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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask if anyone else feels like the covid era is a bad dream

545 replies

23rMarch2020 · 04/07/2023 12:41

Whenever I think of 2020 or 2021 it just doesn’t feel real at all. The lockdowns for months on end, the clapping for the NHS, the track and trace system, entire school years being sent home because a single case was discovered, panic buying, people developing intricate methods of sanitising their shopping, public shaming of rule breakers, religious holidays being stopped at very short notice. It’s all so bizarre to think of that this was in our country so recently and, really, there’s nothing to stop any of it happening again. In so many ways it just feels like a different world, my DS who had his GCSE’s cancelled is about to go off to uni (if he gets the grades 🤞) and my then little year 7 DD is doing her own GCSE’s next year. I guess my Aibu is to ask if anyone else feels so totally disconnected from that era to the extent it’s all like a bad dream?

OP posts:
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TheWalrusdidbeseech · 04/07/2023 17:45

SoSoSoSo · 04/07/2023 17:39

Rightly or wrongly, it was an attempt to keep things fair.

It was showboating, made no sense and did sod all to help anyone besides Amazon.

It's about as fair and makes as much sense as cutting off a leg from everyone to make an amputee feel better instead of giving them some practical help.

I am arguing the details, I was just replying that it wasn't a random decision for the sake of it.

We don't say anything when we are not allowed to buy alcohol when doing our food shopping in the middle of the night, you'd think that pre-covid rule would have long disappeared 😂

My local shops just ended up selling on people's doorsteps, I don't know how financially viable it was for them to bring kids shoes and so on.

JenniferBooth · 04/07/2023 17:45

No argument from me @TheWalrusdidbeseech

What was the effect of lipstick in ww2?
Lipstick added a special glow and spark to women which is what Britain needed to escape their pain and worries due to the war. Red lipstick brought light onto the lives of the British people, boosted their morale, and helped them to walk through the tough years.

Now the pandemic was NOT a war They are two different things but plenty on here were saying at the time that we needed Blitz spirit.

Pammy26 · 04/07/2023 17:51

dreamingofskeggie · 04/07/2023 17:26

While it's outrageous what the Tory hypocrites did, greater outrage should be reserved for those who told them there was not much to worry about wrt the virus (as many of us knew), while conveniently keeping that fact back from the rest of us. The Partygaters were partying because they weren't scared. Nor should they have been.

But why weren't they scared?

Show quote history

And several of those partygaters are on the Honours list. We should be like the French and protesting about this.

SoSoSoSo · 04/07/2023 17:52

It was a five year old's idea of fairness. What's next? No one can have food because some people don't? And adult clothes, bedding and shoes are hardly a luxury. Of course it's the same twats who think making people pay more for their supermarket lunch is the solution to obesity. Bloody hell. Some people really will defend anything.

Esgaroth · 04/07/2023 17:58

Yes, I was just thinking exactly that the other day. Though I can still remember the desperation of trying to work from home with a 2 year old and a 4 year old. I think that is burned into my consciousness.

The horrible feeling of not wanting to tell my children about anything that we might do in the future because of how shattering it was every time one more thing got cancelled. The feeling when, as much as I'd tried to protect her from it, my eldest worked out for herself that she couldn't look forward to anything because she was constantly being let down at the last minute.

The shocking realisation that we don't actually have any absolute rights or freedoms. All of them can be taken away as an emergency measure. I suppose I always knew that situations like wars could affect things like freedom of association, freedom of movement, but it was nonetheless a shock to the system to experience that. And I wasn't even in a country like the UK where the government tried to set laws about what people could and couldn't do in their own houses.

StJulian2023 · 04/07/2023 18:00

Well, I feel like the last 10 years have been a bad dream since my DH was diagnosed with cancer and died in his 30s. Pandemic impacted me less so it was just background to the nightmare I was already living. Fun times.

TheWalrusdidbeseech · 04/07/2023 18:01

SoSoSoSo · 04/07/2023 17:52

It was a five year old's idea of fairness. What's next? No one can have food because some people don't? And adult clothes, bedding and shoes are hardly a luxury. Of course it's the same twats who think making people pay more for their supermarket lunch is the solution to obesity. Bloody hell. Some people really will defend anything.

You would have moaned even worst if your local stores had shut down, but supermarkets had kept selling everything.

Presenting a simple fact is not "defending" anything btw... We are not voting, we are talking.

JenniferBooth · 04/07/2023 18:03

Met Police have said alleged gatherings at Checquers wont be investigated.

SoSoSoSo · 04/07/2023 18:04

You would have moaned even worst if your local stores had shut down, but supermarkets had kept selling everything.

Oh Bullshit. I don't agree with small stores being closed either btw but it really is like cutting off perfectly healthy people's legs just because some have only one or no legs. It's about as logical.

StormShadow · 04/07/2023 18:05

SoSoSoSo · 04/07/2023 17:52

It was a five year old's idea of fairness. What's next? No one can have food because some people don't? And adult clothes, bedding and shoes are hardly a luxury. Of course it's the same twats who think making people pay more for their supermarket lunch is the solution to obesity. Bloody hell. Some people really will defend anything.

Yep, I've noticed a tendency online from some people who think restrictions were the right approach to defend even the more obviously stupid or cruel ones. I'm reserving judgement myself, but it surprises me that more of them don't realise they'd do better to disavow things like tiers, bans on protest, legislation that functionally excluded primary aged children from socialising in the Jan lockdown in England etc. There are a lot of terrible policies we had that weren't an inherent or essential part of lockdown and that could easily have been avoided without compromising the underlying policy.

Tetchypants · 04/07/2023 18:05

hamstersarse · 04/07/2023 13:26

I remember it pretty well. I was just so amazed about how utterly insane everyone went that I don't think I will ever forget -people shouting at one another on the street, herding you down supermarket aisles with an idiotic arrow system, scotch eggs, closing playgrounds, the constant disruption to schooling, no GCSEs, no A Levels, the fucking clapping, the dictatorial nature of many people I knew, the censorship, the absolute herd mentality....

I sometimes think the amnesia that is reported is some form of defence mechanism against having to admit that it was all insane.

@hamstersarse

Scotch eggs?!?!

It was all a bit insane but I have some calm memories of it too. We all had a shut down and restart of our lives and I think there were some silver linings to be taken from that.

Still racking my brains trying to remember why scotch eggs were important though.

StormShadow · 04/07/2023 18:06

Tetchypants · 04/07/2023 18:05

@hamstersarse

Scotch eggs?!?!

It was all a bit insane but I have some calm memories of it too. We all had a shut down and restart of our lives and I think there were some silver linings to be taken from that.

Still racking my brains trying to remember why scotch eggs were important though.

Show quote history

That was when we were all arguing over what a substantial meal was. See also, the legal definition of a table.

Terryer · 04/07/2023 18:07

StormShadow · 04/07/2023 18:06

That was when we were all arguing over what a substantial meal was. See also, the legal definition of a table.

Show quote history

Omg it was absolutely MAD

SunnyEgg · 04/07/2023 18:09

omg Bloody scotch eggs

Up there with locking children’s playgrounds and taping over benches wtf

SquirrelSoShiny · 04/07/2023 18:09

Yes it all feels like a fever dream now!

SoSoSoSo · 04/07/2023 18:10

I'm amazed that people don't realise that politicians sometimes make kneejerk decisions for various reasons including an attempt to seem more authoritative or trustworthy or make them more popular. Not everything is carefully considered.

sunglassesonthetable · 04/07/2023 18:11

It's a weird blip in my memory timeline.

Everything is hazy. There were a lot of silver linings to my lockdown personally. And I know that's a privilege. I adored spending that time with my loved ones.

I understand I'm lucky but I look back with fondness.

Zebedee55 · 04/07/2023 18:13

My DH died of Covid in April, this year...so I'm still living the dream.🙁

isitsmallorfaraway · 04/07/2023 18:13

Agree wholeheartedly. I was utterly traumatised by the whole thing and have never really recovered. I've tried talking about this to close friends, including why no one seems to want to talk about it, but guess what.... no one wants to know. So I'm glad to read this thread and know I'm not the only one

sunglassesonthetable · 04/07/2023 18:15

@Zebedee55 Very sorry to hear that. My condolences.

JenniferBooth · 04/07/2023 18:17

@Zebedee55 so sorry to hear about your husband Flowers

Zebedee55 · 04/07/2023 18:25

Thank you for the messages. All my moaning about restrictions seems trivial now. We thought any risk had gone, and it hadn't, for some, despite the vaccines.🙁

Terryer · 04/07/2023 18:27

sunglassesonthetable · 04/07/2023 18:11

It's a weird blip in my memory timeline.

Everything is hazy. There were a lot of silver linings to my lockdown personally. And I know that's a privilege. I adored spending that time with my loved ones.

I understand I'm lucky but I look back with fondness.

I enjoyed spending time with my kids but was constantly aware that they were missing out on so much
Being stuck at home with mum probably wasn't a decent trade off

Terryer · 04/07/2023 18:28

Zebedee55 · 04/07/2023 18:25

Thank you for the messages. All my moaning about restrictions seems trivial now. We thought any risk had gone, and it hadn't, for some, despite the vaccines.🙁

I'm so.sorry to hear this.