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?

Exactly. We can only judge the decisions made based on the data that was available at the time. Almost every government worldwide thought it necessary to lock down, it was unprecedented.

I’m glad I mostly ignored the no going out rule and being rural we could still go for walks , to the beach and even to the shops every time we went out . I just made sure I didn’t go to the same one more than once a week .
I did the best I could to minimise impact on my children but unfortunately we still ended up not seeing family for almost 2 years as they lived abroad and I can never get that time back .
lockdowns should never had happened , instead the most vulnerable should have been offered financial help so they could isolate if they wanted .

It's basically been said that second lockdown was unnecessary

I don't think elderly should have been sacrificed but I said at the time the young were sacrificed far too much

You can still see the impact now

But I think the worst affected probably had parents being hysterical and sticking to the rules rigidly

No way for me

If my kids wanted to go for a walk/run two three times then I encouraged it

Me too, or forgive.

The thread isn’t about locking down though. It’s about the banging pots, snitching on neighbours and other batshit behaviour that went alongside the lockdown.

I never did any of these things and found them equally horrifying and cringeworthy at the time!

Otherwise; YANBU.

This is so important!

Yabu if you were clapping on doorsteps and condemning neighbours for buying Easter eggs, going for too many walks, seeing their families or doing anything else. The lockdowns brought out the witch hunters in a lot of people.

No, it wasn’t cringeworthy at all. People did what they had to do to cope. Before the vaccines we really didn’t know what we were dealing with and the death toll was rising exponentially. Hindsight is a great thing and I’m pleased to many of you feel you have been vindicated for licking people in the street and injecting yourself with Domestos or whatever it was you did to stick it to the man.

I wasn’t a clapper or binlid banger but I don’t mock those who thought they could show a bit of support to people who were really doing a life or death job with inadequate PPE.

The only people I condemn are Boris Johnson, Dominic Cummings and their cabal of cronies who undermined their own rules and whistled while Rome burned. They deserve to be thrown in jail for what they put the country through.

Another who did none of the things you listed, OP; I just got on with my life as best I could because it was the only thing to do

And yes, many of us tried to suggest some of the wilder measures were unwise - as were the powers government took upon themselves - but few wanted to listen

Lockdown was an unnecessary disaster. Many people, including highly esteemed scientists, spoke out very early on (from mid-2020) and were vilified - they were absolutely correct, of course.

I worked in our office through Lockdown, nowt special but they needed someone in (the other 150 people were sent home to work on the Tuesday).

We still had documents coming in that needed looked after and the member of staff who would normally do this was scared witless to leave her house.

Anyways, I remember driving home one sunny early April day and as normal the roads were empty and it was very deserted. I passed a parent walking along the pavement with two young kids, to my utter shame I tutted and said aloud ‘what bit of stay at home don’t you understand’.

What a feckin numpty I was.

A lot of us were utterly brainwashed.

It's dishonest to state with certainty that lockdowns were a mistake or a disaster.

There are plenty of respected voices that maintain that overall lockdowns did less harm than good.

It's not, all all, a closed discussion.

I didn't do any of those things but I will forever remember that was the time I realised how much some parents dislike teachers.

The whole thing was cringeworthy, stupid and sentimental claptrap. It is now proven that lockdown was completely unnecessary. For most of us, it was no more than an irritation. But, sadly, for some people (especially the young) it was catastrophic and so I hope the nations of the world have learnt their lesson, ensuring that it never happens again.

I'll never forget walking past a primary school and seeing a teacher blowing her whistle like a sergeant major and yelling "bubbles...bubbles!!" and chastising any children for any infringements. I'd be really curious to know if that's affected any of the children's psyches or if they've been able to move on unscathed.

It’s also when I saw teachers on here describe children in such delightful terms as ‘filthy little germ vectors’.

It was already cringe to me at the time and I didn't do any of it.

The trouble there is that statistics can be made to prove anything, and "models" even more so since too much is based on guesses and assumptions

I do agree about most nations going for some form of lockdown, at least the first time, but it's worth remembering that by the second wave measures differed siginificantly - probably because in some they'd never have got away with it

To be fair, I never clapped on a doorstep, drew a rainbow, joined a neighbourhood WhatsApp group, or any other nonsense. I ignored lockdown, as far as I could. I'm glad that politicians had a few parties, as at least that shows that they knew the whole thing was nonsense- good for them!

100% it was completely obvious to many of us at the time that this was a collective madness. But we were bullied into silence in the name of “The Science”.
(Similar is right now happening, particularly on mumsnet, on the subject of trans issues- but that’s another story).

I clapped as it was a lovely way to see the friends and neighbours I was missing and the little ones across the street loved it when I used giant soft toys to wave to them from the window.

People will feel differently but it's not nice to laugh at those who followed the rules as it was a new and scary time. I was poorly and taken to hospital in an ambulance and felt as they shut the door I wouldn't see my family again. One neighbour stood on her drive to show solidarity to my dh and dc as she said in a note she left me. She then was ill and I helped with her shopping once I was okay.

Mistakes are always made in new and serious situations. It doesn't mean that some things weren't right to do.

With hindsight I might have had a much easier time of it if I'd bought in to the clapping and the nonsense rules.

Those that have fared the best seemed to be the ones who put up photos of people walking across deserted beaches, saying what idiots they were, joined in the clap, then jumped on the next flight out as soon as a holiday was a possibility.

It was utterly batshit insane. I stopped following a LOT of the rules pretty early on, I saw who I wanted to see.

A friend told me of being out for a walk in the countryside with their grandchild and on hearing people approaching, the child said 'Voices, people, danger'. I can't help wondering what that child thinks now.