do because of the number of people who are not keeping the minimum distance.

DH is still mainly WFM, which is a change I'd like to see endure

Oh and wiping and quarantine shopping when it arrives (along with endless handwashing, sanitizing and repetitive "don't touch your face!" to the kids) - but that just feels normal now (only mentioned it now as saw someone else mention it, forgot it wasn't actually a normal thing to do! 😂)

Nope not really.
My lungs are still in a mess and I had Covid very early on. I struggle to breathe most days and it's awful, but GP won't see me because the moment you say, I am breathless,they act like you're trying to kill everyone in the vicinity and tell you, despite knowing I've had Covid, to go get tested-although even then they still won't see me unless I pay £80.
I can't do my normal job as it's still banned, so as funds were running out I've taken on odd jobs, so one week I'll be painting, the week after clearing a garage, this week Im meant to be gardening but the weather means that's looking doubtful, anything to pay my rent and put food on the table. I've barely seen mates as I'm busy doing whatever is available. No holiday this year, no festival, no weekend or night off from parenting as one sister is a nurse so no chance and the other is petrified of catching the virus so hasn't been out.
I'm sick of it now.

The one thing that isn’t normal is DH working from home.
The rest all is for me.
But that’s because I couldn't go out before lockdown anyway so lockdown didn’t change my life much anyway :(

So I’m just carrying my normal, the same before lockdown, during and after....

If your life has gone back to 60~70% normal, you will always be doing much much better than me.

Very