To find the early COVID era nostalgic?

[Acco]

I’m mostly talking about the pre-lockdown and lockdown 1 era mostly but just 2020 in general to a lesser extent (but not 2021, I still hate it and it doesn’t seem that long ago). I haven’t thought about COVID for ages but I was taking about the toilet roll hysteria with my in laws tonight and then I saw a TikTok throwback to all the 2020 trends and sounds and it gave me a warm feeling inside. It’s an era I’d never want back but I remember the lovely sunny days in the garden in April and May 2020.
Anybody else feel this?

Having my OH at home with me to help parent. Day drinking 😮. Spending time doing fun projects with the kids. Toilet roll hysteria. Finding hand sanitizer in shops and acting like I'd found gold. Binge watching The Tiger King. Having Harry Potter marathons at home with my family. Tictok dances. Face times. All exciting

Worrying about parents. Queuing for ages for food shopping. Doing 3 families separate food shops. Washing down all said food shopping. Antibacing everythinggggg. Hearing heartbreaking stories of loved ones not being able to attend funerals etc, not exciting.

But I do get nostalgia for the good things I've listed. Everything seemed to slow down and life was uncertain but different and all the stressful day to day bullshit suddenly wasn't important anymore

Well no
It was a global pandemic that killed millions of people. One of them being my brother, and many friends lost one or both parents.
Sometimes it is good to pause for a moment before writing such things on a public forum

Agreed. There were over 1,000 people dying from Covid every day in the UK for a period of 22 days in April 2020. I actually struggle to see how the OP can fail to have qualified their post with some sort of acknowledgement of this.

It's just me and my daughter, and I had to go out to work while she stayed at home (she was old enough to be left).

Constant harassment from the school, because apparently the expectation was that I should be able to cut myself in half and oversee her schooling, whilst simultaneously being out at work.

Completely cut off from friends and family.

Ridiculously hard to get a food shop - I have no car and used to get an online shop prior to covid. Suddenly no delivery slots, and hardly anything on the shelves when I went to the local shop after work.

Couldn't see my elderly parents for many months, and soon after i was able to start seeing them again, my dad died.

So no, I don't feel the warm glow of nostalgia when I think of that time. I think I only just about made it through with my sanity intact.

I loved the lockdowns. I’m pretty introvert so they suited me fine. I took up running to keep sane while I was furloughed. Went on loads of lovely walks with my kids. I found it a very peaceful time. I miss it.

I was so conflicted that first lockdown. On a personal level for me it was one of the happiest times of my life…until I switched on the news. Then it was terrifying and incredibly distressing. I was so lucky that no one I knew got ill or suffered as a result of Covid/lockdown 1. But seeing what was happening in the world and feeling helpless to do anything was horrible. But then if I switched the news off my day to day reality was actually totally lovely. So I can understand feelings of nostalgia but in a really conflicted way.

100% with you OP.

Lockdown for many was awful. But despite DH and I having to work all through, it’s a time I treasure. Wouldn’t want it back - but I do think of all the positives :
breakfast lunch and dinner with my children
weekends together watching films
teaching the children how to ride bikes on the road (as little cars).
children had sleepovers in each others room every night and read to each other. (They just argue now)
And many more.

yes we were lucky and I told my children every day how lucky they / we are because they have their own rooms and we have a garden and we had each other.

I am grateful for this family time. A time I will never forget. (Of course it came at great expense to the country in many ways). But for us we found the positives in a rubbish situation

But presumably you can see that this is a pretty privileged position to have been in?

Obviously you felt what you felt and no one can blame you for that. No one is going to police the fact you enjoyed your lockdown.

But if you were one of the very lucky people who enjoyed lockdown couldn't you, in the knowledge that millions of people suffered hugely, just keep your enthusiasm for your "lovely walks" and general fuzziness to yourself?

This is exactly the sort of post which rubbed so many of us up the wrong way at the time (and still honestly enrages me now).

Some of us were cooped up in bedrooms working every hour God sent. Most parents were also frantically trying to educate their kids while holding onto their jobs. Many people were endangering themselves on daily basis to put food on the table. Many people watched family members die.

Enjoy your walks, your TikToks, your vegetable growing, your crafting. Keep it in a little private place in your head. A period of graceful silence on your part would be appreciated.

This thread needs to be taken down. My poor dear mum died and here are people saying how lovely lockdown were. Millions of people DIED ALONE and SCARED.

I really struggle with comments like these. Of course hugging someone at the time could kill them, if they were vulnerable, and in many cases it did, because people just thought they knew better. This is how contagion works, and is why we were supposed to avoid close contact with vulnerable people. What the government did in terms of parties was disgusting, and does not indicate that what scientists were saying was all a hoax.

I do know what your mean OP. Pre March 2020 both myself and my DH worked full time out of the house. We had a full time live-in nanny and life was just so busy. We had an 8 and 10 year old and tbh we didn’t spend much quality time as a family.

Lockdown 1 happened and it felt like the world just stopped. My nanny went home, I quit my job and life became so lovely and simple. Lovely walks with my kids. Long sunny days in the garden. No where to go, nowhere we needed to be. Cooking together, board games.

We’ve never gone back to having a nanny, to me working full time out of the house. It brought our family together and stronger for it.

I spent the 1st 3 weeks of lockdown 1 organising my mum's funeral and the 1st 2 weeks of the 2nd organising my dad's so, no, I don't find it "nostalgic" at all.

We all view things differently.

That time was hell for me. DH was in hospital, mainly - I think - because we couldn't get in person doctor appointments for him.

He eventually made it home, but died early 2021.

It's fine that you view 2020 with nostalgia. Just don't be surprised when others have a different view.

Agree. I work in the NHS and remember driving to work practically in tears with the stress. And there was a contrast between those people who bought everything that they could and a nicer, gentler, more kind feeling as well. That seems to have well and truly gone now.

Apart from the worry, summer 2020 was glorious. Sunny days, nowhere to be, hearing birdsong all day as there were no traffic sounds, people making an effort to be nice, trying new butchers and greengrocers who delivered, family walks, family quizzes on zoom, taking up art, home schooling, wfh. I could go on and on. I wouldn't want lockdowns again, obviously and I know it wasn't as pleasant for everyone. But I can definitely look back on it with Rose tinted glasses and feel nostalgic for the simpler days!

No I was exhausted looking after my two young children and not allowed any help

No funnily enough I don’t. I’m not reminiscent of the time when In a matter of weeks covid caused me to lose my job, my income, immediately isolated from family and friends with no kids to keep me occupied, trapped in a toxic household with my ex because we then couldn’t move out from each other.

Not to mention the horrific amount of deaths, people absolutely petrified because it was all new and we hardly knew anything.

But I’m glad you had a jolly time

Some of these posts are just plain goading now.

@userxx I was pretty damn close at times and I know my drinking went up massively during that time

@EarringsandLipstick one of the main things that got my son through wasnt me, it was his teacher and she was fantastic, she left at the end of that year and I believe the profession, but I made sure that I sent the headteacher a sort of review on just how great a teacher and a person she is

I will say I do miss distancing, I like strangers not being able to get six foot near me. Especially after today, when I went to get a drink at a bar and the guy sitting on the stool nearest to me, thought me being there was an invite to fondle my backside

You're right. I posted without reading the thread. My mistake!

Being imprisoned in your own house, cut off from friends and family, restricted on what you can buy, massive stock shortages, having to queue to enter a building, forced to wear a mask, spending more money due to delivery charges and increased prices when shops were closed, decreased mental health, those in poverty or abusive relationships struggled even more, losing vulnerable loved ones or worrying you'll lose them, constant COVID testing just to go to work, more difficulty getting a doctor's appointment, longer hospital waiting lists, restricted support at maternity appointments & during post natal care, being stranded abroad, increased flight prices once allowed to fly, parents increased workloads by 100000% as they were expected to work, homeschool their kids and manage all of the above on top of their usual duties...
But yeah sitting in my garden in the heat was alright 🤷🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️

Yes but the OP was doing that and probably hoping for a higher % of goady and a bunfight. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes...

I heard birdsong, but I also heard ambulance sirens, every few minutes, every day, for days and days on end. I will never be able to get that out of my mind. So please, in respect for people who suffered, please do not go ‘on and on’ about the glorious summer of 2020, even though you feel you could.

No. The whole thing makes me feel pissed off and resentful, I don’t like the way it makes me feel when I think about it so I don’t.

Obviously not a keyworker… we carried on going in everyday with thousands of people dying and not enough PPE. But glad you had a lovely tome in your garden in the sunshine.