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?

No, looking back I think I behaved pretty reasonably. I didn't do any clapping or rainbows or anything. I didn't keep to the letter of the "rules" but mostly the spirit. I thought (and still think) that the chances of Covid being a threat to me personally are miniscule, as a healthy woman in my thirties with no preexisting conditions and who is very rarely ill. As far as I'm aware, I still have not had Covid - either I'm one of the people who is naturally, immune or I had it with zero symptoms. But I was concerned about the possibility of passing it to one of my close friends, who has a genetic heart condition, or to one of my elderly relatives and for that reason I tried hard not to contract it and exercised a lot of caution around them. We are now seeing a lot of the social and economic harms from lockdown come to fruition so its easy to look back and criticise - but for all we know, the alternative scenarios would have been far worse. I do think some people lost the plot a bit, if the local Facebook groups are anything to go by, but to be honest those people are always ranting about something.

For lots of people it wasn’t about that really though was it. I mean nice sentiment and all but people just wanted something to put in their diary. A reason to see others. Humans crave community and locked down we wernt getting that so appearing on your door step together gave a small grain of that for lots of people.
Its really easy to look back now once the fear is gone and thing what a load of bollocks. I mean of course some people thought that all along ajd good for them I guess. Others thought were genuinely worried. We were being fed fear after fear every day about death and disease. And to be fair covid wasn’t that bad for most but if it had been a different more deadly virus it would have been truly awful- no one knew for sure what was going to happen and it felt like no one was at the wheel. They felt far more scary to me and now we know that in fact none really was at the wheel- none competent anyway. Glad I didn’t know the full extent of that at the start or I would have been 10x worse

I'm in Ireland so as far as I know we didn't do clapping. I don't have any cringe memories of lockdown. My business boomed in lockdown, we got to spend lots of time with the kids, we had gotten a puppy like one month prior to the first lockdown so she kept us busy, it was lovely cosy time for use. We had no problem following the rules, wearing masks etc but fortunately we are all healthy so none of us were concerned about getting covid(as it happen none of it got it til last December).

I know we are lucky we can look back with fond memories and both kids were not at all affected by it and financially we did better than ever. But yeah overall I look back at that time a little wistfully, my kids were on the cusp of being teens and spending all of that time together before they went out into the world more independently was really lovely.

I adhered to lockdown rules but some of them were madness, for instance: myself and my other half both worked in the same team, for the NHS.

We were required to go into the office. At the time we didn't live with each other, but lived one street away. We stuck by the rules and didn't go to eachothers houses. We got scolded by someone at work who had spotted us walking home together for breaking the rules - despite us literally spending all day working together (not socially distanced!) - make it make sense!

The clapping and all that shit was ridiculous. I never took part in that because I thought it was stupid at the time

but it was something that had not happened in living memory and people didn't know what to do or how to cope and at first nobody knew whether this was going to kill half the planet or be a major case of the sniffles and people were scared.

Some people needed to do something or feel like they were doing something. People were lonely and isolated and things like that felt like connection to them. I'm unsociable to the point of being a bloody psychopath and I bloody loved not having to deal with people but most people aren't weird like that.

I can't imagine what it must feel like suddenly being locked in your house, never seeing anyone when that's something you like, want and need. I guess clapping and hearing clapping or banging pans and hearing pans was like hey, I'm here and I can hear you are too. I'm not alone. It's like we're connected.

We can look back knowing what we know now and say how stupid lockdown was or whatever else was but that's only because we lived through it and now have information we didn't have at the time.

I remember someone posted on here saying everyone is being ridiculous, scaremongering, talk about lockdown is stupid, it's never going to happen then I think it was later that day or the next day that lockdown was announced and MN deleted the thread with some stuff about benefit of hindsight and it not being fair on the poster etc

And this is no different.

I just remembered the time we went to a Scottish pub (this was in 2021) and we were allowed to sit at the bar and drink without a mask, but if we went to the loo had to put a mask on. The barman then told us we didn't have to wear a mask if dancing, so we could dance across the room to the loo without one 😂😂

Yes I think a lot had to do with circumstances too. I think life in an upper floor apartment must have been one of the worst things .

And yes some did have it much much easier - but even some of those who should have just got on with it ( swimming pool, wfh capacity etc) were bloody whinges given what others put up with. So there was definitely an attitude component.

There was a group of us on here who thought it was all madness and we had our own threads. We called ourselves AD's..anti dementors. Those who had got whipped up into the frenzied madness were dementors.

We were called conspiracy theorists and abused on the general threads.

I never went out and clapped. I heard my ex ndn say that if I caught covid, the NHS should just let me die.

Funnily enough, I've never been vaccinated and I've never had it. Not being smug at all but the only people I know that have recurring covid are those vaccinated to the hilt so I'm happy to take my chances.

For what ?

Did you see the scenes in the Italian hospitals? Can you remember ?

Yes there was naff stuff - because when things are shit naff stuff actually helps

Because we got through mostly ok you think it would have just been better if we had left it to run uncontrolled ?

I remember trying to look after my sick parents while people were outside banging pans and thinking I wish that's all I had to worry about. I (unreasonably I know) resented all the people going for perky dog walks whilst I was indoors with them, and suffering from Covid myself, until they were both taken into hospital where they both died. After that, it all felt a bit pointless.

what even was this

TW

I went through hours of contractions and lost my baby at home as the hospital stated it was too dangerous for me to have a medically assisted miscarriage (after my waters broke at 12 weeks) in a medical setting "in case I got covid". It was the most painful and lonely experience of my life.

I actually feel embarrassed by how much of a sheep I was.

Yes I think much of this is very true.

I think people have to remember this virus was a killer.

7 million people have died from Covid. It’s just to easy to forget the scale of this, and that the lockdowns were to save lives when there was no immunisations and they were still figuring it out.

for me, I think as much as mistakes were made, they were human error and a lot of people did a lot of good work. With the best of intents. In the face if the unknown, it’s easy to criticise.

to be fair some of it was ludicrous. I never once stood and clapped in my doorstep, and once would have been enough as a gesture . But some folks became hysterical , spying on and reporting their neighbours, washing their shopping and quarantining it, hoarding loo roll, scared to open their windows in case it came in and got them.

so in hindsight i think as much as some was ludicrous, some was error, overall i think a lot of people did a lot of good work and as much as 7 million died it could have been many more if it wasn’t for them,

Ok, so yes - the clapping is proper cringe….we were coerced into it by nutty neighbours and I didn’t want to cause a fall out by refusing🙈…..BUT, I do have 3 friends who work frontline nhs and they say services would have been significantly impacted without the lockdown …..all the high dependency wards and ICU beds in our local hospital were taken up with Covid cases - if someone had an op go wrong etc there would have been no resources available to them. So, some of it made sense - other bits not so much!!!!

We didn’t do any of it, too busy working. Maybe if we hadn’t been we would have been swept along too, who knows. I just remember being knackered, getting up at 4am to work for 6 hours before having to supervise the kids. Bloody nightmare and not something I want to repeat.

Of course, many had it much harder. We didn’t lose anyone close to us, which I’m grateful for.

I can understand why people lost the plot a bit. It was a very strange time.

That's probably because it's quite rude to sneer about people being dementors.

@Takingabreakagain - Sweden has a very different population density from us. So impossible to compare. And The Great Barrington Declaration was dismissed as it was based on the theory of herd immunity which is a nonsense as people contracted covid repeatedly.

I have a completely different memory of lockdown.

The first year I was furloughed, home schooling a year 7, running every day, baking, spending time with my ds. My one chance to be a SAHM. For us it was a good thing.

Then in 2021 I was diagnosed with BC and it was all hospital appointments and face masks and blood tests. I was desperately grateful for Boris's plan B because it meant I could work from home during chemo, manage my tiredness and get used to wearing a wig.

I don't cringe at the memories. I'm just glad it's over

I was on those under my old user name 🤣 they were brilliant.

I never took part in the clapping etc and what was the point? NHS staff needed proper ppe, more money and more staff not dickheads standing clapping and making noises. I did what I usually do but was just more careful about close contact. I didn’t get Covid until the middle of 2022.

Absolute madness. The parks were gated off in favour of people walking round the streets. Coastlines with wide open spaces had their car parks closed.

On my local FB people were raging if you drove to the woods as if you had an accident that would endanger everyone.

Pretty sure someone on here was recommending people could use rags for sanitary protection.

People bleaching shopping, leaving it in storage to ensure no germs were present.

A lot of the world was the same though, we were not the exception.

It was the day my dd should have got married.
She eventually had a 15 person, no food or drink wedding in the winter. Her own db couldn't attend because he lives in Wales.
I try and tell myself that we were lucky to stay healthy but dd having a basic wedding still upsets me and the summer outfit I'd bought has never been worn.

The clapping and my neighbour was observing who clapped or not..