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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think 2021 isn't going to be the amazing year we all want...

203 replies

Skyshale · 12/12/2020 03:40

...or am I being massively pessimistic?

Everyone is going on about next year, saying it will be amazing and that we can all travel again, see family and be as normal.

But the virus isn't going to think "Oh, look, the clock has struck 12 on New Years Day. I'm gone now...BYE EVERYONE forget I ever existed".

AIBU to think 2021 isn't going to be the amazing year we all imagined?

Can I just say (I've had a few wines and my thoughts are running away with me) I would LOVE 2021 to be an amazing, incredible year for us all but a horrible dark side of me thinks it ain't going to happen...

OP posts:

HallFloor · 12/12/2020 07:50

Even if we are "free" again, I think there's a whole lot of pain ahead, with the fall out from Brexit and sky high unemployment, plus all the damage done to mental health by all this and the disruption to other health services.

sassbott · 12/12/2020 07:52

Good lord. What a negative thread.

I don’t think anyone is stupid enough to think that on the stroke of midnight NYe, life will miraculously get better! But will 2021 in many ways improve?

Yes, come March - spring will be coming. Sunshine, warmer days, many of the vulnerable will have been vaccinated. The economy/ businesses will start to recover and come back.

I don’t think life will be back to normal until 2021, but I do think my summer we will be able to travel, largely everything will reopen (albeit with social distancing/ mask wearing still a thing).

Will there be a fallout from this? Absolutely. But we’re not alone, virtually every country in screwed. And economies are not going to be allowed to fall off cliffs.

None of us are exempt from what is happening. Anxiety and mental health issues are on the increase and doom mongering threads like this dont help.

We’re here, it’s going to be tough. But surely we need to be resilient and lift each other?

MrsHandles · 12/12/2020 07:53

I fully expect to go to bed on 31st December 2020 only to wake up to find it’s 32nd December 2020. I don’t think you’re being pessimistic, just realistic.

Mypathtriedtokillme · 12/12/2020 07:54

It’s expected there will be famines in large parts of the world.

Partly covid and the effect on trade but also the fact large parts of Africa and the Middle East have been having locust plagues.
Largest plagues of locusts in 70 years who have done a huge amount of crop damage.

South America is heading into a period of drought (while Australia is expecting a season of floods)

So 2021 is going to be a trash fire.

knittingaddict · 12/12/2020 07:59

It's a running joke in my family about how pessimistic/realistic/glass half empty a person I am and even I'm mildly optimistic about next year. It probably won't be exactly back to the old World we were used to and the first half is probably going to involve some level of mask wearing and social distancing, but it won't be anything like 2020 has been.

Having said that I am very worried about the aftermath of Christmas and what January and February are going to look like in hospitals. I'm not sure the virus is going to respect the wishes of many to have a lovely Christmas. I'm not even sure our modest plans are sensible considering how little the levels have dropped. I bet Boris Johnson wishes he hadn't announced the easing of restrictions now.

whiterabbitsweets · 12/12/2020 07:59

YANBU.

The vaccine is potentially fantastic but it's not going to be a green card to return to normal. Many just won't be getting vaccinated as the most vulnerable are the priority.

Of course we need to keep our spirits up as best we can but also be realistic. We still have masses unemployed, increases in poverty/destitution and Brexit. Oh and of course a useless PM and government.

We have to make the best of what we have but don't think 2021 is going to be like night/day.

Nacreous · 12/12/2020 07:59

I'm expecting January to March to be just as mediocre as this year.

But I think by summer it should be feasible to see friends and family properly, go to the pub, go on holiday.

My bar isn't that high : I want to go to my favourite UK city, buy some French pastries, buy a book from my favourite shop and lie in my favourite garden and read. I want to have friends round for dinner and games. And I want to go to the pub.

I think in all likelihood I should be able to do every one of those next year, and that will do me.

knittingaddict · 12/12/2020 08:02

@Pukkatea

I think a lot of the mental health issues I've seen emerge in my own friendship group are as a result of their optimism that covid would be over in a few months. First it would be a few months, then ok by Christmas etc. I was told I was being a killjoy by suggesting (as a former virologist, so some idea what I'm talking about) that it would be years before things were normal. But I've generally been OK - low expectations, low disappointment.

I think many are in total denial.

My daughter works in a shop and a customer yesterday said that she thought we would be back to normal after Christmas. She wasn't the only one who appeared to have unrealistic expectations. Some people don't appear to read a newspaper or watch the news. They are going to be very disappointed.

Noranorav · 12/12/2020 08:04

Some things will get gradually better e.g a relaxation of rules and social distancing. This will be gradual though and not big bang (probably for the best). There are other consequences of this year though - and if we go into a deep recession as predicted it's likely to bite some families and people hard. Some businesses will struggle without furlough help. But I'm optimistic and pleased we have a vaccine - it's the start of being able to be close to people again, and I'm grateful for that.

BonnieDundee · 12/12/2020 08:05

I think YABU because no one is assuming that at.12.oclock on NYE everything will be magically better. I think and hope that by easter things will be marginally better, getting more and more normal as the year goes on until by this.time next year we are virtually back to normal

Bringbackthestrips · 12/12/2020 08:08

YANBU

It is going to be a very long time before things improve.

To think 2021 isn't going to be the amazing year we all want...

CarryOnFestiveNamechanging · 12/12/2020 08:10

I think things will gradually get better from about April onwards, as more and more people are vaccinated and the weather improves.

My feeling is that January and February will be awful, with a huge rise in cases and hospitalisations after Christmas and excess deaths from non Covid diseases, and a lockdown closer to the first than the second. And Brexit as a huge added complication.

But at least there is now light at the end of the tunnel.

By the summer we will be allowed to do much more, but probably won’t have the disposable income to do so in the way we might have done pre Covid.

MarinPrime · 12/12/2020 08:13

There's no point dwelling on how awful things might be. It won't make you or anyone else feel happier.
Just deal with now.

PinkSparklyPussyCat · 12/12/2020 08:13

I suspect this year will be a VERY subdued affair for most people. I'll be in bed for 10pm like every NYE because I've never really been able to get on board with the whole thing. Time is a linear concept and all that.

For the first years we have booked to do something. We have a hotel room booked and, lockdowns permitting, we'll be watching a band playing in the hotel courtyard from our room. We decided this year has been so shit we needed to do something.

MistletoeandGin · 12/12/2020 08:13

I would like to be able to fly to Spain to see my family who I haven’t seen since last Christmas.
I’d like to get a new job to replace the one I lost due to Covid.
I’d like my toddler to be able to interact with peers his age.
If those things happen, 2021 will be a million times better than 2020.

buffyp · 12/12/2020 08:16

@Skyshale

...or am I being massively pessimistic?

Everyone is going on about next year, saying it will be amazing and that we can all travel again, see family and be as normal.

But the virus isn't going to think "Oh, look, the clock has struck 12 on New Years Day. I'm gone now...BYE EVERYONE forget I ever existed".

AIBU to think 2021 isn't going to be the amazing year we all imagined?

Disagree entirely. Whether people like it or not the country quite simply cannot afford to carry on like this otherwise we wii be bankrupt and there is already a spiralling suicide rate. Your entitled to feel this way but you don’t get to bring everyone else down to your level of pessimism. I , most certainly will not be spending another year like this and you can think what you like. My family’s mental health is every bit as important as physical and we will be returning to normality at some point next year.

Redredwine2020 · 12/12/2020 08:22

I'm trying not to be pessimistic but I will settle for just a boring but free year.

cologne4711 · 12/12/2020 08:24

I do think people need to wake up. Unless you've lost a friend/family members - or your job - or had to cancel a wedding/one-off celebration it's really not been that bad this year. So you might have had to cancel or rearrange a holiday, or miss a concert. Does that really matter? Most of us will live for 80 years ish.

Someone said at work on Thursday evening that this has been the hardest year professionally. I imagine it has been with young children to entertain while trying to work. But for the rest of us? Really? No commute, no stress with trains, more sleep.

I will trade having to wear a mask in the supermarket for that.

I know people will say I'm being insensitive. Am I? For one year the world has been flipped on its head and it has suited introverts. The extroverts/FOMO/#blessed crowds don't know what to do with themselves. Well maybe you'll show a bit more empathy when things do go back to normal - I am not holding my breath though - you'll probably start forcing us to socialise again and telling us we're not team players when we don't.

Yours in misanthropy.

Mypathtriedtokillme · 12/12/2020 08:24

Next year with the decrease in Foreign aid and the sanctions placed on it Yemen is have a major famine due to the continued 5 year conflict with UAE and it is already teetering on the brink.

Vindo · 12/12/2020 08:25

I don't think it's going to be magically back to normal, but I do think things will gradually improve over the course of the year.

Vaccination is underway so once the vulnerable are protected I think restrictions will begin to ease.

I won't be booking any foreign holidays, but I'm hopeful for being able to go in friends houses for coffee and play dates.

nosswith · 12/12/2020 08:25

I think it will be better than 2020, though not a 'normal' year.

cologne4711 · 12/12/2020 08:25

I am much more pessimistic about Brexit. What is annoying is that we've had to waste this transition year and not been able to travel freely in the EEA while we still could. From 1 Jan that's all gone and if they do let us in, covid permitting, we'll be stuck in queues for hours (maybe - some German airports always used to lump non-Schengen and non-EEA into the same queue anyway).

SchadenfreudePersonified · 12/12/2020 08:26

Some people don’t think next year will be all rainbows and unicorns, but may still be deriving some significant comfort from some small rays of sunlight and glimpses of green shoots. And they’ve every right to think like that if it brings them strength

"Never envy those who live in a Fool's Paradise, for only a fool would think it was paradise" (Bertrand Russell)

It's because everybody has the mindset that everything will be fine that we have ended up in this situation. People look at the horrors in many other countries - depression, massive inflation, unemployment, no health service - and think "It can't happen here>" Well, it can, and it will and I think we've already sleepwalked into it.

Labobo · 12/12/2020 08:28

OP I think you are right, sadly. I don't want it to be true but I think we'll be limping through another year and even if borders and shops reopen, people will be so flattened economically. I'm so concerned about DS who is supposed to be doing a year abroad next year. What's the point of flying to USA or Japan only to sit online in some penned in campus? He's really hoping all will be back to normal by October. I am not at all sure it will.

Chewbecca · 12/12/2020 08:30

I’m looking towards 2022, perhaps back end, to be ‘normal’ again.

I think 2021 will be better than 2020 in that I hope some socialising and some f2f with colleagues will restart but problems will remain, and new ones appear.

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