If you knew we were going to be in lockdown for a year ..what would you of done different???

[Kab30]

Just been thinking what I would of done differently...

Definitely try to loose weight
Definitely be more lenient on myself and try to chill a bit more
I should of decorated and gardened etcetcetcetc lol

However my five year old has kept me sane ..insane .happy and mad all in one xx

Handed my notice in instead of working 100 hours a week and being called lazy for it.

Then I could accept the lazy comments wholeheartedly instead of it having a major impact on my mental health.

Babdoc, you may want to look up Muphry's Law
Oh, and the present perfect tense.

Not taken myself to the brink of a major mental health breakdown by trying to look after two preschoolers at home on my own whilst working full time hours on part time pay in a 'frontline' (but not being able to actually meet with vulnerable clients so trying to do a face to face job over the phone) job.

If I knew then what I know now I wouldn't have attempted it.

At this stage I've done well overall. Was massively overweight to start with, lost over a stone then gained it back with interest & have lost over 2 since Jan with some way to go.

I also did jan & Feb sober while having a challenging time at work (childminder). Decorated hall & bedroom, (immediately burgled & had to fix ceiling & re-paint the bedroom!) But the best thing I did was in lockdown 1- sorting out my spice drawer. It's amazing & fills me with joy every day!

I would of done everything we already did during lockdown

Some days we didnt do school work we went outside...
Some days we spent the afternoon with the splinkers when it was hot or watched movies
We decorated 3 rooms that needed it as we had the spare cash with no paying for childcare
We brought a new table for us all to sit at and another x box which has been fab
We ate icecream for breakfast when I worked
I didnt worry about not seeing my children during the day, or them catching nits and we ate lunch whenever...

I would do it again tomorrow because are we ever going to get that time again...it was magical, lost in our bubble

I wish I'd 'broken the rules' in the first lockdown and formed a support bubble with one other local friend for the sake of my own postnatal mental health. These weren't brought in until my baby was about 6 months old. Having a medically vulnerable baby a week before the first lockdown amidst the chaos of the NHS closing down and people panic buying formula and nappies completely out of the shops had a much greater toll than I realised at the time. Being responsible for being the 'good news story' in everyone's life and not feeling allowed to be anxious as a new Mum (because everyone is anxious at the outbreak of a global pandemic...) was hard. As was having no support as a first time mum while DH was attempting to work full time from home and being restricted to one outdoor walk a day with a baby who would only sleep while moving in a pram.

I wish I'd cared less about the judgment of others and done the right thing for myself and my baby but as a frontline NHS worker I felt a huge sense of guilt and responsibility to my colleagues. Having worked through the most recent lockdown I can hands down say I had a harder time mentally as a new mum than I did working in a Covid ICU.

I'd have given myself a talking-to and got over my reluctance to learn how to use Zoom.

Nothing.
I still reckon now as I did then, that this will be a 3 year thing[assuming government do not go rogue].

As a couple of others have said, I would've gone easier on the kids in the first lockdown. But I viewed the second lockdown as an opportunity to right that wrong and we had an absolutely wonderful January and February.

Started marriage counselling sooner.
Planted more bulbs!

Brushed up my computer skills. Maybe online French classes. And tried out some new creative pursuit like pastels or painting.

But I have cleared my Netflix watchlist so I can't say I achieved nothing.

Honestly, I might not have taken the promotion I got towards the end of lockdown one. It has been so much more work and stressful, I might have just stayed where I was and had a better work life balance and more time with my toddler. I don't know though, I know the job will be better for our future so I probably would still have done the same. Hindsight isn't always 2020 hey

Bought a desk sooner!!@

Asked to be furloughed!

Drunk less booze

I’d have run away whilst I could. Stuck now. Maybe one day.

@TheKeatingFive

Studied hairdressing

Got a sex pond

What's a sex pond??

Maybe changed career from nannying to something which didn’t have all the good bits sucked out of it for the past year.

@Roadtohades

Mumsnet parlance for hot tub.

At the start of lockdown one I was 12lbs lighter and about to run a half marathon. I tried to keep going but around July I was hardly running and mostly eating. By October I was feeling dreadful but thought maybe, as someone who has good mh, lockdown impacted more than I realised... turns out I was anaemic. I’m back running 4 times a week but still 12lbs heavier (I was 19lb heavier so it did go down a bit but stuck now).

Not sure I could have done that much differently really.

DS has SN but no EHCP so I needed to be his 1 to 1 at home full-time which meant not working for a year. Not working meant no income at all so we had to sell house and most weekends where spent working on that and then it sold in February. But not really allowed out until today so today was first family day out since last summer.

We have done plenty of work on house, its just there's been very little money and very little fun for a year except summer and now house sold. Only thing is probably should have exercised more but hard to motivate yourself when you have asthma and are trying to avoid any grass / plants and covid and lockdown often restricts to walking or indoor aerobics both of which trigger asthma.

Probably would have travelled more at the beginning of 2020! As it is I managed to get away to San Francisco in January and Mauritius in February but I could have squeezed in an extra trip!

TBH after the first three or four weeks I started to do some research and came to the conclusion we would probably be in this for the long (two year) haul so nothing really.

I honestly think my early acceptance of the fact this was going to be a two year period of restrictions and risks has really helped me to cope mentally and emotionally. I do understand that other people could not possibly have coped with that and by taking it a few weeks at a time, this has been better for their MH.

We all do what we have to do to survive I guess. I have lost friends and family both to the virus and to suicide so I understand the complexities.

Started projects that I really want to do "one day" but take a bit of organising. Actually start doing them. I would have made terrific progress by now.