To ask how your life changed since 2020?

[IceAndLemonPlease]

Did your life get better or worse since covid happened ?
Mine definitely got worse. Made redundant from a job I was very comfortable in and which I had been in for many years. My colleague passed away at the age of just 39 (Lockdown became too much for her 😞) and DH diagnosed with a second chronic disease which caused a strain on us all. Life just feels very different now in a way I cannot describe. I wish more then anything to go back to 2019 life but I appreciate not everyone feels that way.

Better. My business boomed during the lockdown and is still going strong, I am having the busiest year yet after 25 years trading. I realised DH was even lovelier than I had thought and it brought us even closer. Our adult DC coped well and have put it behind them.

I realise we were very fortunate. People we know were not so fortunate and we have tried to support them in various ways.

The impact on my mental health at being used as cannon fodder has been immense. Knowing that your employer cares so little about you that they are willing to actively risk your life and the lives of every one of your colleagues and patients (a ward specific decision made by senior management) is a real headfuck. And that the government dealt with Covid in an incompetent, immoral, unethical way disgusts and angers me almost beyond measure, my rage burns on. And then to hear thousands of people in Trafalgar Square call for medical and healthcare workers to be subject to Nuremberg style trials. That’s just the tip of the Covid iceberg from my angry perspective. Carrying that with me for so long has changed me forever. Pre Covid me is never coming back.

I'm glad hybrid working came out of it. Being able to WFH part of the week is a positive.

On the other hand, I ended up out of work during and beyond the first lockdown, having had a good career prior to that. It's never got quite back on track because I took a job that was a bit of a god send at the time but has taken me down a path where I'm really unhappy at work and my prospects have been damaged.

Being a single mum trying to home school was hard and had an impact on my mental health and relationship with my DC.

I wouldn't want to go back to 5 days a week in the office, but if Covid had never happened I would be doing it with no expectation not to, but in a better paid and more rewarding job.

Mine is much the same!

I’ve always worked from home so no change there.

I was very lucky to not lose anyone due to the pandemic.

The only impact it had really was a hugely positive one for me - my role is private sector but I work with government departments, including DHSC and we had never seen volume of work like it.
Our team which was already a very large team quadrupled & I received 3 promotions and considerable payrises in a very short period of time (18 months).

Workload has settled back into pre covid volumes and I’m very proud to be where I am now in my career.

Honestly covid didn’t really have much impact on my life as I still had to work and I didn’t go out much anyway and so my life hasn’t really changed post covid either, still live in the same place, still in the same job etc. Whilst lockdown had its disadvantages (more for my son than for me due to lack of school, not seeing his friends and missing out on some key celebrations) it had its benefits too such as quieter roads for commuting, cheap petrol, shorter working days on full pay in my own department, plenty of overtime available in other departments for the taking to earn extra cash. I did put on quite a bit of weight over covid but I’ve been trying hard the last few months to get back down to my pre-covid weight at a minimum and am doing fairly well. I was in a car accident the week before lockdown hit and had I not been able to access physical therapy through work I’d probably have suffered more than I did as no-one private would see me but I was lucky I was able to get treatment at work.

Worse. DF died suddenly due to total carnage in the hospitals ( not from
covid), DM totally dependent on me. Only child. My marriage is a shell of what it was. I’m tired and depressed.
home schooling 2 kids who turned out to have adhd ( undiagnosed) whilst both trying
to work full time from
home, was awful, add grief, pressure. I feel I’ve lost myself and I am
much fatter too as I can’t be bothered. I sometimes look at pictures from 2019 and can’t belief the sparkle in my eyes.

Worse, I got covid early on, that triggered an endometriosis flare that needed fairly urgent surgery and have about 2 years of recovery form both.

I feel my mid 40s have just vanished in a puff of pain and aching, it all coincided with peri menopause so now I'm having all of those symptoms too.

My dad died and we could see him because of restrictions.

Work is hard I lost a chunk of my business that I've never recovered, life is harder, I feel tired I used to train 3/4 times a week be lovely and toned and fit and now I barely have the energy to get out of bed.l and I'm tubby.

There are good bits but my life pre Covid was a million times easier.

I feel I'm waiting for something to change but I know it will have to be me.

I put 4 stone on and can't lose it

I am sorry to hear what happened to you OP. I understand how you are feeling. I don’t feel as happy now. My DM locked herself away at the start of the pandemic. She wouldn’t see anyone. Her physical and mental health deteriorated and she died in 2021 not from COVID. She just lost the will to live. I really miss her. After she died my DH and I bought a small property near our DS who lives a 7 hour drive from us. We have got to know the area and are now buying a larger property there, with a view to relocating permanently to the area. It’s very scary. Our DS is our only close family now so we want to be near him. I hope for happier times ahead for us and all PP’s still suffering after the pandemic.

I've gained 3 stone due to stress handling the pandemic for (one part of) HMG.

I'm hopeful 2024 will be the turning point & I get myself back on track.

@whyamiawakestill such similar tales. I know the change has to be me, I’ve never been so unable to galvanise myself

Covid made me hate my job and almost give up my teaching career. It also gave me the push to find a better school and get a promotion. I think without it I might still be plodding. It also made me seize more opportunities and we have since had some more exciting holidays and are planning lots more.

Better for me. I got pregnant with my son in 2021 and had him in 2022! Other than that, not much has changed.. but this one change has been big! I was ready for a baby before 2020 but the pandemic made me pause my plans for a bit when it all started.

So much has changed for the better.

I left a 20+ year dead marriage, left the UK and moved to my home country with my teenager who is thriving in the new place, finished a degree, started earning more money, found a new man (very early stages), reconnected with a bunch of old friends. Life is a million times better and things keep falling into place.

I remember a board room meeting in March 2020 telling us we’d all be working from home from next week. One woman asked how she could manage that with two very young children if childcare closed. The response was “we’re not paying you for doing nothing” and basically she’d be forced to leave her job. Poor woman had to log on at 4am, then again in the evenings til midnight, trying to get her hours done, she left soon after and the company lost a good employee.

Life seems a lot harder for me now and I’m a lot more financially unstable.

2019 bought bigger house to renovate and got pregnant with DC2.
2020 house was meant to be ready and of March 2020. Ended up paying for 2 houses for 5 months long which financially was very painful. At the same time my employer decided to screw me over and I ended up with no job to go back to at the end of mat leave. I’ve always worked and I’ve got a good skill set. However, I found whenever I went to interviews (which were all in Zoom in 2020) the interviewer would find a way to ask about homeschooling, etc. I think because the schools had previously shut this was a sneaky way to find out if a person had children and even if the interview went very well I would never get the role.

Since 2021 I have bounced around in different roles. It’s almost impossible to find a PT job in my industry unless I take a massive step down in responsibility and salary (which would then mean I couldn’t afford to work PT) unless you negotiate a PT return from mat leave. Wages have stagnated in my sector with employers wanting to pay the same or even less than I was on 10 years ago. In the meantime everything else has shot up. DC2 has additional needs so I really need to work PT now as I will need days off to take him to his therapies, etc.

In 2024 when DS starts school I was expecting to be much more financially secure. Instead I’m driving a clapped out old car which I’m praying will get through its MOT, as my career is in tatters. I found me working from home has made lazy DH even more lazy on the domestic front and my world has shrunk considerably.

Better. I was made redundant and got a better paying job with better opportunities.

Yup.

Not feeling any community anymore. Everyone for themselves. No one wants to come to work anymore. All anyone wants to do is sit at home a la lockdown.

I became more grateful for what was available and took advantage of every cultural thing I could attend, theatre , opera, galleries, day trips too.

I get to WFH 2 days a week which is a good balance.
I don't get invited to tedious parties by DHs extended family which is a massive bonus.
The online supermarket expanded coverage so I now get my weekly shopping delivered.
We got an interior designer to come and create a plan for our house. The space works better, and it feels like a home.

Worse…changed jobs more security but miss my old job in a way. Then lost a baby 22 and then split up with my long term partner earlier this year. It’s not been the best year to be honest

2020 was a whirlwind year for me. It started with my third child being born (a surprise pregnancy which we were worried about coping with to be honest) and ended with my dad dying. I was 27. It was a bleak December (he died on the 8th and I hadn’t been able to see him much because of COVID restrictions in hospital).

Honestly, for a while I struggled to get out of my comfort zone and I have spent periods realising my happiness and wellbeing are on the back burner while we survive through events like moving house.

But coming to the end of 2023, I am cautiously hopeful. I feel ready to cope with the challenges we face and I feel like I am clawing a bit of myself back in the process.

In the end, I wouldn’t change the way things transpired. My son is beautiful and my dad was tired and ready to move on; I look forward to meeting him again one day and I hope he is proud of me, how I looked after my family and after mum.

I appreciate life a lot and I have a better understanding of how sometimes things aren’t always easy but there is still so much goodness to be felt.

September 2020 dd was born.
December 2021 I lost a very close family member.
August 2022 I became a SAHM after working full time.
December 2022 ds was born.
December 2023 I'm still a SAHM and have applied for my second degree.

DH works long London hours and has been home much more, though as of January it'll be back to him being out the house 8am - 7pm. Very hard on our children as all they've ever known is having both parents home.

Weirdly during Covid it didn’t change too much at all. I still did my job, lived pretty much normally and didn’t fear the virus.
Sadly, afterward the sector in which I work has become so hard due to the impact of lockdowns and the cost of living on people’s families and mental heath. My rewarding job has just become a really hard job.
I am also struggling now with the COL so my life outside of work has really shrunk. I still love my life and consider myself to be incredibly lucky

I feel utterly lost and bewildered but also liberated since 2020.

Moved abroad to mainland Europe and then, wham, lockdown.

My mum died in 2021. She was very old and not altogether compos mentis. I still miss her and could really do with hugs from her.

Found out stbxh had had multiple affairs and then he assaulted me in 2022. He now lives back in U.K. and we will be divorced very soon.

I am still really loving living abroad with 4 dcs but am struggling and need to work out a career plan quick sharpish. But am totally overwhelmed by that too at 52 and feel very lost.

Tried online dating. Met someone I really liked but he ghosted me which was a bit of blow after not having dated for 20 years. I will leave that side of things for now.

Retired from job because of their covid-denying behaviour
Dad died
No longer go to shopping centres