Feeling as though time since the pandemic has disappeared

[Aserena]

I feel robbed, to be honest!

2019 I was 33, feeling pretty young.
And now here I suddenly am in 2023, turning 38 in 6 months time and feeling decidedly middle aged and a bit mid-life-panicky.

I can’t really think where the last 4 years have gone! It feels like it’s the pandemic that stile my time away, but maybe this is just what getting older is like?

*stole

Erm, you're 38. In my eyes that's young as I'm 50.

I would say that 2020 did seem to disappear. It was a weird year, we really did nothing but much.

But I think it’s more you are not happy with your current life. Just be careful some of my friends went absolutely batshit late thirties and made some very rash decisions about men and having kids. Needless to say a couple of them are now divorced.

I didn’t feel remotely middle aged till I hit 50 and the menopause got me so I feel pretty bad for you.

Well given between 2019 and now have been 4 years and only 2 years were pandemic years unless you have lost someone close from COVID or have long COVID you are being a tad unfair on the pandemic!

Fair enough! I do realise it hasn’t all been pandemic, I still don’t know where the time has gone though! Feel a bit like I’ve been sleepwalking.
Will try not to be too rash 🙃

Time goes faster as you get older. I think the theory is that as you get older each day/week/month/year becomes a smaller percentage of your life and so it feels like it's moving faster. I find having a child at school also makes time go fast, it seems like I finally get into the routine and then I'm looking at sourcing childcare for the holidays again.

The pandemic didn’t just end after 2 years though, did it? We all had some form of post Stockholm, must get back to life, pick your kids up and act normal utter exhaustion, didn’t we? Followed by media doom, war, cost of living crisis and the constant threat of the ‘most dangerous variant yet’.

YANBU OP. The last few years feel stolen.

I feel you, time is going ever so fast, trust me no one is feeling their age...we need to embrace the change as its part of life.
I'm 42 and definitely don't feel like it...
My kids are growing at an alarming rate...I can't believe my eldest will be 19yrs old soon and she definitely doesn't feel her age either.
It's beyond our control so make the most of the present and future....act as young as you feel ❤️

Time does seem to have melted away since 2020. I had a lockdown baby. We are applying for schools in September!!

I feel this too. One of kids ‘graduated’ primary and the kids did a lovely presentation on their school memories and I was really struck by how the pandemic was just one part of a sequence of events, securely sealed in the boundaries of the class year they were in at the time.

I think it was actually the war in Ukraine that knocked me off balance - we were all moving forward and getting back on track and suddenly the world lurched sideways again. I feel like I’m still gripping the sides tightly waiting for the next lurch life throws.

Nope, don't feel this. What's stopping you living, or picking up your life again post covid?

Not really. I feel like loads has happened. Ds was born start of lockdown, and we now have 3 year old. Lots of changes with work, house, lifestyle. World changes a lot with inflation, Ukraine, climate. I feel like I haven’t sat down in 3 years.

I feel the same as you

I feel the opposite, covid and the lockdowns gave our family time to take stock and re-assess, how we saw others (mainly our staff in the business we ran at the time, and the customers) and where our priorities lay. It came around the time two of our loved ones died (not COVID-related, but the grieving was seriously affected as many people found out during that period) and after a period of juggling illness with running the business. It was a grim time, we very quickly realised that we put a lot of people's needs before ours and when lockdowns/COVID hit they expected more from us and we ended up with a huge amount of empathy fatigue, we couldn't keep it up.
I was 46 my DH 57 and we began to sell the company I re-entered a career I left in my mid 20's and the years that followed have given us a new lease of life, we have used it to reset our life, it was stressful doing it but worth it. We now value our jobs and have more work-life balance. It's like it woke us up, kicked us up the arse and made us sort our shit out.
I suppose it all depends - everyone will look back on it differently, for me whilst there were negatives those negatives forced me to change my life for the better.