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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Have people forgotten about covid and what's really important?

281 replies

Beautifulweeds · 16/11/2024 23:04

Just this really.

Covid...working or non working parents had to have online teaching at home (for working so much more difficult). Teachers had to do these lessons online while supervising their own kids being taught online.
It showed how many parents found it difficult teaching their own and so sad some suicides of single parents having no escape.

Supermarkets...
In fear of covid but worked through, online delivery went through the roof, all working. A close relative with parent on chemo hadn't got the official document through so had to keep working and go home to a highly vulnerable person. Took several weeks to sort, otherwise woukd have lost job if refused to go in.

NHS, I remember the days just before it was announced and A and E staff having a more than full waiting room of coughing before mandatory mask wearing.

The impact...stay at home, if you could. Celebrities showing off, non essential things like false eyelashes, fake nails, any form of plastic surgery etc stopped.

The world realised what was important. Now it has too easily gone back to the superficiality it was before and people complaining about everything.

Thank you for reading my long post, just needed to put it out there.

I, for one, as a frontline worker and human being, am so disappointed at how so many people have gone back to being so rude and entitled, when they were relying on us at thay time to help them live. X

OP posts:
Cattery · 17/11/2024 09:13

@SmudgeButt Oh indeed. Or the wanker behind you standing right up next to you while you’re paying. Er, back off love; I haven’t finished my turn yet. People are pigs

Tumbleweed101 · 17/11/2024 09:13

Things never have gone completely back to normal. We are much closer to a cashless society - I had to get my daughter a bank account and card after lockdown, much earlier than I did for her siblings, because she couldn’t even buy an ice cream with her cash pocket money any more as it was all card machine payments. This means a whole generation are missing out the maths skill of counting out money and understanding the concept of
getting change.

You still have to prebook things. It’s fine for some things but a real pain for others. I don’t want to go somewhere in bad weather just because I had to prebook a week or two before.

So many high street shops have closed down to the point there is little to browse now.

Babies and young children were affected far more than expected. Not socialising with others and having parents trying to work from home and not giving them their full attention has had a huge impact.

Lovelysummerdays · 17/11/2024 09:15

I had to spend two weeks failing to home educate my children whilst working to midnight so I could keep my own job just last month. What I’ve learnt is school still doesn’t have an effective e-learning program in place. Reality is no one in power really cares about you or your family. Really all you can do is keep your head down and do your best and hope you don’t need much in the way of assistance because it isn’t there.

friendconcern · 17/11/2024 09:16

Differentstarts · 17/11/2024 08:56

Can you not see how hurtful comments like this are to people like me. I had family members, friends and colleagues die from covid, I nearly died from covid I spent over a month in hospital. I'm still struggling with long covid over 2 years later. I'm now disabled and can no longer work full time. Just because you got of lightly others didn't.

I agree and I’m sorry you went through that. People like this make a choice to ignore facts that they don’t want to hear because taking them on board would challenge their notion of being special or superior. There is no point taking it any more seriously than someone who says they are an alien.

Heatherjayne1972 · 17/11/2024 09:20

What really hacked me off was that us dental people weren’t allowed to see patients at all for the first lockdown - not even to see patients in pain. Our practice got investigated for doing ‘illegal dentistry’ in May 2020. The folks at 111 were just swamped with calls for help and were calling us as they had no other options - which prompted an enquiry.

There were ‘dental hubs’ available but they literally only did extractions on a very few people. That was ridiculous

also we are very good at cross infection and cleaner than a lot of hospitals but the rules for us were way over the top. ( people queuing outside / must have window open/ we had to wear respirator masks and clean from top of cupboards and mop floor after every patient’ for eg plus loads more rules ). Then one day the rules were just totally relaxed. No weaning off. Just finished

but the GPs. No they couldn’t see patients in all three lockdowns. Oh no far too dangerous for them. That really really annoyed me

crazy times

LoneStar7 · 17/11/2024 09:20

Oniya · 17/11/2024 06:40

Teachers had to do these lessons online while supervising their own kids being taught online. It showed how many parents found it difficult teaching their own.

Why have you posted this? I’m absolutely sick of the divisiveness on MN and its always around teachers.

I worked more during lockdown than I’ve ever worked (biotech) and also had to supervise DC when there were at online lessons and when they weren’t.

I’m the same as everyone else. Who decides who gets a special badge and had it harder? It was very difficult for lots of people for lots of reasons.

Just stop.

My kids weren’t taught online. During the first lockdown in particular we didn’t see hide nor hair of any teacher. They posted worksheets on SeeSaw at 9am and left us to get on with it 🤷🏻‍♀️

They wouldn’t teach online because it wasn’t safe or some bullshit.

I have a lot of respect for teachers and the work they do and recognise it’s a bloody hard job but my experience was that a lot of them were MIA during Covid and I’m not going to pretend otherwise.

SoiledMyselfDuringSomeTurbulence · 17/11/2024 09:20

Lovelysummerdays · 17/11/2024 09:15

I had to spend two weeks failing to home educate my children whilst working to midnight so I could keep my own job just last month. What I’ve learnt is school still doesn’t have an effective e-learning program in place. Reality is no one in power really cares about you or your family. Really all you can do is keep your head down and do your best and hope you don’t need much in the way of assistance because it isn’t there.

The last two sentences are dead on.

The lesson I took from the pandemic is that the state will, and sometimes has to, designate some people as the can carriers and others as the beneficiaries. There was no way round that during covid, the only question was which groups we wanted to prioritise. As it turns out, the state cared a lot less about my children's welfare and my family's jobs and care than we do.

JudyJulie · 17/11/2024 09:22

Our relationship with DGS will be forever affected by the fact that we were not allowed within 2m of him for the first 6 months of his life, or to touch him at all for the first 12 months. Four years on, he has never spoken to or engaged with either of us, so we all lose out. His DPs were just too frightened of COVID.

One of our neighbours is still shielding, even though she was never in a category that was advised to shield in the first place. She has seen no-one face to face except her DH and occasionally her DD in over 4 years and no longer has any medical or dental care because she feels it is just too risky.

DH spent hours on YouTube during lockdown and is now completely immersed in conspiracy theories of one sort or another to the extent that he has lost almost all of his friends, and his social life, and a lot of freelance work. Our marriage is now hanging by a thread.

There are all sorts of long term effects and I am sure there are others yet to be revealed.

Feelingathomenow · 17/11/2024 09:24

Most of us were trying to work whilst looking after our kids-not just teachers the first lock down was navigated with almost no help from schools.

My DS was left with v bad anxiety, my dear dad was shoved out of a hospital onto a care home. Hardly saw him fot 2 years, by which time dementia had made him forget who I was. DH hates crowds now - has panic attacks.

People took their own lives, lost jobs and businesses.

The world is fucked, there’s a spiralling pandemic of stupidity and gullibility.

People don’t need a pandemic to grasp what’s important in life. They just need some honesty with themselves and exercise some critical thinking. They need to stop trying to keep up with the joneses worry what others think.

Plastictrees · 17/11/2024 09:27

JudyJulie · 17/11/2024 09:22

Our relationship with DGS will be forever affected by the fact that we were not allowed within 2m of him for the first 6 months of his life, or to touch him at all for the first 12 months. Four years on, he has never spoken to or engaged with either of us, so we all lose out. His DPs were just too frightened of COVID.

One of our neighbours is still shielding, even though she was never in a category that was advised to shield in the first place. She has seen no-one face to face except her DH and occasionally her DD in over 4 years and no longer has any medical or dental care because she feels it is just too risky.

DH spent hours on YouTube during lockdown and is now completely immersed in conspiracy theories of one sort or another to the extent that he has lost almost all of his friends, and his social life, and a lot of freelance work. Our marriage is now hanging by a thread.

There are all sorts of long term effects and I am sure there are others yet to be revealed.

I’m so sorry to hear this. I had meant to include more people engaging with conspiracy theories in my post. I work in mental health and this comes up fairly frequently; it must be so hard seeing your DH immersed in these theories and feel powerless. I hope things improve for you. I would encourage you both to seek therapy if your DH was on board with this, although I can imagine he may not be. A good therapist would be a great support for you and could also unpack what is going on for him. I wish you all the best.

anyolddinosaur · 17/11/2024 09:29

Some people are still obviously feeling the effects of covid - either long covid themselves or grieving the loss of someone who died. Those who think it was "just a cold" are determined to ignore all the evidence about long term impacts. Stroke rates are now rising in the middle aged and it's all being blamed on lack of exercise and bad diet, covid increases your risk of blood clots but is conveniently ignored.

What covid taught me was that teaching in this country is pretty crap. Critical thinking is certainly not learnt at school, science teaching clearly left many people ill informed. And that people dont want to think about anything bad even when they might be able to do something to mitigate the effect.

There was, or is, a project asking people what covid was like for them - I submitted something that was balanced - remembered all those people who sewed scrubs for the NHS and shopped for neighbours as well as the bad.

LoneStar7 · 17/11/2024 09:31

What I found the most interesting about Partygate was the lack of fear by those in charge.

Why were they confident enough to break the rules and get together when their whole MO was to terrify the population into complying? I thought Boris was in intensive care due to Covid. Why didn’t he fear it?

Opentooffers · 17/11/2024 09:36

On a Sunday morning I was able to get an Easter egg after my nightshift as they opened up tesco just for NHS staff an hour early - lol, definitely more than just NHS staff there. Bunched up in a crowd waiting at the door for it to open ( I stood off it). Occured to me, the worst idea ever from a spreading covid pov. Risking wiping out the local NHS workforce. Who'd look after the sick if it spread around from that visit?
Disappointed, but not surprised that society appears to have got more selfish, more entitled, far less altruistic since then. The rise of nationalism, anti-imigration ( and integration). Wars popping up here and there.
The experience has taught people nothing. I just learnt that I have residual PTSD around it, though park it in order to carry on with my job. If it were to happen again, I know I would not have it in me for a repeat. Would have to retire early.

OctaveoOctober · 17/11/2024 09:38

Well some teachers taught on line and had to teach their own but others didn't, not their fault of course but the head followed the unions.

I think the most surprising thing people have forgotten is to simply catch a sneeze and cover a cough? Have some ventilation open in a room with lots of sick people in it.

Oganesson118 · 17/11/2024 09:38

Gone back to superficiality? So the whole clapping for the NHS wasn't superficial? Celebrities singing about how we were all in this together from their luxury mansions wasn't superficial? Spying on your neighbour so you could report them for going for two walks in a day wasn't just pure spite?

BestZebbie · 17/11/2024 09:40

Hunglikeapolevaulter · 17/11/2024 08:59

How could we forget? We're still dealing with rampant inflation and the enshitification of society that it spawned. Have you seen the average town centre now?

I think it is interesting how everything collapsing was blamed on Brexit until Covid, and then since 2020 Brexit has barely been mentioned again and it is Covid that has had all the blame for everything.

Tangerinenets · 17/11/2024 09:40

Yep. Forgotten about it. It was bad enough at the time I don’t want to keep thinking about it.

Onemorefuck · 17/11/2024 09:40

Unsurprisingly, OP has dropped this thread like a grenade and not returned to it. Just like so many divisive discussion threads

Animatron · 17/11/2024 09:41

A lot of people went bonkers during Covid, didn't they? It was when I realised properly that the media was just hysterical children who can't read books or do statistics and stopped paying attention to it. You might think that was my bonkers moment, but, eh, they were just so silly.

In real life, though, we just got on with it. Homeschooling was obviously terrible - I accidentally taught one too much maths and now they are a bit weird. We had some really nice family times. Our local pubs went to the wall and we couldn't save them and it's hurt our town. We did our best to help our neighbours. We all thought lockdown was a bit stupid after a while but we endured it. And then we all went to the pub on pub day and laughed too loud and talked too much, until we felt normal again.

I guess I got more local-oriented from Covid. The mass culture, the media etc, seems increasingly strange to us here - very hyped up and a bit crazy. A lot of us have quietly dropped out of that stuff, I've noticed, round here anyway. I don't know what people are doing in general.

Howmanycatsistoomany · 17/11/2024 09:41

Whoops - the quote didn't work - I was agreeing with this post from ILikeItWhatIsIt
Thing that annoys me the most is people calling themselves 'frontline' workers. Calm down love, you're not exactly in the trenches, about to go over the top.

Agree. You were doing the job you get paid to do OP.

Hopelessinhomecounties · 17/11/2024 09:42

I hear you and started reading the responses which really weren’t very kind.
There was less focus on celebrity. More focus on community and more appreciate of teachers, retail and healthcare workers.
im also sad it was short lived. Im all for social media regulation. As I think it’s facilitating a breakdown in community and what is important. Hopefully the government will implement the social media ban for under 16s so they can move the focus away from how you look and celebrity.

Poomonia · 17/11/2024 09:43

😂 I had Covid in September (this year!) and had post Covid blood clot and post Covid pneumonia. I’m still fucked.

No need for shit stirry threads is there 🙈

Added to say: it’s the first time I had it (knowingly!) and yes Covid was a horrible time. The front line sticker brigade post up thread made me laugh so much - I still see those out and about. 😂

SlightlyGoneOff · 17/11/2024 09:43

Arcrisp · 17/11/2024 07:50

I worked on the wards as an NHS doctor. The talk of heroes and the clapping made me cringe so much. We were just doing our job during a difficult time. No adoration needed.

I think the pandemic brought out the worst in people. At one end, the small-minded people who reported neighbours and lectured everyone, and at the other end, the conspiracy theorists thinking that their musings on Telegram were intelligent and revolutionary.

I am just glad it’s over.

Yes, I was going to say this. A medic friend of a friend got home after a difficult hospital shift the day she lost her first Covid patient, went out again for a run to try to calm down, and got home after an hour and ten minutes to a note from her previously civil neighbours saying they’d reported her for being longer than the allowed exercise time. I’d left the UK village I’d been living in in Jan 2020 but friends said the parish council was patrolling the streets in hi-vis with whistles!

SoiledMyselfDuringSomeTurbulence · 17/11/2024 09:47

SlightlyGoneOff · 17/11/2024 09:43

Yes, I was going to say this. A medic friend of a friend got home after a difficult hospital shift the day she lost her first Covid patient, went out again for a run to try to calm down, and got home after an hour and ten minutes to a note from her previously civil neighbours saying they’d reported her for being longer than the allowed exercise time. I’d left the UK village I’d been living in in Jan 2020 but friends said the parish council was patrolling the streets in hi-vis with whistles!

Some people should really have been told to fuck off a bit more at the time.

PlayingDevilsAdvocateisinteresting · 17/11/2024 09:52

Mumblechum0 · 16/11/2024 23:51

I think most people were just desperate to go back to normal.

It all feels like a horrible dream now.

The lasting effects seem to be mostly for kids who lost out on early years learning, a friend of mine is a teacher and says there's a marked difference in pre and post Covid reception children in terms of social skills

Wow, your friend obviously earned their degree. Who would have ever thought that the potential social skills of reception aged children might have suffered during the lockdowns?
Sorry 🎄