Saddest things a toddler has said this year.

[55larry]

My dgs is 3 years old and because of all the rules we need to live under because of COVID he has not been allowed into my house much this year. I do some childcare and on those days he asks his mother if he is allowed to come in our house and whether his mum can come in. On one occasion during the last lockdown I had to do emergency childcare and he thought he was going to have to stand outside my house all day.

What have we done to our grandchildren that he should even need to ask the question can I go inside granny’s house?

It will be interesting to see what effect it has. Mine have got away fairly lightly in terms of socialisation as we're keyworkers so they've still been going to childcare settings throughout.

However, the 4 year old gets frequently upset that her friends can't come over to play. She cries if I go to the shops without her and says she'll put her mask on so noone gets coronavirus.

Both were playing very happily with bubbles yesterday but pretending the bubbles were germs and that they were squirting sanitiser to burst them. It's just been such a large and prolonged part of their lives now it will leave an impact. And the gulf between privileged and underprivileged will be more pronounced.

@DishingOutDone

All our parents are dead, all 4 of them, before our children were born - in fact my mum died when I was 13. One year as we were about to eat Christmas dinner my DD then 4 asked "Mummy, why isn't there anyone else here?"

Later in their lives, my best friends became their substitute grandmothers/aunties. And then they both died very young, one after another (completely random unrelated illnesses).

No one really gave a fuck about how this affected my children (let alone me!) - and indeed it has affected them long term, they are now teenagers and have this underlying fear that people you love best generally die in their 50s and 60s. So whilst I am sorry that people have had to spend time apart this year (and I don't mean people who are entirely alone and struggling of course) I have a limited amount of sympathy for posts like these in general.

I am so sorry you've been through this.... But what a sad stance to tak.

My 2yo is desperate for her friends to come and play ‘inside Mummy, brrr cold outside, no park again’. I didn’t think small children could get sick of parks!

It’s interesting reading the 2 extreme views on this thread. I think the truth lies somewhere in between. There is no doubt the pandemic has had an impact on children. I can see it in my own kids. I do think for most kids the effect will be relatively short lived. For others it will have more of an impact. I read the other day that ‘it’s not correct to say we are all in the same boat. We are all in the same storm. Some of us are in large ferries, some in a yacht, some in a canoe and some are just drowning’. I think that’s true for our kids as well. I know my kids have missed out on a lot of social interaction which has had an effect especially the 2 year old. But as things get back to normal that will improve and I doubt it will have a lasting impact. They come from a stable home, they know they are loved, we haven’t been affected financially, I have done my best to give them every opportunity for socialisation. I hope they have benefitted from spending more time with their parents especially with DH working from home and not having his long commute. I think they have benefitted from more time outside and with nature. We have been lucky.

I am very aware not all kids are in this situation. Problems at home, abuse, financial difficulties and job loses, losing relatives to covid, SEN are just some of the things which could have made this year harder for children. And therefore mean it could have a longer impact.

I do think there has been a bit of hyperbole on this thread. Probably on both sides of the argument.