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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask what the most COVID bonkers thing you did about

794 replies

Jay36 · 13/01/2022 21:42

First off this is not a COVID denier thread.

But I’m wondering what was the weird things you did at the start of the pandemic because you were worried about CV. I’ll go first;

Left my shoes outside the house as was worried about bringing the virus ‘in’ in case someone had coughed on the pavement !

Bleached the door handles daily.

Feel like I was a bit crazy now 😂😭

OP posts:
Clarissa76 · 15/01/2022 13:38

@Waxonwaxoff0 ?? I didn’t quarantine post. Just think people sneering at others for taking precautions that turned out to be unnecessary ought to remember that people didn’t know the risks back in early 2020. I judged it right but that was down to luck not judgement.

Whitefire · 15/01/2022 13:41

@MarshaBradyo

Whereas quarantining post is totally rational?

Wasn’t there a stage where we had info re virus surviving for 72 or something hours?

Ok it feels nuts now I agree but I’m pretty sure the messaging was quite different back then

Surely though it should have just been advised to wash your hands as soon as touching it. It makes no sense that it was ok to pick it up to leave on the side but actually opening it would be super risky.
MyCatEatsPrawnCrackers · 15/01/2022 13:45

@Messilia

Took my teenage son grocery shopping with me when the first lockdown came in and everyone was panic buying

Not to help carry it, but in case he needed to fight Grin

😂😂
Toanewstart22 · 15/01/2022 13:45

* I think the analogy works perfectly,*

Well, to be fair - given it’s your analogy, presumably you would!

Toanewstart22 · 15/01/2022 13:46

[quote Clarissa76]@Waxonwaxoff0 ?? I didn’t quarantine post. Just think people sneering at others for taking precautions that turned out to be unnecessary ought to remember that people didn’t know the risks back in early 2020. I judged it right but that was down to luck not judgement.[/quote]
I listened to the scientists

Telling us that for the vast and overwhelming majority of the population - it would be mild or no symptoms and that for children, likely extremely mild.

They said that from the very very outset.

MarshaBradyo · 15/01/2022 13:50

Whitefire maybe

I just remember putting gloves on and putting boxes in hall

I know it’s nuts and can laugh a bit about it now. There’s plenty re the pandemic I can’t be lighthearted about so I don’t mind admitting to this type of nuts behaviour

It passed quite quickly though tg

LadyFanny · 15/01/2022 14:05

We were out walking our dog and someone came over and stroked her. It was when we were being told the virus survived for 72 hours on surfaces, including animal fur, so we took her home and showered her. Also washed her collar and harness. Grin

crazyjinglist · 15/01/2022 14:14

Nothing. I followed the rules and guidance, but I didn't do any bonkers stuff. I got covid just before the first lockdown and felt pretty rubbish, but nothing too worrying. I just never really felt scared about the whole thing really.

I totally get that other people did though, and I think it's pretty unpleasant to laugh at them and call them 'sheeple' or 'brainwashed'. Laughing at yourself is obviously though!

Whitefire · 15/01/2022 14:16

I'm too impatient to not open parcels. Grin

Waxonwaxoff0 · 15/01/2022 14:27

@MarshaBradyo

Whereas quarantining post is totally rational?

Wasn’t there a stage where we had info re virus surviving for 72 or something hours?

Ok it feels nuts now I agree but I’m pretty sure the messaging was quite different back then

I don't remember any of that messaging. All the messaging was that it was a mild illness for the majority.
FizzyOrange · 15/01/2022 14:31

One thing I remember vividly was my obsession with the lids and handles of milk bottles with my online shopping delivery. I considered these very high risk and prior to my delivery slot, would prepare a sanitised 'zone' on the kitchen worktop, covered with 'sterile' kitchen paper and a pre-prepared bleach solution. I would glove up and wipe the lids and handles of the milk bottles. After several weeks, I refined my routine, all my lids were on a strict rotation and I had the previous week's sterile lids in a plastic bag on the side ready to go onto the new milks when they arrived!

ddl1 · 15/01/2022 14:38

I do remember quarantining the post - I thought that I was being a bit reckless by quarantining it for only 24 hours instead of the 'ideal' 72! I squirted sanitizer all over it before opening it.

A friend of mine, normally far less anxious than me, refused ever to open that letter sent c.April 2020 'from' Boris Johnson, as she was sure that he had personally signed every copy of the letter and licked the envelope shut while suffering from Covid, and that she would get his germs!

Bacchusmaenad · 15/01/2022 14:49

I cracked eggs into little clingfilm pockets in muffin trays and froze them just in case.
Took the dogs out at 6am, that didn’t last long, they hated it, they like a lie in.
Went to bed scared the day they made a coach load of people isolate in Liverpool, I had been reading about the Spanish Flu a couple of months earlier.

thenightsky · 15/01/2022 15:05

@Whitefire

For some reason made me think of the time I went to the loo at a restaurant. There were 3 cubicles and the middle one had been taped off for social distancing purposes. Bonkers enough, but each cubicle had floor to ceiling walls

I went to one of our local beaches when things first started opening up again. The council had done similar, however this then meant people were queuing into the doorway so actually you ended up closer to people then if the cubicles had all just been in use. Plus as well each cubicle had significantly more people going through it.

And the middle one of 3 sinks also taped off, meaning you had to hang around waiting to use the couple that were clear.

After a few weeks of this, I started ripping the tape off sinks, so I could wash and go quickly.

Bumblefuzz · 15/01/2022 15:12

@WoodenReindeer

Panicked about touching pump at petrol. Made sure partner wore gloves and didnt touch gave and sanitised.
I haven't touched a petrol pump, without gloves in more than 20 years. Statistically more men touch the pumps, and more men don't wash their hands after using the toilet. This bothers me more than Covid germs.
Toanewstart22 · 15/01/2022 15:31

* I cracked eggs into little clingfilm pockets in muffin trays and froze them just in case.*

My brain can’t quite grasp this. We might as well be different species

MarshaBradyo · 15/01/2022 15:37

I admit I don’t get the egg one. Why would covid be inside?

Bacchusmaenad · 15/01/2022 15:56

I froze the eggs to store them, expecting shortages, my species didn’t think for one minute there was covid inside.

MarshaBradyo · 15/01/2022 16:02

@Bacchusmaenad

I froze the eggs to store them, expecting shortages, my species didn’t think for one minute there was covid inside.
Lol I see 😂
Toanewstart22 · 15/01/2022 16:07

@Bacchusmaenad

I froze the eggs to store them, expecting shortages, my species didn’t think for one minute there was covid inside.
You must love eggs. Seriously love them!

And… have a bloody big freezer to justify putting in a baking tray… with a single egg in each muffin.

You could have made actual muffins with those eggs and then froze them surely…. Would give you much more substance in the event of a food shortage than a single egg Grin

user313213521 · 15/01/2022 16:10

@toanewstart22 Muffins would take up a lot of space in the freezer. Flour and sugar etc can be stored on a shelf. Better to freeze the eggs, then defrost and make them into muffins when needed. Much more of an efficient use of scarce freezer space.

BrightYellowDaffodil · 15/01/2022 16:10

Why are all those who went to such ridiculous extremes so offended that some people maintained a normal existence?

@SummerBluez, I wish I knew. I got a verbal kicking from a friend when I said I was trying to stay as normal as possible for the sake of my sanity. You would honestly have thought I’d said I didn’t believe in Covid and had been running round Sainsbury’s snogging people, rather than suggesting I only washed my hands when necessary and went out as much as I needed to.

Another friend took to passive-aggressive FB posts, and another unfriended me for saying I limited my intake of media and that there was positive news amongst the horror. Seemingly I just wasn’t doing a pandemic properly Hmm

Toanewstart22 · 15/01/2022 16:11

[quote user313213521]@toanewstart22 Muffins would take up a lot of space in the freezer. Flour and sugar etc can be stored on a shelf. Better to freeze the eggs, then defrost and make them into muffins when needed. Much more of an efficient use of scarce freezer space.[/quote]
Fair point

So something you’d do?

theotherfossilsister · 15/01/2022 16:13

I developed really bad agoraphobia. It took over a year to get back to normal and at the time I didn't believe it possible. I'd come out onto the street, cling to the door, try and take a step forward and run back in in tears. It was horrible.

user313213521 · 15/01/2022 16:19

Fair point. So something you’d do?

I've never gone as far as freezing eggs, but I do a bit of understated urban prepping, and have for a long time before covid.

When the panic buying hit, I wasn't stressing about pasta or loo rolls, as I already had a few packs in, bought when supply chains were in fine fettle.