It has not been 2 years

[maddening]

Aibu to find that people are naturally over exaggerating the length of pandemic. I noticed in March that there was a lot of reference to "the last 18 months" when obviously it had only been 12-13 at most, and now people seem to refer to "the last 2 years" when it has been been 16 months - we aren't even at 18 months yet. I know it probably feels that long but aibu to think that people are often skewing the Time frames of the pandemic?

No one is ‘desperately’ trying to suggest anything OR calling you ignorant. It’s just a different perspective. Covid-19 itself (admittedly not yet qualifying as a pandemic) originated at least as early as Nov 19 and we have been living with it across the globe since then. That could well be what people mean when they refer to its having lasted almost 2 yrs now.

Rubicon, I have been replying to a thread I started, I am not acting in an angry way, discussing a point does not make me emotionally invested in this at all. Your posts however come across as slightly "gaslighting".

It's two springs and two summers, the time of year when most of us take holiday and have busier social lives (me at least).

It is most of 2020 and 2021 so whilst technically not two years, I will forgive anyone who refers to it as that.

Feels a lot longer, in part because there have been more periods of restrictions than would have occurred with a competent government.

@maddening

Rubicon, I have been replying to a thread I started, I am not acting in an angry way, discussing a point does not make me emotionally invested in this at all. Your posts however come across as slightly "gaslighting".

I think gaslighting is really serious and not an accusation that should be thrown around when people are just disagreeimg. But if I did, telling someone to fuck off and then saying that you were not in fact 'acting in an angry way' and they are the one with an issue could definitely be considered gaslighting in itself.

Like @newnortherner111 I'd not consider it 2 years but totally understand anyone who feels that way, and don't think that it's an issue. It's ruined 2 years of my kids' schooling and similar for many students and others, and it's not as if it's rapidly disappearing either.

Mum died March 31st 2020 from covid aged 76, this year would have seen her celebrate her 78th birthday 4 weeks ago. Christmas 2019 was the last one I spent with both parents as by Christmas 2020 they were both dead. So yeah it's been 2 years in my head.

DD started school last year and has one more year left at her school (infant school). If there are any more school closures she will not have completed a full school year at that school. That’s why it feels like 2 years to me.

The lockdown started at the end of March 2020 but people were impacted before that, we knew it was a matter of time before it hit our shores and people were changing their behaviour, panic buying before the lockdown started. I work in pharmacy and January tends to be a quiet month for us as people collect their meds before Christmas, instead we were unprecedented busy in January before the lockdown occurred. So yes to me as someone who has worked all the way through this crappy time it does feel longer than when the lockdown started as my life was impacted before then!

All the days have seemed to be meting into one during the pandemic. I am not surprised anyone gets the specific timeframe wrong. It has felt like years.

I think everyone has a mental date that things changed. For me DDs birthday was the last normal day. There was changes before then, but it was the last time we did something without worrying about anything.

Close enough! And since it's not over yet...

YANBU.
last month everyone was going on about 18m and I had to literally count on my fingers twice to make sure, because at that point it only had been 15 m.
the first death was on 5th March and first lockdown started about 2 weeks later, so we are now just barely over 16m in.

I hate the stupid, unnecessary exaggerations. there's no need

The last time I went out without worrying was March 8, 2020 (first lockdown happened here a couple of days after). It feels like another life and a very long time ago. And the news were coming in long before that.

YANBU, I’ve noticed this as well and it’s normally from people who’s work/businesses have been affected, yes the pandemic may of started much earlier but restrictions didn’t come into place till end of March so it has only been 16 months with a few months in between of being able to open again. I’m not saying it has been easy and it absolutely has not but there really isn’t any need to exaggerate, we all know how shit things have been.

@trappedsincesundaymorn sorry for your loss

Yes trappedsincesundaymorn, sorry for your loss 💐.

It is so interesting how everyone sees the time lines. Time passing is often strange in normal times when you are busy and feel that time has gone in a flash, but the whole pandemic, lock downs etc has been so unnatural, and experienced in very different ways (same storm different boat analogy) it just shows how differently we all perceive how much time has passed and how we measure our lives. And def not isolated or the odd person that sees it that way, although for v individual reasons.

Feels like it’s been ten.

I agree with you op. Lockdown started 23rd March. That’s when it really hit us. It annoys me too when people say ‘locked up and restrictions for 2 years’. No you haven’t! It’s been 16 months!!

I feel like I entered the pandemic looking like Kate Winslet and now I feel and lok like the old woman at then end telling the story of the Titanic 🤣

@Dee1975

I agree with you op. Lockdown started 23rd March. That’s when it really hit us. It annoys me too when people say ‘locked up and restrictions for 2 years’. No you haven’t! It’s been 16 months!!

so agree with you.

In fact as our kids were only off school for 4m last year & 2m this year (I'm not counting what was gonna be holidays and half terms regardless) so it feels a lot less like 16m of interruption to me!
Between Sept - Dec last year and since mid-March it was mainly business as usual (obv with some very inconvenient adjustments).

Where I work we locked down even before Boris said. The care home locked down in Feb 2020.

OP it's at least 2 years for those that made plans for 2020 and 2021 of which have yet to be realised owing to the pandemic.
Unplanned is events are sometimes harder to recover from.

I refer to “the last 16 months” (I’ll probably change that to 18 months soon, I guess I prefer even numbers).
However, in terms of DS’s life being messed up, I’d say he’s lost 2 years. He’s about to start a’ levels and his last normal year in school was yr9. He lost out on all the good stuff (work experience, trip abroad, prom, graduation) from both years and a significant amount of face to face learning.

I think we get a lot of our sense of how time is passing from our yearly rituals and when these are significantly disrupted it distorts things.

@maddening Don’t sweat the small stuff in life, does it really matter.