To look back on the things we did in lockdown and cringe?

[Applescruffle]

Isn't it all just really cringeworthy when we look back?

The clapping on our doorsteps, all that false commradarie and "we're all in this together" and the drawings of rainbows in people's windows?
Condemning our neighbours for buying Easter Eggs because they weren't "essential" and wondering whether we would get arrested for sitting on a park bench?

At the time I, and probably loads of us, thought we were doing the right things but doesn't it all just look so false and hollow now when we look back and see that number 10 were having parties and Dominic Cummings was running around the country testing his eyesight? My kids missed out on so much while this was going on, my mental and physical health has still not recovered from the effects of lockdown, and for what?

Know what I mean?

Re the people grassing everyone up - I thought this was useful. We know the weak minded morons now, the ones who would sell you down the river for an extra ration of bread. I haven't forgotten or forgiven!

Well I never clapped for the NHS, never had a rainbow in the window and had no interest in who was buying easter eggs.

We did love going down to our deserted beach and having fish and chips, I took plates, cutlery and glasses, we'd order online and stand outside the shop waiting to be called for our order. Lots of ships sheltering off shore and as 2020 turned to 2021 we stood on the doorstep and listened as the ships sounded their horns as a thank you for the support they'd had. When Christmas was suddenly cancelled I phoned DD and we met at the motorway services 50 miles away to exchange presents and stood in the drizzle eating Big Macs. In the summer grand sons would come and sit in the garden and we'd talk through the open french windows.

I feel quite nostalgic. I think I had an easy lockdown.

One of the things that made me lose respect for people was their seeming inability to understand that if a person died from covid or from lockdown, they were still dead. One death wasn't better than the other and replacing one risk (covid) with another risk (death from lockdown) didn't make even the tiniest bit of sense. I couldn't figure out whether they genuinely didn't get it and were just really thick or whether they couldn't let themselves think about because the messages scaring them about covid had been so successful that it clouded their judgement.

Yanbu.
I never clapped it was nauseating and every nhs worker I know didn't think people should have felt obliged.

I dont cringe about any of it. But am saddened by how attitudes have shifted since.

I just think people could have found things to cheer themselves up that didn’t involve insulting those they were pretending to be supporting.

Oh. Ok. You think the elderly and disabled should have been sacrificed so life could have carried on as normal? (Even though it wouldn't have done as the NHS would have been overrun and previously healthy people would have died too.)

I think that's an awful viewpoint.

ladybirdsanchez thanks, yes what you say makes sense.

I think the people who caught and died of Covid would probably say it wasn’t all a waste of time and they probably wish they hadn’t caught it from whoever they did.

However it would have been nice if we could have avoided the mass hysteria and judgement in general.

Exactly. We didn’t lock down soon enough is more like it. Should’ve listened to the conspiracy theorists - no thanks - absolute morons.

The camaraderie from the UK government was false but I think there was a lot of community spirit and genuine kindness amongst ordinary people. I think the pots and pans banging was a big cringey but it was a small gesture for NHS workers from their neighbours in recognition of what they were facing during that unprecedented and very frightening time. Yes, of course they would have appreciated proper PPE and better pay and conditions more, but unfortunately England votes Tory so pots and pans and rainbow stickers it had to be.

Sadly, the elderly were not prioritised. The way elderly patients were shunted into care homes without ensuring covid didn’t go with them was one of the biggest disasters of Covid.

All of it matters. My dad died in lockdown, not from covid, old age but I don’t think what was going on helped. It was a confusing and horrible time

I thought it was all bullshit at the time and said so and got absolutely torn down on here

Well my kids kept their mental health more in tact because I'd take them out for fresh air more than once a day and kept a positive attitude rather than being hysterical

Now I hope those that were grassing up neighbours and such feel stupid

Very easy to now see how nazi Germany happened

We were WFH with a toddler and no childcare. Every time I walked up or down the stairs I could see the neighbours' huge jigsaw slowly coming together and every time a little bit of me died with jealousy.

Well yes, that's true, that was absolutely horrific.

(I don't think it's what she meant though!)

I didn't do any of that tbh.

I cringe when I think of wiping down each grocery item with disinfectant wipes. Big cringe.

Yes I do know what you mean.

Some people like my mother, actually enjoyed it all in a weird way. Everyone in her tiny village pulled together and looked out for one another, did one another shopping favours and there were lots of in-jokes about 'dealing' in sourdough starter and spare bags of flour, dropped off at garden gates. It gave her something to focus on in her otherwise dull life.

I found the clapping and pot banging thing deeply weird and didn't join in.

I hope to god that if anything like that ever happens again we have to good sense to just say NO to lockdowns. People who are clinically vulnerable should be given the permission and the support to do whatever is required to keep themselves safe and the rest of us should just go about our lives and our work and our education and our friendships. The damage that has been done for misguided reasons and on flimsy evidence of need, is just incalculable.

Agree with this. It's all very well looking back with the benefit of hindsight and saying how ridiculous we all were. But at the time nobody knew what we were dealing with. It was unprecedented and a very scary time. I remember wiping down my shopping and doing loads of other mad things because I thought I was protecting my family.
Looking back it was dumb. But I don't feel embarrassed about any of it. We literally didn't know what we were dealing with and it was a weird time.

same here.

We didn't really change anything in our routine. We rarely go out to socialise so didn't miss that and not having to travel long distance for Christmas was a relief, just the two of us and very cosy.

I remember the empty roads and clear blue skies and a marked increase in flying insects. Mine and my DH's main work is to keep a three acre garden looking smart and in 2020 we were asked to create a vegetable garden and to grow the widest variety of edibles we could. I'm in charge of the garden and had to come up with a plan for a constant supply of fresh food for the house, but we were allowed to grow for us too. That task brought together so much of what I've learned over the years and it was brilliant to take up the challenge and see it all develop. I enjoyed that so much, plus sitting under various trees to have lunch while admiring how weirdly vivid everything looked. The memory of the stillness and quiet will stay with me forever. Sitting under a tree and all that could be heard was insects and grasshoppers. Where we are it's rare for that to happen.

On the down side, a lot of people around me seemed to go nuts. I saw calls on Facebook, from people I'd known for years, for those who didn't wear masks to be 'put in a cellar and left to die gasping in the dark' and others wanted all healthcare withdrawn from anyone who didn't comply. I saw signs saying non-compliers should be gassed. Someone I'd regarded as a close friend became a massive hypochondriac and started calling anyone who didn't stick to every rule 'arseholes' and 'fuckwits'.

Then there was my brother, out of work, living alone and getting more depressed every day. He talked of suicide for a while. Thankfully he came through it all okay but I was so worried about him.

All in all, a very weird time.

But some of us cherry picked- I didn’t judge anyone, I did clap, I wrote a thank you note for the binmen, which they deserved and the kids did the rainbows.

Whether coincidence or not I got Covid when restrictions were eased and it effed my lungs. Whatever about the ridiculousness of the rules, the sad fact that people with mh issues and sadder still the kids that needed socialisation, medical help etc were let down, the other side of it is that staying away from people, wearing masks, washing/ sanitizing hands does stop the spread of a lot of illnesses (bugs, colds, flues) so while they got things horrendously wrong, we were in uncharted territory (remember the queues of ambulances going into morgues?) and something had to be done.

(And the people going around shouting at other people and shouting conspiracy theories both in to and on mn because they were wearing a mask didn’t do themselves any favours)

I loved lockdown personally, time off from work while being paid, beautiful weather.. but I was extremely fortunate not to have anything happening health wise to any family during that time, so look back in fondness tbh.

I cringed at the time to the clapping and pot banging and quietly refused to do it, personal reasons to do with being badly let down by the NHS, and thinking it was all ridiculous.. but the pinnacle of that for me was walking to the shop at the same time and people being outside their doors near the shop and one woman literally SCREAMING at everyone walking past..

WELL FUCKING CLAP THEN!!!!!!!!!

If you queried anything you were seen as a conspiracy theorist. I didn't clap, I didn't bleach my food shopping. I just went about my business as much or as little as the rules demanded / allowed.

I kind of remember it differently - it was beautiful weather, my usually busy with tourists town was wonderfully quiet. I had endless time with my daughter. I got close to my neighbours.

Some of the "rules" do seem ridiculous looking back! Queuing to get into supermarkets and being scared to sit down on the beach 😂😂 but we did relax about that and went swimming etc. I do really miss the calmness of our days and the togetherness!