Aibu to think that a lot of kids are extremely anxious after lockdown?

[MrsHookey]

I've got one child who seems extremely anxious since lockdown. Anecdotally it seems like a few kids I know are like this. Is this a wider thing? Are mumsnetters finding their children have become anxious since March 2020?

Yes this poster seems to have a worrying regard for children considering she claims to be a teach

I don’t teach! Perish the thought!! Mainly for the poor children!

My 10yr old is a mess. Anxiety has overtaken his life, he now says he would be better off killing himself.

He wasnt like this pre pandemic. He was a kind, happy, innocent little boy, who loved his family, loved his video games, and delighted at playing with his friends at the park.

Then along came lockdown 1.0. Meeting his friends at the play park became illegal. His school shut, he was told, to protect his parents and grandparents.

He became convinced he was going to kill us. He became afraid of his very existence.

Luckily we got the key worker provision from June 2020, but even then he was filled with terror all the time. I'd pick him up and he would be too scared to come near me, as another child had gotten within his 2 metre bubble so obviously in his (then 9yr old mind) this meant he had covid and would kill me.

He is still dealing with anxiety. It's getting there, school have had to open up a whole new class just for the anxious kids! They all go to school early to get special class time now.

All these "measures" were impossible in the short term. In the long term you've caused possibly irreparable damage to the minds of our young children for the sake of screaming about "measures".

Schools NEVER should have closed. I dont care what the case numbers were, what the death numbers were. I work in child safeguarding and I saw first hand the damage and the DANGER kids got placed in when schools closed.

Fuck anyone who supported school closures.

My DD was 16 at the start of lockdown one and got covid at that point. She seemed quite mildly ill compared to me for two weeks but then had months and months of post-viral fatigue and chest pain. She went into sixth year exhausted and - as we are in Scotland - had a lot of uncertainty and stress around the exams but not exams and endless testing. She is lucky as she was in a supportive and excellent school and has a good friendship group but she still ended up having a breakdown with anxiety at the end of sixth year, just totally in bits about even simple things. Which was not like her at all before covid.

She did get medication from the GP and some self-help resources and made it to her chosen university, where she has settled in and made friends and is getting some support. So she is doing much better, but I think anxiety has become quite endemic among young people.

All these "measures" were impossible in the short term.

We've implemented a lot of them at various points since January. Not impossible at all.

"I dont care what the case numbers were, what the death numbers were."

Nice.

Yup. My 12 yr old is a mess and has been since covid and its effects on end of primary/start of secondary.
My 18 yr old and 9 yr old have come out fine.

[quote MillicentMargaretAmanda]@hollielouise66 I'm a Ranger Guide leader, the next section above Guides, so they are 14-18. They are amazing young women but the rise in levels of anxiety and stress over the course of 10 years, but markedly the last two, is sad to see. We do what little we can to help them and help them gently push their boundaries, but it's not enough, and they now self limit more than ever before which means they miss out on opportunities that I know they would love and have done in the past.[/quote]
That sounds fantastic @MillicentMargaretAmanda. Thank you for the info. I'd love to do something like that one day

You absolutely were not allowed to meet any other person outside for a walk socially distanced or otherwise during the first lockdown. It's amazing how short some people's memories are.

They brought in the rule that pre school children did not count in the numbers later on but if you were also looking after a school aged child then you were not allowed to meet any one outside of the house.

@hamstersarse

That’s what happens when we have a pandemic and global politicians who do not take good enough action early on to prevent people dying.

It was very clear early on that children will not die from this. And that is what it means about 'throwing children under the bus'.

We are asking children to be the protectors of adults, sacrifice for adults.

If you think that is right, that is your prerogative completely, however I do not agree with it. It is adults who should be sacrificing for children. And yes that may put them 'at risk' but honestly, I don't care. You don't sacrifice children.

We didn't lock down to protect children from COVID.

We locked down to protect the health service from being overwhelmed. One of the reasons we went into lockdown was to ensure that if a child got meningitis, or had a severe asthma attack, or broke their leg, there was a fighting chance there would be an ambulance to go to them, doctors and nurses to treat them, a hospital bed and oxygen for them.

You were ALWAYS able to meet one other person outside and you were able to bring children under school age

Why do you keep posting the guidelines for lockdown 3 and saying they apply to lockdown 1?

You were ALWAYS able to meet one other person outside and you were able to bring children under school age

Not in lockdown one you weren’t

Hi there! My son has been quite anxious about the upcoming National 5 Prelims in Scotland having rushed through topics in multiple subjects from August to December.

I disagree wholeheartedly with exams being carried out in December this year with pupils getting near-to-no study leave to prepare. Why are our kids being set up for failure?

Take this petition as an example from a school. One school with 500 signatures from parents and pupils.

What’s everyone’s thoughts?

guidelines!

Those who think anxiety in children over the pandemic has been caused just by anxious parents worrying about Covid are showing their ignorance.

I'm not saying that can't have an impact of course, but to have all routine, daily touchpoints, friends, wider family and school ripped from under a child virtually overnight with no obvious end (and the threat of it happening again at any time once it DID end) was of course likely to have a major impact on their mental health, ESPECIALLY for DC with SEN.

My DC1 had always been a happy, fun loving, life loving child but a bit of a worrier, went to school for about 9 weeks in a year thanks to lockdowns and self isolation. He was ok in lockdown 1, if dysregulated, but the subsequent lockdowns and restrictions really wore him down and he became withdrawn and depressed. He barely laughs or smiles at all some days whereas before the pandemic that's what he was known for.

OP you asked what we could do. Having one on one time doing fun things together is helping. Trying to get back to hobbies and doing lots of art and music. Trying to find reasons to laugh and dance. It's hard though.

@Oftenithinkaboutit

*guidelines*!

It’s not an e-petition. It’s a news piece about a petition, there’s no where to sign it as it was done by a school locally.

My 4 year old still hides behind my legs in the playground before they go into school

Heartbreaking really
My 2 year old doesn't care though, but I suppose my older one is a bit more aware

The second divisive lockdown was really damaging for friendships in my experience, with very close groups formed among the (over 50%) of kids allowed into school.

Yep. My DC1's three best friends were in school every day together whereas he was stuck at home. They are a bit too young to want to do video calls etc. It was very hard and upsetting.

@talkedd

I wasn’t referring to your petition. Didn’t even read your post

but the subsequent lockdowns and restrictions really wore him down and he became withdrawn and depressed

My DD was similar. Second lockdown was really tough ...I noticed her mood getting very low and feeling like she was becoming depressed. I noticed she'd moan she was tired even after a full night's sleep. She also was eating lots of sweet food. As soon as she could go back to school her mood lifted.

Lots of my friends kids have tumbled into anxiety, depression, self harm, anorexia

Have not read the full thread as it makes me too sad

DH is a secondary school teacher, and MH issues for teens are off the chart. He says the year 8s are almost all suffering some arrested development with many acting like primary aged kids (though they are getting used to being in secondary school now), he says they seem to have missed stages of socialisation and growing up

@Volhhg

Yes this poster seems to have a worrying regard for children considering she claims to be a teach

Sorry this was attached to your quote in error

MWestie, that was a terrible and unnecessary thing the teacher said to you about your daughter, of course you were devastated. Some people are just clueless including unfortunately the teachers.

@Oftenithinkaboutit

What struck me was the number of posters that said they weren’t ever going out. Even for the one walk a days. Even when no one vulnerable. How the heck did their children fare?

Every day, every single day, we were out. Long walks, picnics. Was lovely actually

I had to work full time as a key worker. I am a single parent and worked from home. My work was massively busy due to the pandemic so I couldn't take my kids out on daily picnics.

In addition my son, who is on the autistic spectrum, refused to move past the garden fence for up to 6 weeks at a time. We literally couldn't leave the house.