To think some people found lockdown really hard and it wasn't their fault

[elliejjtiny]

I don't normally think about this, it's something horrible that happened but it's over for us for the most part thank goodness (I appreciate there are people who are still struggling a lot).

It's that time of year so some people are saying 5 years ago we were doing xyz for the last time etc. Mil was going on about how great she found lockdown. Not a lot changed for her and FIL as they don't go out much and they are retired. Meanwhile I had 5 dc with SEN, one of whom licks everything and for us life changed dramatically for the worse. I was saying that it was nice that MIL enjoyed lockdown but for us it was extremely hard. She told me it was my fault and it would have been fun for us too if I had been more organised.

IMO for some people lockdown was awful.

@Badbadbunny and don't forget the lovely Mrs Sunak who was part of a company claiming a pretty hefty business loan -only to put it into liquidation before it was due to be started to pay back

Yep. All goodwill towards the political classes completely squandered, and for me, never to return, even if Starmer (remember, one of lockdown's biggest cheerleaders) manages to turn things around. I myself will never believe, respect or trust any politician or government again, for the rest of my life. 😡 (I'm still angry about Tony Blair's war, and the expenses scandal, which they think we've forgotten while they give themselves massive pay rises.)

On MN, the phrase of choice for dissenters was "selfish arseholes", and covidiots "flocking" to the beaches. You could play MN bingo with these phrases. And the arch-lockdowners probably do likewise with what the "refuseniks" say.

It was interesting to watch 'selfish' stop working in real time.

I think people give much less of a shit about being called that now than they did 5 years ago, even outside of a covid or illness context.

Selfish is an utterly meaningless word for me now.

So many people whinging with no sense of irony "you're selfish because you're not prioritising meeeee!"
Obviously not a literal quote, but no it wasn't selfish to want your children to be educated in school so they could be educated properly, have social contact with peers and protect their mental health and not be prioritising a random stranger from an illness that you didn't have to spread to them 🙄

I learned that the number of people who will and can prioritise me can be counted on one hand, so yes, I'll protect my interests.
I have largely gone back to the community things I was doing before, because they suit me. I'm harder to guilt into picking up other things than I was before though and quicker to drop what doesn't suit me rather than carrying on through duty. My relationship with the DCs' school was dented. I used to do a lot for them, but by the time they stopped treating parents like disease-ridden vermin in 2022, and finally became somewhat welcoming in 2023, I felt not-so-strangely disinclined to pick up and do what I used to do for them. DS2 was leaving soon anyway and it was for the new cohort to pick up. 2019 me would likely have carried on.

I still do more for the community than most and what I do has become harder in some organisations because chains of experience and progression were broken. People are generally more inward looking whether it's coping with life-shit, and that stretches capacity of other people, which makes picking up some load to share out less attractive and thus the cycle continues. (I could then segue into post-pandemic child behaviour and parental attitudes, but they've been covered in many threads...)

I didn't find lockdown too bad,particularly the first, despite DD and I both being furloughed and then losing our jobs, DS being back from Uni and DH wfh BUT I never stopped being mindful of the fear of those on the frontline, the pain of those who suffered loss, the loneliness of those going through it on their own, the financial worries of those who lost their livelihoods. I don't think we acknowledge enough how enormous it was.
Your MIL is ignorant and self centred OP.

I loved lockdown. I was furloughed, we live in the countryside and the weather was great. We got loads of jobs at home done. But I can massively emphasise with people that weren’t so lucky. I had to go to the vets during lockdown. I remember seeing people sat on their doorsteps of terraced houses in the town that didn’t have gardens and thinking it must be so much harder. I paid for it later - lost my longterm job and my father died of covid two years later when we “just had to learn to live with it”.

Now the same doctors are moaning that people have put on weight.

Partygate was in December 2020 but it was exposed in December 2021
Journalists sat on it for a year

The "sense of community" was just people sitting at home and writing things online. You can't have a "sense of community" when physical human interaction and contact is restricted as drastically as it was during lockdown.

Another legacy of this is that people (and indeed, companies) will be reluctant to start a new business, in case the government snatches it away again, now that the precedent for this has been set. The destruction to business in general caused by the "party of business" was incredible.

I agree. In my accountancy practice, I'm only seeing 1 or 2 potential new clients each year and they're usually "low risk" start ups, such as personal trainers, you tube/tiktok influencers, gardeners, etc. Before covid, I'd typically be seeing 10-20, and they'd be starting/buying businesses like shops, cafes, guest houses, web designers, driving instructors, plumbers/electricians, etc. I can't actually remember the last potential new client I saw wanting to buy a "bricks and mortar" business or anything at all involving large investments in a vehicle or equipment or professional/trade qualifications/regulation. It's very worrying for the country that we've lost a huge proportion of our small businesses.

Lockdown was awful. Trying to WFH and look after DDs who were homeschooling was just overwhelming. Also shopping alone, the masks, not being able to be near anyone. I mean for us it was better than some people, we have a large garden etc. but I can't see why anyone would enjoy it.

Never mind the long term impacts on children for losing that time out of the world, anxiety has increased etc.

Barbaric

We know so many elderly people who deteriorated physically and mentally because they weren't getting outside for exercise or socialising, as well as those who got their AC to do all the shopping long after lockdown. They'd lost confidence and mobility.

It was a bleak and even dangerous time for so many for all sorts of reasons beyond the risk of Covid

@Feelinghurt2 * I read a lot of stories about people trapped in abusive homes, unable to escape. Whenever I hear people say that they miss lockdown, I want to scream. It was hell for a lot of people. All the small businesses that went under...all the livelihoods destroyed. A friend of my Mum STILL hasn't left her house because she is too scared to*

I feel the same as you. It makes me feel so angry

And in the meantime those who said on SM that it was happening were deleted in the deeply strange drive against "wrongthink"

The most depressing thing about partygate, at least for me, was its sheer inevitability and I'm still quite surprised that it was ever thought it would be any different

I think the A State of Fear threads should be reinstated.

This was in last months Woman and Home. I have the print edition but for anyone who uses Readly here is the link

https://gb.readly.com/magazines/woman-and-home/2025-02-06/679d693fd01139eaa9870939?srsltid=AfmBOorgf6kr2goNVhsbSY-G_tIdyhN3vPJ7cWDSPJ-fN-WNRbJpM0HU

I can see both sides of it but you cant prevent people from filming INSIDE their own homes while the DWP is planning to look into ppls bank accounts. It reminded me of the Covid restrictions because its one rule for thee and one rule for me again.

Especially when you consider how the Tories responded to Cummings and his Barnard Castle jaunt coming out in May 2020.

Of course, they'd already started breaking the rules themselves by then. April 2020 to April 2021, I think the span was?

I loves and hated it all at the same time. As an introvert it was great to have an excuse to stay in. I loved spending time with my family. I was pretty burnt out from work and it wasn't possible to work from home so I tried to embrace the break.

On the other hand it triggered some major mental health issues I still struggle with

My OH's oncologist told him it was too dangerous for him to leave the house and that ideally, me and our son shouldn't leave the house either! His cancer infusions were cancelled, as were his blood tests, consultant appointments, etc. Basically his entire cancer treatment, review appointments, tests, etc were suspended for several months. Not much use having phone oncologist appointments when they had no test results to review how the cancer was progressing, especially without any treatment happening.

I hated lockdown. Stuck at home in an apartment alone on furlough with a one year old whilst my partner worked 12 hours days was awful. I found the whole experience very stressful, I suffer with depression/anxiety in general and lockdown made it so much worse. I missed my family and friends. Phonecalls were not the same.
Don't get me wrong I loved the extra time at home with my child, it was wonderful but so draining to do alone under great stress.
My parents and siblings live together however in a spacious house with a lovely garden to spend time in and loved it 🤷🏼‍♀️

For all we know, the parties that we found out about were only the tip of the iceberg. Probably far more ministers and MPs were at it; they were more cunning than Johnson at covering their tracks, and perhaps had fewer enemies. And I bet lots of them didn’t obey tier 4 in Christmas 2020.

Why?