To ask what you miss about lockdown - light hearted

[Nopurchase]

This is light hearted and OK so I know that this is unreasonable and 100% I wouldnt want to go back into lockdown but there is a part of me that misses that initial feeling of feeling safe and cosy at home with my family (not that I dont now), playing games, no school runs, working from home being able to go out for a walk and it was so quiet and peaceful you couldnt hear any cars and so many birds, this was before all the big restrictions came in. I know it was so hard for so many people and dont get me wrong for us it was immensely difficult a lot of the time mentally and extremely stressfull, but there is a part of me that misses close family time in a bubble.

What do you miss?

Having a sparkling clean house. I did a major deep clean over several weeks- walls washed, curtains washed and dried outdoors, furniture moved, wardrobes sorted....
Going grey. I had already decided to go grey about 3 months before lockdown started. By the time I was able to get to a hairdressers it was grown out enough for a short Bob.
Learning simultaneous equations again with DS!. His lessons were all live streamed by his teachers and as he is ND, although he was eligible to go into school, we decided to homeschool him. We were also happy to drop the subjects he wouldn't be continuing as GCSE options at Easter.

I miss not feeling that I should be doing something all the time; not feeling that I was somehow missing out on life's great party.

Oh god yes.....this in spades!

No children's parties every weekend

I have big, blue eyes… and bad teeth.

I miss how hot I looked in a face mask.

Oh yes I agree the weather certainly helped.

First year of lockdown I was going crazy- trying to work from home in a role that is intense at the best of times but without the supportive infrastructure of things like decent photocopiers and staff. (My firm in their widosm decided to furlough all the support staff and only keep on senior management, because 'it's not like support staff do anyhting bloody joke because support staff do exactly that- support the smooth running of the business!!).

I was also trying to support the homeschooling of 2 DCs, one with significant SEN.

I truly became desperately worried for my own mental health.

Second year I threw my toys out of the pram and quit that job. Second year I could relax into home schooling and got the house sort of under some control. Loved being at home. Loved being with the family. Loved not seeing outsiders or being social.

Made some serious changes to my own expectations about working life and now do freelance work which keeps things ticking over with the help of DH's salary and I can take on as much or as little work as I want.

Nothing
I worked all through in difficult circumstances. Couldn't see elderly parents. Had l'lockdown' funeral for FIL, couldn't say goodbye to him in hospital. Teens suffered at home. Awful time.

😂😂😂😂

I do miss the silence and the birdsong. Everything seemed so peaceful.

I appreciate the fact that it forced us closer as a family and really healed a rift after a few years of very difficult times with DD1.

I don't miss the constant arguments over DD1 not being able to visit her girlfriend and her gf not being allowed here.

I don't miss not being able to see my mum, sister and nana. FaceTiming is not the same!

I'm also appreciative of the move towards WFH as it's made an incredible difference to my life. For various reasons I wouldn't be doing the job I do now without it and I really really love my job!

I’m so sorry Ciao 💐.

I am very lucky that some of the very few good things have largely remained, as working from home the majority of the week has remained. Having your own cooked lunch the main one.

I miss my lovely clean house too. I did a massive declutter and every room was sparkling. I cleaned bits l genuinely never even saw before. But now it's all starting to go to pot again. Dh really helped as he had nothing better to do. Now he is busy again and l am flying around enjoying myself but would love to have kept that clean house forever. I swore l would keep it but it hasn't happened unfortunately.

I miss takeaways from my favourite cafe who only did them during lockdown to keep themselves afloat until they could reopen.

i miss the lack of traffic and the birdsong.

i am grateful that lockdown afforded me the chance to spend less time with my XH. He used to come over daily to spend time with our son (who was off ill from school) while I worked. In lockdown I worked from home and he didn’t come over for a few weeks. It was good for my mental health.

I also love WFH and not having to commute. It still feels like bonus time and I begrudge travelling into the office unless there is a real need. There is currently a push for us to be in 1 day per week which on the one hand seems reasonable and on the other seems unnecessary.

The pandemic and WFH has allowed me to get a dog and home educate my son who is doing really well.

i miss video calls/phone calls with friends who all had more time. My best friend and I spoke every week during lockdown. Now she is busy again with family (mine are all gone) we are back to quick texts and catch ups in person every 4-6 weeks.

DH went into the office everyday, so that didn't change.
But the weather is the thing I miss the most, it was glorious, coupled with the empty roads. We live on a normally noisy main road, it was lovely to have the windows open for fresh air and bird song.
It was so relaxing not to be constantly taxi-ing to kids activities in the evening and I saved so much money. We ate decent home-cooked food every day.
Downside was DD's school abandoned them during GCSEs and then caused so much stress when they returned to school, giving them test after test under exam conditions, with no notice and no timetable, on content that they hadn't been taught. It's left her with horrendous exam anxiety and panic attacks.

I think essential workers have a different view - they worked as normal with a mask and restrictions and hearing everyone having so much free time makes me quite envious. I think you can see why healthcare supermarket and transport workers feel resentful and demoralised - they did not get time off.

Me, Dh and 2 sons worked as normal throughout lockdown and we don't feel resentful or demoralised. I liked getting my full wage rather than 80%, I think it was, and not spending it.
I loved going in and having quiet days at work. DH was driving up and down the country dropping off medical supplies at hospitals and had good clear roads that made the job easier. Not all key workers are resentful.

It's amazing isn't it
a poster also missing all the "stuff" she had delivered.

another looking out of her many windows - reminds me of the poster who said the heatwave was wonderful because she wandered around her vast grounds every night, with her DH, listening to the bats.

i'm not saying people aren't allowed to have their privileges but some posters literally have no idea how other people live.

i am recovering from it all now and threads like this underlines my determination to change.

The weather and being able to walk anywhere on the golf course. That is literally it. It sent me into a massive spiral of depression, I put on so much weight and it almost cost me my marriage.

I wish I had broken the rules sooner and met up with people, might have just helped my sanity a little bit.

I get why people say they liked not having to go anywhere but everyone has that choice anyway. Wanting to keep everyone locked in their houses so they don't have to go to a social event they could just say no to is incredibly self centered.

In terms of "essential workers" I know a few who just ignored it

it's not on to tell people that they have to work in whatever circumstances but then go home and never see friends or family

Not having my grandchildren while parents worked. (I love them to bits but it's what all my friends secretly said too)

Sunbathing for hours on end reading and gardening and no guilty feelings

Time to myself for the first time since baby 1 in 30 years. Time to be me

Having time in the week to do things with my kids like gardening, baking, crafts etc. we still this on the weekends but it I loved the slow pace of lockdown.

The quiet. The lack of aeroplanes and traffic noise was blissful.

No pressure to rush around doing things. The beautiful weather in the original lockdown was a bonus.

There's nothing I 'miss' about the lockdowns. They were, on the whole, fucking awful. If I think really hard there are a few good things that came out of them (got to know more local walks, DS got confident on his bike in town, we all got better at appreciating the small stuff) but these are things that have stuck so I don't miss them.

I do think when people look back at 'lockdown' they are mainly remembering the first one, with the good weather. That second one, in the bleak winter/spring of 2021, was just an absolute grind for most people, surely?

I miss having the children home, school of mum was fun.. lunchtime cooking was fun! Exercise in the garden was fun! We still talk about our garden picnic lunches and our cycling adventures together 😆 I'd do it all again in a heartbeat. I appreciate many parent's struggled through but I loved it. I worked early in the morning remotely then again in the late afternoon and it worked out fine for us. Saying that I've worked remotely for many many years so factoring in the kids and school of mum wasn't so bad.

I think had the weather been terrible people would look back on it a lot less fondly.

I hated being so restricted but in the early days of the 2020 one I enjoyed sitting in the sun and not having to do anything. Wasn't long before the novelty wore off and despite the lovely weather it was another groundhog day one after another with nowhere to go, nothing to do and nobody to talk to. I spent many days in tears thinking that life was never going to go back to normal. That's not a healthy way to live at all.