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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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21
TimeFlysWhenYoureHavingRum · 04/07/2023 22:44

For those with Long Covid the bad dream is still going on. Every single day.

EarringsandLipstick · 04/07/2023 22:51

hettie · 04/07/2023 18:31

Nahh it's not consigned to the 'bad dream' box for me. The consequences are still a living ducking nightmare. DH went from training to a marathon to being a blue badge holder (no previous long term health issues fit 40s). The resultant blue light near death trauma tipped DD into understandable anxiety, my work (NHS) has been a shit show ever since and it didn't look like any of these three covid era impacts are shifting any time soon. I am exhausted and near the edge. So no it's all too much of a living reality still.

I'm really sorry.

Quarantino · 04/07/2023 22:59

Where I am, people that didn't die or get severely ill from first exposure, are getting it for a second or third time at the moment. About a quarter of the current cases I know of seem to have fairly serious effects that are lasting for at least a matter of weeks (so far).

Terryer · 04/07/2023 23:02

I have never had it AFAIK.

Delatron · 05/07/2023 06:55

I didn’t mean wearing masks was sad. Never going inside a restaurant again is sad. Or never going to a music gig or a concert…Just limiting your life like that. We are living with Covid now, it’s just another illness that is circulating. It’s good to get a bit of immunity- as a population that is what is happening.

Why fear Covid over other circulating diseases? I would be far more worried about getting flu or Norovirus.. they have knocked me out far worse.

LouLou198 · 05/07/2023 07:10

Terryer · 04/07/2023 13:50

I remember being called a murderer on here because I went to the shops twice a day once. And arranged to meet my dd there and we walked round pretending we weren't together while she chose stuff she wanted

I used to meet my sister at the supermarket and do this. I also used to add milk and bread to my trolley every week, even if I didn't need them, so they people wouldn't judge that my shop was maybe not "essential". It doesn't seem real now.

StormShadow · 05/07/2023 07:21

TheWalrusdidbeseech · 04/07/2023 22:40

It's not sad at all. I have to admit, when I see someone with a mask today, I translate it as them being full of germs and I stay well away!

If people want to wear masks, I have no issue with it. I am not doing it. I only made my kids wear masks when it was mandatory in planes and in public places overseas. They didn't need them in this country, so did not have any.

Masks are more to protect others than they are to protect yourself, that's the problem.

Show quote history

Tbf that isn't true of the good quality ones. An FFP one well fitted protects the wearer. That stuff about my mask protects you and yours protects me doesn't apply- people who are worried can take responsibility for their own protection.

dreamingofskeggie · 05/07/2023 08:28

Heartened by the numbers on this thread who have clearly woken up over the past couple of years and realised this was/is mainly a pandemic of the vaccinated, fuelled by government fear and propaganda coercing people to take the useless, unnecessary, dangerous vaccines. Hell mend the rest of you.

Losingmyusername · 05/07/2023 08:29

I thought it was bullshit at the time and I think it's bullshit now. Saying that at the time would rain down 100s of replies about how selfish I was. Given how much it's costing us all now, not really...

dreamingofskeggie · 05/07/2023 08:50

Losingmyusername · 05/07/2023 08:29

I thought it was bullshit at the time and I think it's bullshit now. Saying that at the time would rain down 100s of replies about how selfish I was. Given how much it's costing us all now, not really...

Yep, I was given several warnings of cancellation by MN back then for making comments far less strident than the ones I have on this thread.

rugbychick1 · 05/07/2023 08:51

Like a PP I worked with Covid patients and felt nothing. Other colleagues felt so many emotions, so it's like NHS staff were 2 sides of the coin with regards to emotions.

It seems like a bad dream now, and fat away in the past.

Zebedee55 · 05/07/2023 09:04

OwlHop · 04/07/2023 20:26

Interesting, sobering thread to read. It was a traumatic time. So many different reactions. Denial, dismissal, denigration are coping mechanisms, anger and grief are still unprocessed for many…all understandable.
My family and I still use basic & easy mitigations: we wear ffp3 when shopping, traveling, going to theatres etc, we eat outside or get takeout, rather than eat inside restaurants. We avoid poorly ventilated crowded places if possible.
The more we find out about the long term effects of SARS-CoV-2, the more sure we are that we want to continue to take steps to avoid it, even 3 years on. We have friends who are now disabled because of Covid infections and we have friends who have died. Covid is not over even if people wish it was.

I don't know if the precautions worked, or whether the vaccines are effective.

I moaned at the time, but I shielded and DH and I took every precaution.

My dad died in a nursing home, on the day Johnson was holding a garden party. I couldn't be there, and he died because they'd discharged hospital patients into the home who were Covid positive.😡

Silly little funeral followed.

DH and I had all the vaccines, and we thought, as the government said, that the problem was now over.

But, he died in April this year, of Covid, despite everyone saying how "mild" it is now.🙁

Quite honestly, I could poke Johnson and co in the eyes - it's been lie after lie with it all.😡

FuckTheLemonsandBail · 05/07/2023 09:10

YANBU

I still can't believe they locked our local park
That bubbles for parents of tiny babies weren't brought in for ages
That my family didn't get to see my child after the birth until he was already over one
I can't believe what most of us willingly accepted

I think we all have a lot of collective trauma honestly that will take time to fully understand the effects of. There are kids in my child's nursery who talk with an American accent from watching YouTube so much and not interacting with anyone but their parents for months on end.

I think the scariest thing for me was how fast and with how much glee certain people jumped to turning into informants on their friends and family. Insanity. It doesn't take much for society to collapse and breakdown.

SunnyEgg · 05/07/2023 09:11

Losingmyusername · 05/07/2023 08:29

I thought it was bullshit at the time and I think it's bullshit now. Saying that at the time would rain down 100s of replies about how selfish I was. Given how much it's costing us all now, not really...

I wonder if the abusive lot have any kind of awarensss by now

Losingmyusername · 05/07/2023 09:25

@SunnyEgg No. They're on a moral pedestal somehow. Can't seem to handle the idea that I can sympathise with long COVID, agree entirely with the vaccines (although not the mandates), help in the vaccine centre and still be 100% against lockdown - there is no better evidence of its pointlessness than the parties in #10. And yes, absolutely disgusting when they were banning people from funerals and letting people die alone.
Apart from the total inhumanity, as an economy we never could afford it and it has led and will continue to lead to worse outcomes for the vast majority of the population for years. That was obvious at the time and yet I heard things like "oh it's a drop in the ocean", magic money tree etc. Not that the incredible incompetence of our government helped in any scenario.

StormShadow · 05/07/2023 09:25

I think we all have a lot of collective trauma honestly that will take time to fully understand the effects of.

I think you're right.

Terryer · 05/07/2023 09:49

Losingmyusername · 05/07/2023 09:25

@SunnyEgg No. They're on a moral pedestal somehow. Can't seem to handle the idea that I can sympathise with long COVID, agree entirely with the vaccines (although not the mandates), help in the vaccine centre and still be 100% against lockdown - there is no better evidence of its pointlessness than the parties in #10. And yes, absolutely disgusting when they were banning people from funerals and letting people die alone.
Apart from the total inhumanity, as an economy we never could afford it and it has led and will continue to lead to worse outcomes for the vast majority of the population for years. That was obvious at the time and yet I heard things like "oh it's a drop in the ocean", magic money tree etc. Not that the incredible incompetence of our government helped in any scenario.

I'm with you. Lockdown was absolutely insane, but I'm pro vaccine and don't deny that the virus affected some very badly.

Dotjones · 05/07/2023 09:54

It feels like a dream, but not a bad one at all. I ended up working from home for two full years, it was fantastic - cheaper, healthier, I was happier. The lockdowns were brilliant, especially the first one when people were largely abiding by it. It felt like I was doing something important and contributing to society by staying in. For once I could do fuck all and not feel guilty about it. If it were up to me we'd have a three month lockdown every year, the exact timing period should vary year to year so that people with birthdays on certain dates don't always end up having them during the lockdowns.

Lockdowns were great.

SoSoSoSo · 05/07/2023 09:56

Lockdowns were great.

For you.

dreamingofskeggie · 05/07/2023 10:06

Terryer · 05/07/2023 09:49

I'm with you. Lockdown was absolutely insane, but I'm pro vaccine and don't deny that the virus affected some very badly.

Show quote history

It's a pity that many won't even entertain the idea that the vaccine has also affected some very badly - or worse. Lockdowns bad, but vaccine uncriticisable (if such a word exists)... 🙄

Here's the result of an FOI request showing 200 deaths in Scotland attributable to the vaccine. Why isn't this front-page news?

To ask if anyone else feels like the covid era is a bad dream
stuckdownahole · 05/07/2023 10:13

Yes @Dotjones that's the classic response from people who happened to be a situation which made it easier to cope with lockdown.

I remember getting a bollocking off my sister who was Mrs Sensible pro-mask, pro-lockdown, jolly hockey sticks, let's all do the right thing (and who lived in a huge property with outside space with her husband and was allowed to go into the office if she felt like it). The phrase "I can't understand why you have a problem with this!" was used.

"Erm, lockdown isn't great for single people".

For once in her life I actually shut her up and you could hear her mentally checking her privilege.

Kingoftheroad · 05/07/2023 10:32

I totally agree with you - I felt and still feel really angry about all of the stupid rules that I knew at the time were pointless. I’m in Scotland and the crackpot first minister was being hailed as a hero as “her rules were stricter than westminsters”.

Another thing that really got to me was that the majority of people just followed like sheep

NoChanceYouMetalBastard · 05/07/2023 10:34

Dotjones · 05/07/2023 09:54

It feels like a dream, but not a bad one at all. I ended up working from home for two full years, it was fantastic - cheaper, healthier, I was happier. The lockdowns were brilliant, especially the first one when people were largely abiding by it. It felt like I was doing something important and contributing to society by staying in. For once I could do fuck all and not feel guilty about it. If it were up to me we'd have a three month lockdown every year, the exact timing period should vary year to year so that people with birthdays on certain dates don't always end up having them during the lockdowns.

Lockdowns were great.

This cannot be serious. Please tell me this isn't serious.

JazbayGrapes · 05/07/2023 10:48

Heartened by the numbers on this thread who have clearly woken up over the past couple of years and realised this was/is mainly a pandemic of the vaccinated, fuelled by government fear and propaganda coercing people to take the useless, unnecessary, dangerous vaccines. Hell mend the rest of you.

This^

sunglassesonthetable · 05/07/2023 12:00

This cannot be serious. Please tell me this isn't serious.

Why? Everyone is not the same? I said earlier I enjoyed lockdown.

I am aware of the privileges that allowed me to do so but the cold hard truth was it was good for me.
I get that it was very hard for many many people but it would be untrue to pretend that out was for me.