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. 💕

As are Smarties.

Not on MN but elsewhere on SM... I lost a friend who went absolutely nuts at a friend and I attending a big event at the NEC juuuuuuuuust before lockdown started. Really really unpleasant about it to me, speaking to me as if I were a child, not a woman in my 40s... (but not a hint of that to mutual friend who came with me).

And then well into lockdown, she upped sticks and moved from her perfectly lovely house on the rural edges of a very well serviced suburban area... to a remote rural holiday home the other side of the country with a distinct lack of services... exactly as we were all advised NOT to do.

The utter hypocrisy as well as the constantly patronising, hectoring tone led to me telling her to fuck off.

Butter coffee with cinnamon is heavenly. Whisked up. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it!

I wouldn't be laughing about it now, 4 kids! You must've been exhausted!

😄

Omg, found the story with a bit of a Google

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/uk/parents-criticise-primary-school-crazy-lockdown/

This really made me laugh. It’s fantastic. Material for a wedding speech or something like that.

Yes. I mean, they were definitely weird times, no doubt. But nowhere near as weird as the UK. My DH worked abroad when Denmark decided to close the bridge, and as he was in the air he still didn’t know if the plane could land in Copenhagen (where his car was parked) or if he had to land in Stockholm. It was…stressful.

You are right, there was even more fresh air than usual in nurseries and schools. 😂 We were never healthier than back then!

I remember the angry thread with the child with SEN who went to the beach.... the poor mum was really stressed out by it all and some of the comments were so nasty.

I worked in an incredibly busy remand prison all through the first two lockdowns, it was very strange. We were all expected to comply with the 2m rule, but the upper landings were less than 1m wide (old Victorian prison). We were constantly edging past each other. Education and workshops were closed, and the men were behind their doors for 22 hours+ every day. Violence was low, self-harm was high, but bizarrely, morale among prisoners and staff was really good.

Have all the crazy posters name changed or are they still kicking around? I often think of the "just stop it" nurse who went viral and cringe for her.

People with plastic boxes on their heads on the tube

Not so much mad but the stuff that really made my blood boil were the smug posts from people who were either furloughed or didn't have to work wanging on about how wonderful their lives were, skipping through empty forests, growing marrows with their children and face-painting all day and how they had woken up to what a great way this was to live. And how they'd suddenly had this epiphany about how wonderful this life was and would never have to worry about trivial things like making a living or seeing other people.

While I was stuck in a one bedroom flat working (no exaggeration) from 5am to 8.30pm every night just to keep the lights on while also trying to home school my kid in the room next door and keep her off YouTube. And I was one of the relatively lucky ones who a) kept my job and b) didn't have to work in a COVID ward or a germ-infested supermarket.

And the really nauseating thing is how many people have taken this awful fantasy and strung it out for the next five years, still going on to everyone who will listen about how much they enjoy their simple lives without people.

I will murder anyone on sight who has the nerve to tell me they "loved lockdown".

A couple of days before lockdown a woman working in a clothes shop screaming SOCIAL DISTANCING at my bolting toddler

It was unutterably shit, I agree

When things opened up a bit, birthday cakes were cling filmed or a "stunt cake" used to blow out the candles (and sealed cupcakes handed out). Wish we'd kept that one - it's nice not to have to eat cake that's been breathed over or worse 😂.

@UnstableMonkey I still think Sweden had the best mindset about it from the offset - mind you there’s a lot more space, a lot more , and to be frank (on the whole ) a population that to me actually choose to go along with experts and not take the piss

Oh God, that must've been a challenge 😳

Glad she got chased away. I remember a WhatsApp voice note being sent around about the army being deployed, from someone apparently high up - and nothing happened 😄

I hope that you are firmly in recovery from the cancer now? 💕

So many. The ridiculous clapping - although I recall we did it from the upstairs velux window so couldn’t be seen as on our doorstep seemed mega cringe!
Antibaccing the food shopping. For months.
My husband stockpiling cans of food in the very early days before official lockdown.
Individual infected members of the house isolating in their rooms as other family members didn’t want to catch it.
Getting irate at extended family members breaking rules by visiting each other.
The ridiculous homeschooling. The constant juggling between 3 kids uploading pictures of their work on google classrooms, watching never ending oak academy videos (there was one particular teacher who drove me to insanity).
Attending a friend’s 40th zoom party with a bunch of people I’d never met. Excruciating.
Dropping shopping off for my mum and feeling like we were criminals for sitting 10 metres away from each other on deckchairs on her drive just to talk!
Crossing the road to avoid people on the pavement! 😂
Not sitting on a public bench as it was forbidden.
Leaving post to ‘air’ for a few days!
The list is endless. It was such a bonkers time!

I wiped my shopping down for a bit I had literally just given birth so was not in my right mind.

I could never understand the people who wore their masks pulled down on their chin, just why?!

So much batshittery around.

Love this thread. It’s funny how everyone got over it as quickly as they became obsessed. People are so fickle

Yes I recall that MNetter getting their arse handed to them on a plate 😂 about the second home.

Washing hands singing happy birthday! 🤣

Not on MN but I remember pulling in to Sainsb's one day and noticing that people had social distanced their cars impromptu; leaving one parking space between each, all the way through the car park. Just collective madness really.

Oop

You're right though, people should be sensitive when talking about how much they enjoyed the pandemic tbh, most people didn't have it easy x

I know it sounds stupid, but I still feel deep sadness when thinking about Christmas 2020. I just had my 1st baby a few weeks before and I was desperate to finally spend time with family and have some support. When the government "cancelled" Christmas, I was devastated, and I descended into pretty deep PPD 💔

I remember some teachers on here suggesting it was perfectly reasonable to move all secondary school teaching online permanently.

And if your 11 year old had no one at home 9-5 to supervise them, they'd just have to fend for themselves in an empty house all day.