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?

I saw my dad every week in his garden even before the bubbles started. His mental health would have plummeted if not.

It was about being sensible and not putting others at risk. But also taking into account other factors. Some people took it far too literally. The government did not take it seriously enough

I didn't know a single person with covid for the first year. A friend got it in may 21. We never got it until august 22.

No because we chose as did all extended family not to follow the crowd so nothing cheesy to look back on

I’m sorry, I went through that too due to nonsensical care home rules in Scotland. I’ll never not be angry about it.

I went to work (emergency service) and got pissed off at all the idiots clapping on their doorsteps -especially when I was trying to catch a sleep before I went to nightshift

It's terribly easy to judge with hindsight. At the time most of us were frightened and confused. Now, looking back at clapping and banging saucepans, security guards at the Co-Op door, etc., seems a bit unhinged. But it was a time of uncertainty and fear (and some misinformation from the more outlier conspiracy-theorists didn't help). Most of us just did the best we could in a wretched situation.

Most of this stuff didn’t happen in our neighborhood (zone 2 London). Yes we stayed in, socially distanced and clapped for the NHS but the clapping was mainly an excuse to wave to the neighbors and have a bit of human connection. On a nice night we would stay out for 20 minutes afterward chatting across the street. We took walks freely and spent time outside as we wished. We also checked in on elderly neighbors, shared Ocado orders, and a lovely mum on our street ran a window decorating contest every few weeks that was great fun for the kids. NOBODY took ang notice of what rules other people were following and certainly nobody reported anyone! Covid was hell and I’m still traumatized but one tiny bright spot was that it brought us together a lot as a community. I think a lot of the “drana” was just online B.S. to get people frothing and clicking. People are so easily manipulated.

What did the midwife do? With this mad woman screaming at her and actually throwing water over her? That is really too far.

I didn’t do any of that stuff but I did do a giant, angry “Thankyou!” to a tannoy announcement reminding everyone to stay apart when I was being crowded in B&Ms.

To be fair I was genuinely scared of causing a family member to die.

You clearly have zero idea of how obnoxious you sound.

The only way to celebrate the NHS is to think very carefully about who you vote for in the next General election, not clapping on your doorstep like a bloody seal

Well I didn’t do any of it. I thought everyone had lost their mind at the time. I wasn’t having anyone tell me I couldn’t leave my house and see my parents for god sake.

I still went over my parents house, we still had friends around that didn’t mind coming over, I used to sit outside and have gin with my neighbors and a laugh.
I didn’t wash my shopping 😂 I never quarantined anything.
I was still working, used to go out for as many walks as I wanted. Got to spend loads of times with my kids.

The only real downside was my grandad had cancer at the time and in the last few days went into somewhere that wouldn’t allow anyone in. That was the shittest part. We did however get to have a small funeral for him and then we had others go back to a house and all have a wake and share memories so that was nice.

I'm willing to bet that a not inconsiderable percentage of the posters smugly patting themselves on the back and saying "well I didn't do it, I knew it was stupid so sucks for all of you" are the same ones who posted in March 2020 saying "I've been wearing a full hazmat suit to the supermarket since December because I knew what was coming."

I do not understand the need for it, this meaningless superiority. The vast majority of people were scared, and as a nation (because of what we were told) we did some things that now with hindsight were unnecessary. Nobody is going to say "well you know mumofjessica123 on Mumsnet, she's just better than all the rest of us". Some people didn't follow the rules at the time...ok? Good job. Can we agree though that doesn't negate the fact that it was a fucking crazy time and a lot of people did follow the rules, for a lot of reasons.

Yes I lost my mum not during covid and she wasn't ill until late 2022, but it robbed me of time spent with her before then. And yes it does piss me off.

Don’t forget Sir Keir and his beer and curry ( though they seem to have spun this into obscurity). Or Kinnock junior driving to Wales (?) to see Neil ( told off by Police’. The sky presenter and her restaurant outings with her non bubble. Doctor Lockdown Ferguson who invited his ( married ) lover across London for a shag……

it was very strange how the ‘inner circle’ obviously knew fairly early that it was not quite as dangerous or infectious as the masses were told. The Queen stuck to the ‘rules’ though.

I really enjoyed lockdown.

Getting hysterical about your neighbours buying Easter Eggs was stupid by any metric.

Yes, absolutely this.

I didn't do any of those things and wondered WTF the fuss was around Captain Tom from day 1. It reminded me of Diana's death tbh - collective madness and stupidity.

The same here. I get quite angry when I look back so I try to blank it out. It was a crap time and I get annoyed at people being nostalgic about it. For me there was nothing good about it.

My parent died very suddenly during lockdown but because of the stupid fucking rules I'd not seen them much in the months before they died. So much time wasted when I could have been sitting with my lovely mum in her garden.

The same rules meant we couldn't have a proper funeral (limit was 15 people and we all had to mask up in the crematorium - ever been forced to wear a mask when you are crying?) nor could we any kind of wake or remembrance after the funeral.

The rules also meant my surviving parent was left alone for huge amounts of time and as a family we couldn't spend that first Christmas without our mum together**

Absolute hypocritical cunts the lot of them (the government) and if I had my time again I'd do things so differently.... How blindly I followed the covid rules is one of my only regrets in life!!

** one of my siblings was in a bubble with suriving parent so he wasn't left completely alone.

Hindsight is wonderful isn't it?
So is common sense but a lot of that was stripped away from us.
I never did the clapping. I remember seeing a video of my colleague and his wife standing on their door step banging a saucepan with a wooden spoon and they were the only ones doing it.
He called everyone that didn't do this a disgrace.
I just thought 'get to fuck, you clown'

The most bonkers thing i read on here was a the pile on of a woman who wanted to go and mow her mum's lawn. She was going to single -handedly kill all the locals apparently. She just wanted to clear a space so her mum could sit outside for a while.

It was people on social media banging on with silly questions too. Someone asked Matt Hancock how long people could exercise for. His response was, uh, an hour or so - clearly caught on the hop. Suddenly everyone was policing everyone else.
It seemed so logical to say work at home if you can, and so everyone went mad and didn't go to work if they couldn't do it from home.
It wasn't thought through at all, but all the silly questions and off the cuff answers didn't help.
I worked for the NHS at the time and also thought the clapping was a load of nonsense.
I mean i wore a mask when told and socially distanced when poss, but it really got ridiculous.

Well weren't you all morally and intellectually superior?!

I was frankly terrified seeing pictures of people dying in the streets in China. I was immensely grateful when schools closed in March 2020, I was frightened for my children. I enjoyed clapping and showing a little appreciation for people working under terribly difficult and terrifying conditions. My friend's husband was in charge of ICU in a local hospital and they were under immense pressure and losing several patients every day. And yes, I liked feeling camaraderie with neighbours on my street. We used to offer to buy stuff for each other when we went to the supermarket. There were lots of posts about "I have a load of spare spinach, left outside #21 if you need any".

I think we all did the best we can with the knowledge we had and I don't judge myself harshly at all. I thought the government response was muddy and indecisive but that their genuine aim was to prevent the NHS from overwhelm, and with my personal contact giving me a window into ICU knew this was no exaggeration.

Yes I was furious with that smug little git wandering around Northumbria testing his eyes, but every cloud has a silver lining and that was the end of his political career. Thank heavens, he was a very dangerous person.

She said she had it a lot.

She kept very calm each time. Police came out once. She calmly explained that she was a midwife. They spoke to the neighbour who was still insisting we would all be killed.