Mumsnet during the beginning of the Pandemic - please tell me your stories of the maddest comments you saw

[mumofoneAlonebutokay]

Inspired by chat on another thread - one woman was told not to pop to the shop for milk but to put butter in her coffee instead 😄

I wasn't on mumsnet then but would love to know the maddest comments you saw?

I myself went mad during the pandemic 🙈 and refused to leave the house and judged anybody that did, I'll admit 😬😄 - I wish I'd been calmer

Please share 🥰

Edit - I know how awful the pandemic was for those who lost loved ones, and how serious those losses are - this is just about the unnecessary hysteria and comments stemming from that, not to poke fun at those who lost someone or became ill. 💕

DS and I watched an old lady physically attack a young woman on Clapham Common for jogging past her too closely.

We were sat on a park bench (risking getting caught by the police but after a tough morning of homeschooling, what did we care), old lady toddling along when young female jogger jogged past. Old lady went berserk, chased her down and hit her across the back of the head! Young woman stopped, shocked. They both started shouting then old lady started pushing and hitting young one some more. It was mental. People were just standing, watching. Keeping to the 2m rule.

Young woman called police from her mobile and old lady scarpered. Next thing we knew, a riot van was steaming across the common and 6 police officers jumped out. 2 went running off after the old lady, the rest taking statements from all us bystanders. Old lady got taken off in the van.

I was sitting there the whole time wondering what sort of dystopian world I was now living in!

The ones who knew who it was coming 4 years prior 🤔

All the comments along the lines of "I'm driving to work, the roads are choca, don't people realise we are in lockdown" etc

People who said you shouldn't have
had dc if you didn't like working & homeschooling.

Someone said they couldn't sit in their garden because a neighbour was coughing.

I didn't realise how stupid most of the population was until covid...

We were there. It was fucking appalling.

Didn't someone moan on here about cucumbers not being essential?

I didn't post this at the time but reading all of these has just reminded me of when my ds who would have been 6 at the time had covid during the fairly early stages of the pandemic. We couldn't get his temperature down so rang 111 for advice and they told me to isolate from him within our own home!!. Literally put him in his bedroom with the window on the latch and the door closed and only go into him if it was absolutely essential and an emergency. I kept on repeating to the person on the phone that he was only 6 years old and actually very poorly and I refused to even consider their ridiculous suggestion. The operator said they had noted my objections on their system and would have to escalate as I was refusing to follow covid guidelines and i was a risk to myself and society!!! In the end I hung up on them. I received a few calls from an unknown number over the following days which I didn't answer and I can only assume was a a follow up to my phone call to check whether I was isolating from him. You honestly couldn't make it up!

My dss was with us for contact time when the first lockdown happened, and he stayed with us for a couple of weeks, until they decided the rules for kids between families.

One day I sent him and my da to the shop with a list - they got stopped by the police and had to provide the shopping list to the officers 🙄

@OFHelp that's the part I thought was unbelievable. Who would abandon their dc ffs! The fact parents couldn't be with dying children in hospital is disgusting

People who moaned about having to wear a facemask in public. Try working in a hospital throughout Covid and the PPE we had to use…

I think I've actually got PTSD from how batshit people behaved. I find that far more frightening than another virus.

But yes we were also murderers for sending the kids back to school and nursery as soon as humanly possible. Even though we were essential occupations, needed on site and one of the kids has SN and was impossible to home school.

@Idontjetwashthefucker lady across the road - woman on her own probably late 60s , very glam - stopping me coming out onto the pavement and asking ‘why are both not out clapping - ‘

My sister became obsessed with covid. She still wears masks and embarrassingly enough shrieks at people for coughing, even now to this day.
She's no longer speaking to her nephew, DM, me, and certain colleagues as they've refused to pander to her requests to wear PPE in her presence.
Covid has really really affected her mental health and I fear she will not recover.
She sits in establishments like cafes and say, Wetherspoons scowling at people and muttering "Why are we not still masking up, why don't people understand there is still danger!?"
It's caused extreme health anxiety in her and she's just not the same anymore.
She's an intelligent lady with a very responsible job, qualifications and a good work record.
She's hopelessly obsessed at this point.

I got my dog groomed all the way through lockdown, every 7 weeks. Found a groomer who facilitated distanced handovers. So ddog went into the garden kennel compound and I left, groomer got the dog and did the grooming and dog was put back in the compound and I picked up. I never actually met or even saw the groomer. Still didn’t dare confess this on here as I knew I’d be ripped a new arsehole. Grooming was allowed for welfare purposes so i decided it was welfare purposes. She knots easily 🤷‍♀️😁

Blimey I’m amazed that didn’t make the papers 🤣

That's so sad, it's no way to live, is it?

People who objected to supermarket workers for moaning about wearing face masks when (unlike healthcare workers) they hadnt chosen a job that involved wearing them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We had to go back to work in a school in May 2020 and were told to face the wall when passing anyone in the corridor- we did not. We had to wear full PPE all day in the 30degree heat. Face mask and a visor, gloves and apron - it was crazy

Yes this. It’s easy to look back in hindsight.

I remember the tv footage of a man in China dropping down dead in the street and being carted away by people in hazmat suits being on repeat. And the daily death count was on the radio and tv. A couple of months into lockdown there were reports of children dying from a new strain.
Yes some people were probably over the top but it was fairly scary and surreal, especially in the early days

Some nobhead in our village tooted into a French horn every week DS was 3 and he’d wake up every single week and it was like be so hard to get him back to sleep - keeping him awake made him overtired. It was just a pissing contest and really put me off a lot of people in our village tooted into- especially when they would shame those of us who didn’t clap on the Facebook group.

A family friend refusing point blank to be vaxxed as it was the government's way of controlling us and knowing what our every move was. Same person very prolific on social media and would post about her whereabouts all the time. Ean to have the vaccine when told she wouldn't be able to travel without it.

I was an anti-dementor for a bit. I don’t remember the threads being explicitly political; there were some very vocal anti-lockdowners, but most - like me - just wanted a bit of a moan about how it was impacting our lives and our children without being accused of being selfish and wanting all CV people dead.

I get that everyone was scared at first. I remember reading a horrific account of a hospital in Italy during the first week of lockdown, which graphically described medics having to make awful decisions about who got the limited number of ventilators, and people foaming at the mouth as their lungs disintegrated. I sat on my bed and cried because I imagined DH or my children suffering like that. But as time went I was more struck by the solipsism and lack of empathy from people who couldn’t seem to grasp that people with different circumstances wouldn’t be able to follow “the rules” as stringently as the they could. Now it seems obvious that, as a family of 4 without a car and who weren’t eligible for deliveries, we’d need to go shopping more often and no one had the right to judge that, but I still remember feeling self-conscious about it and trying to defend myself on here from a poster who insisted I should be able to carry a fortnights-worth of food if only I was stronger.

Instead of becoming more empathic, viewing everyone around us as potential vectors has done so much damage.

Actually I loved the family and friend zoom quizzes. There were some things I enjoyed about those times

Oh masks were surreal. I started wearing one because of visiting and caring for my Mum in the very beginning. My DS then 25, scoffed and ridiculed me, which I shrugged off with some good humour and just referred to it as my tiny security blanket. Had some doubts as to efficacy but hey, I was hedging my bets.

Few months down the line and I was beginning to really question mandatory masks etc, and my DS did a complete 180 and became pretty militant about wearing them at all times. I was like, who are you and what have you done with my non-conformist boy child.

An awful lot of my rule following was based not on the possible health related consequences, but more the fear of criminalisation and fines.

Incidentally I think it was several days at least into lockdown that our local rag headlined the first few cases of Covid in local hospitals.

This post does not appear to have got the appreciation it deserves. Hats off to you @WooleyMunky- or maybe off with my head? 😆

I remember having a sleepless night because I had to go to a shop the next day to collect essentials. And while we’re on that subject of good shopping - disinfecting groceries!

Quarantining your post for a week before it was safe to open it.