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?

About 90% normal.

DH and I are both working as usual and getting regular food deliveries. I'm seeing my parents (at a distance) and we've gone out for meals sitting outdoors and have had takeaways too. We walk the dog, go to the beach (live by the coast) and go to the local ice-cream and burger/fish and chip places with no issues.

The biggest change is we no longer go into the local down for a wander around the shops/coffee/lunch. It's no fun shopping in a mask (especially in the heat) and it's easier and cheaper to buy what I need online. I also have no plans to go to the cinema or anything indoors anytime soon but we never did that much anyway.

I have a child with several additional needs, life is never really normal. When kids go back our home Ed will be about 80% normal though

Just about normal. Been at work throughout (NHS staff) and still do weekly shop

I miss going out for meals with friends. And my DS missing out on after school activities.

Holiday abroad cancelled but not particularly bothered - can wait another few years for that to return

Pretty much the same as before! Work is slightly different but I’ve been lucky enough to be able to work throughout. With the exception of 2 weeks self isolating mid-March.
I’m fairly introverted but all my closest friends I either work with or they live in different countries. So no real difference there.
Shopping also the same as always but obviously with a mask

Oh. Only major difference is that my 14yr old DD will have been in the house pretty much all day, every day for 6mths by the time she goes back to school!
I tend to save annual leave for the holidays but as a single parent 100% of the time, I’m taking a week off mid-Sept to have some ‘Me time’! Not that she’s been any trouble at all.

Bar wearing mask at work and shopping, nothings changed for me.

Pretty much 100% actually. You have to book to do things and some take your temperature but I'm not limited in what I do. Facemasks seem the only difference to normal now (people really aren't social distancing anymore).

However, I anticipate a second wave and lockdown is imminent...

Nowhere near - I'm working from home and expect I will continue to do so for at least another 6 months. DH is not being paid but working on a product he wants to make a business. Might feel a bit more normal with kids in school, but don't know how long that will last, I'll be surprised if schools are still open after half term and can't see them reopening until spring in that case.

DH and I are both wfh (and normally don't) so that's a big difference. My parents are still being super cautious so I've only seen them once since Feb (v unusual for us). We're going on holiday next week but will be in the UK rather than abroad. Meeting up with friends but in smaller groups than usual. Still feels quite different tbh.

I have worked throughout as I am
Self employed and not around people and I have found that all my work contacts are all behaving just like normal
And did all the way through. No ott distancing and they made me coffees etc etc.
But I HATE IT, nothing is normal. Nothing to look forward to, my kids are lonely as am
I. All but one holiday and day out cancelled and I see no light at the end of this tunnel.

80-90% normal

Shopping and other public activities are different obvs and had quite a few family appointments cancelled. Most social or sports activities are starting up or going to start again next month. We are still being cautious about meeting people socially at home or at their homes.

DS's school and uni are saying next term is starting in September as usual.

Not at all.
We're back in local lock down and I have barely been out to the shops. Only seen my family & friends once since April.
Working from home so dont see my work colleagues.
Feeling very lonely and desperate to get back to normal but I find the idea of doing so very scary.

@joystir59

Bits of life are normal, lots isn't:

• I can see my boyfriend as normal as he is my support bubble
• I have stayed overnight with a friend and her family
• I am back working in the office
• I have stayed in a hotel in the UK
• I have been on buses
• I have eaten out
• I go to church

On the other hand:

• I have to social distance from all my loved ones other than my boyfriend. This is doable, but not remotely normal
• I had to hire a car to travel to my friend's house (usually travel by train) otherwise I wouldn't have been able to go anywhere with them while was there. I had to social distance from them while I was there
• I have seen one other friend and that has been for socially distanced walks in the park - we would usually go shopping and eat out
• I only see the same handful of people in the office, everyone else in still wfh so meetings are still on Teams and just not the same as face to face meetings
• I have to wear a mask in most indoor places
• I have been unable to go to any of the various concerts I had booked for this year
• I have been unable to go to any of the sporting events I usually go to
• I am unable to go to the theatre
• church is mid week not Sunday as the Sunday services are full
• I have had 2 holidays abroad cancelled, and have no idea when I will next go abroad again

A million miles away from normal. Stupid question.

My husband is back working two days a week, he chose days where he would be completely alone, warehouse setting, own business, my kids are temporarily feral, and I have left the house a grand total of 13 times since March 13th so apart from hubby’s work situ fairly normal for me, I’m antisocial and my kids are always borderline ‘raised by wolves’
All jokes aside I haven’t been in a supermarket, pub, cafe or restaurant, we’ve completely failed at booking a week away anywhere, and we haven’t had a single argument, which if you’d asked me this time last year what would happen if we went into lockdown and had to be together 24/7 if have said kill each other, genuinely no arguments. Weird. So yeah maybe that’s the normal I need to get back to?! I was so looking forward to shouting “if I kill you in your sleep and say you had flu like symptoms they won’t even post mortem you pal”

The summer holidays have bought about a shadow of normality. DC's haven't been to schopl since March and home school was a fucking disaster, so here's to getting them back to school full time in September.

Normal stuff we'd do like swimming is still inaccessible. Non of our usual organised activities back or imminent. Normally we'd fill days with things like going to parks but that's just like so May 2020.

Masks have screwed up anything indoors. Back in March through to June, things like the supermarket then shops were a bridge to something normal. Now it's a mental battle before panic attack sets in from sensory overwhelm, so there is absolutely no leisure or pleasure under a roof, and I'm only doing the most perfunctory stuff I can get away with. With auditory processing difficulties just the fact that everyone else is wearing them, garbling their speech and being difficult to lip read is very unpleasamt to be around.

My social life is near dead. My family are either busy keeping up with work or shutting away from the world. (Similar with friends) DH will not see any family other than one sibling this year due to travel arrangements, and elderly mother. No sign of my voluntary roles resuming. DH is constantly around WFH (we are very amicable) I'm constantly peopled out and often lonely.

I exist in order to cook dinner and keep the kitchen hygienic. I miss feeling purposeful in society.

The normal bits are that I can go to a cafe/ beer garden or an outdoors day out (subject to booking in advance... RIP spontenaity).

Not at all normal. I lost my job which I loved (which I had always considered very safe, I had been there for almost 10 years). I work in a niche field so it will be difficult to find anything comparable. I was the main bread winner, with DH taking the carer role for our DC and working part time min. wage. It's likely we will have to sell our house as we don't have savings or family who will help out financially. So many concerns now about poorly elderly relatives, our own finances and what the future holds. This has turned our world upside down.

@HarrietsweetHarriet really sorry to read that, just sounds devastating. I really hope things improve for you.

Still not normal for me, I've been shops 3 times since lockdown (husband usually does it as he drives and can grab much more than me) but his job pattern has changed meaning he works more days.
I had to go shops last week, had to take my 3 children with me and when I got there shop assistant at door made me feel like a kid, spoke to me like sh!t, she actually asked me if we were all going in (as if I would leave my kids hanging around outside next to a main road ). Has actually made me not want to go again for a while...

I worked from home anyway, but so does DH too. It won't be normal until he's back at work! January I hope.

DC back to school now. That's a big step in the "normal" direction. Some activities starting up again with covid guidelines being adhered to.

I'm socialising a bit more, according to guidelines.

I was never really a 'go to the pub' person and my clubbing days are long gone

I miss spontaneity and not having to wear a mask but quite happy for those things to be gone for a while to help support everyone's health.

Once I can meet lots of friends and hug them without worrying I'll think it more normal.

I think I'm about 70% of the way there.

Nowhere near normal

What is normal

• leaving house more than once a day
• seeing people support bubble without social distancing

Not normal

• WFH with no idea when we'll be able to return
• Haven't seen any friends since early March (none are local)
• No gym (used to go 6 times a week)
• Food shopping online (used to go at weekends & grab extras on way home after work)
• All other shopping online too - e.g. ordering birthday cards weeks ahead.
• No eating out - would love to eat out or go out enjoy some drinks at a a bar or pub - used to have food/drinks to relax and socialise at least once a week
• No theatre / ballet / opera performances
• No holidays planned - last one was 2019 - usually went away at least twice a year so not going away is weird but won't book with current levels of uncertainty.

Life is currently work, video calls with friends/family, home workouts, chores, eat, sleep. Repeat.

Kind of normal but I can't see me going cross country to see my elderly mum for a while. We did drive to see her in the garden a couple of weeks ago.

Now school has started up and we won't do it again now.

We have noone close enough to buddy up with lots of people we know locally are focussing on their family and I feel I'm missing company beyond my immediate family.

So it looks normal day to day from the outside but it's very different in terms of wider human contact.

The people who say they are behaving like normal are the ones who are going to cause the second wave.

We are going out but still being careful to stay apart from people we are not living with, including not hugging friends, grandparents etc. Also have hardly been indoors with anybody except the household, mostly meeting people outside. Then I see other people not remotely social distancing with friends etc, or saying that whole massive family groups are ' in our bubble'

I would say our family is only 50% back to normal as we are being more cautious than most apparently.

About half way there. Still mainly seeing people outside, a selected same few. Trying to avoid shops and public places