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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
Original poster
Skyshale · 12/12/2020 11:29

@Smallsteps88 I may have exaggerated a tad (blame the wine).

OP posts:
TheresSnowHelpForUs · 12/12/2020 11:30

This thread from July makes interesting reading
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3971688-To-believe-that-it-wont-all-be-over-by-Christmas

BreakfastOfWaffles · 12/12/2020 11:34

I think when we look back on 2021 vs 2020 as a whole, 2021 will be significantly better. Even if the virus is not gone, we will have much better management in place. I have been so impressed with how my children's secondary school has adapted to where it is now versus in March, and I am hugely cheered by the reduction in the isolation period recently announced.

Original poster
Skyshale · 12/12/2020 11:34

I do believe we need to look for silver linings wherever possible. I wrote the OP from the perspective of someone with ongoing anxiety issues (I have had therapy in the past and struggle with anxiety disorder). I guess I started this thread to voice my pessimism for the oncoming months, but I can now see that a lot of people are trying to stay positive and I need that optimism to rub off on me!

OP posts:
shinynewapple2020 · 12/12/2020 11:35

I'm just looking forward to the spring when the weather gets better .

Hopefully by that time my mum will have had her vaccination and between the vaccination and the quick tests I should be able to visit her as normal .

I'm really hoping that cases in my area go down and hospitality can reopen , and that we are allowed to travel again . I'm certainly expecting that to be the case by spring time .

I can cope with distancing and face masks for a bit longer, I don't enjoy wearing a mask and would hate to have to do it for 8-10 hours a day at work (actually I don't think I could) but in terms of shopping or going to the cinema it's OK as long as those things are open for me to chose to do them or not . And for business to remain viable , people to keep their jobs .

I can't deny that the next couple of months are likely to be crap though - just have to hang on to any little positives .

shinynewapple2020 · 12/12/2020 11:41

@PinkSparklyPussyCat

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.

That sounds brilliant - enjoy Smile

MrsRogerLima · 12/12/2020 11:47

@Rememberallball

I don’t think you’re a pessimist but very much a realist - especially about how things aren’t going to change just because the calendar has flicked over to 01/01/2021. All I hear people saying is how they will be ‘back to normal’ by Easter as everyone will have had the vaccine - now it’s great the vaccines are bringing to be rolled out and all that but, if we average out the U.K. population over 18 to be 52.5m, and people need 2 doses of vaccine, if they manage to give 1m doses a week then it’s going to take 2 years to vaccinate everyone over 18 - allowing for 2 appointments and assuming they’ll have both the workforce to facilitate 1m appointments a week and enough doses of vaccine to do this (for simplicity I’ve not taken out of the equation the people who can’t have the vaccine for whatever reason or the number of people who will turn 18 and join the list of people to be vaccinated). I seriously think it’s going to be nearer 2022 before things start to look nearer to any semblance of normality!!
They aren't planning to vaccinate 'everyone over the age of 18' though. Just those in the high risk brackets and those who as re vulnerable of all ages.

The rest of us will probably be able to pay for a vaccine at some point but I think we will be back to normal sooner than you think.

ItsAlwaysSunnyOnMN · 12/12/2020 11:58

I think you are just being realistic

We shall start seeing benefits from spring but for things to get back to some form of normal as we have known it doesn’t just mean the most vulnerable being vaccinated in the UK it means globally

This is such a huge task, we can manage that here because we have the infrastructure to carry out this task we also have the organisation behind it. Even in America this will prove to be far more difficult where many people are not registered with a doctor

We shall have to live with restrictions for some time

Then there is a whole other list of how this virus has impacted people’s lives not getting treatment, financial and so on

I feel January and February are going to be especially hard

LindaEllen · 12/12/2020 12:15

@AverageHuman

I think come Spring things will be better. Even without a vaccine things would improve in the warmer weather, with the most vulnerable getting vaccinated it will improve further. You are not pessimistic. Anyone thinking 2021 will be completely back to normal from 1 Jan could be in for disappointment!
Yes - Spring will change things. Not with the virus (this whole thing started in the spring after all) but with people's moods.

My life would be a million times better if I could sit in the garden and read a book, or go for a nice walk without wearing a million layers.

Summer was tolerable. Winter - at the moment - isn't.

ParlezVousWronglais · 12/12/2020 12:15

I think we need to get through the post-Christmas 3rd wave before we can start making any sensible predictions.

dayslikethese1 · 12/12/2020 12:43

January/February are always shit and 2021 will probably be shittier than usual. But hopefully improvements by spring/summer. I've been trying to support local businesses as much as possible this year (screw Amazon). I'm really worried about the impact of Brexit as well though and the effects from covid on the industries most affected (hospitality, entertainment etc.)

User158340 · 12/12/2020 14:49

[quote TheresSnowHelpForUs]This thread from July makes interesting reading
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3971688-To-believe-that-it-wont-all-be-over-by-Christmas[/quote]
The second wave could have been avoided it millions of people didn't go jet setting all over Europe all summer. As soon as all the summer holidays were encouraged winter was done for.

Ghostlyglow · 12/12/2020 15:42

It's going to be rough, no point pretending it isn't. Im all out of optimism at the moment.

HesterShaw1 · 12/12/2020 16:53

[quote TheresSnowHelpForUs]This thread from July makes interesting reading
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3971688-To-believe-that-it-wont-all-be-over-by-Christmas[/quote]
The thing that strikes me about that the thread is the apparent relish with which some people are making their awful predictions. They really seemed to be enjoying it. Odd.

SnackSizeRaisin · 12/12/2020 16:55

They don't need to vaccinate the entire population though. If they do everyone over 50 and those at high risk who are younger it will be possible to relax the rules without too many hospitalised cases, as the vast majority of those are elderly.
Also, there is the capacity to vaccinate very quickly if necessary. To do the whole population twice over a year, each GP practice would need to do 400 patients a week. If each GP can be allocated 2 extra staff, that is easily doable.

I think covid wise things will be looking much better by Easter, normal ish by June.

Brexit however is going to result in far worse problems both short and long term

wigglerose · 12/12/2020 17:14

I think it's best to be pessimistic and pleasantly surprised rather than optimistic. I don't think we'll be back to normal until the start of 2022.

SonjaMorgan · 12/12/2020 17:41

People keep talking getting back to normal but for the majority of us there is no going back. I closed my business this year and then lost the min wage job I had found over the summer last month.

I am worried about house prices, unemployment, food costs etc. I am actually sick of being worried. I am sick of my parents and in laws telling me how Brexit will be worth it and will be great for my DC.

I have no idea of what the next year will hold but I am not going into it as the same optimistic person that I did the last. I am looking forward to starting a new diary as the start of the 2020 one has business ideas and targets that were all so bloody pointless.

Miamarshmallows · 12/12/2020 17:43

I think it will be. DP and I cannot wait to see family and go to load of events/holidays.

nanbread · 12/12/2020 18:06

Not RTFT but on Newsnight this week a scientific expert was saying social distancing and masks are likely to be on the cards for most of 2021.

Lemonsyellow · 12/12/2020 18:14

@SnackSizeRaisin

They don't need to vaccinate the entire population though. If they do everyone over 50 and those at high risk who are younger it will be possible to relax the rules without too many hospitalised cases, as the vast majority of those are elderly. Also, there is the capacity to vaccinate very quickly if necessary. To do the whole population twice over a year, each GP practice would need to do 400 patients a week. If each GP can be allocated 2 extra staff, that is easily doable.

I think covid wise things will be looking much better by Easter, normal ish by June.

Brexit however is going to result in far worse problems both short and long term

A fifth of GP practices have refused to get involved in the vaccination scheme, though.
Lemonsyellow · 12/12/2020 18:17

@Miamarshmallows

I think it will be. DP and I cannot wait to see family and go to load of events/holidays.
Seeing family may be possible. Events and, possibly, many holidays abroad will be off the agenda for a while.
onedayinthefuture · 12/12/2020 18:19

@Lemonsyellow you're a right soul sucker aren't you. Does it get you off?

MistletoeandGin · 12/12/2020 18:24

A fifth of GP practices have refused to get involved in the vaccination scheme, though

Yes, because they weren’t provided with any additional funding or resource to do so.
I suspect they will get involved if they’re paid to.

lyralalala · 12/12/2020 18:25

2021 will be a better year for us. The two vulnerable people in our house will be vaccinated and I'll be able to send my elder two primary age kids to school without feeling like I have a daily choice between their education (and mental health) and my youngests health

It might not be holidays, concerts, big nights out and a complete return to old lives, but it'll be much better than it is now.

Lemonsyellow · 12/12/2020 18:26

[quote onedayinthefuture]@Lemonsyellow you're a right soul sucker aren't you. Does it get you off?[/quote]
I’m just very realistic about how I think it will pan out.

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