To miss the first lockdown?

[TidyOchreReader]

I know it was a tough time for many but I genuinely loved that first lockdown. I think about it all the time. There was something strangely blissful about slowing down, having fewer obligations and just focusing on connecting with people - even though we couldn’t physically see them. And when you did see someone, the gratitude was immense. AIBU to feel nostalgic for that time?

Self reflection is always a good thing - it motivates change and growth.

Yabu. It was hell. Dh had the first covid and honestly thought he die....he only just sort of better now. I worked NHS at the time but left due to childcare issues and the stress of no money, very ill husband and juggling a toddler ...so many of my friends got mental health issues and there is a whole generation of children still struggling...year 11, year 5 and year 4 seem the worse effected. Look at attendance rates recently for children. .I know so many children who never returned to school and are still scared to go outside as the government told them it was dangerous at a vital point of their life...if no idea what toddlers and babies since covid are like as my dd was the age she was ..so many playgroups closed as they lost their volunteers and a lot of my elderly patients died due to loneliness....

And there were so many better ways.

I don’t miss it one bit. I remember sobbing on the 2 week announcement from Boris, telling my husband that this would be 12-18 months, and him trying to convince me that no government would ever do this to an economy for more than 2 weeks. I guess my gut was working overtime. It was utter shit. I did not stay home EVER. But of course most other people did. I’m not massively’ out there’ socially but it was really hard. My business had to shut down & while Dishy Rishy said that no one would be left behind, we certainly were, and got sweet FA. Used up our life savings to keep afloat. All for what? I get there are vulnerable people (my mum) included. But for everyone else life should have continued as normal. You just need to compare the Uk & Swedish figures to know the true picture.

The only thing I miss about lockdowns was getting to play lockdown arbitrage and stick it to the man, so to speak. I went on holiday to Portugal in June 2020 where they had already lifted their lockdown and though they had a midnight curfew we found a hostel bar that continued to serve us into the early hours of the morning where we met other Brits and Irish people who had done exactly the same thing as us. It was fantastic. Similarly, as London was plunged into “tier 4” (basically full lockdown) in December 2020, I took a staycation to Bath and Brighton, two of my favourite cities which happened to both be “tier 2” at the time, and got to go shopping, eat out, go to the theatre, go to a spinning class and go to the cinema. Amazing.

If I didn’t have work, I have gone much further and relocated to countries that didn’t have a lockdown, like some of my friends did - one lived in Sweden for a few months, another with a French passport moved to Réunion and a couple went to Dubai.

I am allowed to feel angry by my life effectively being destroyed by the pandemic. A comparison with people in China is totally irrelevant . I am responding to comments by people in the uk who enjoyed a slower pace of life following decisions by the Uk government while others were going through various different types of suffering

Why should @TidyOchreReader keep her views and experiences to herself @Thepeopleversuswork just because they don’t accord with yours?! By all means disagree, but you don’t have the right to
censor her.

Oh and this sentiment isn't particularly new or insightful. There were a slew of similar self-indulgent bleatings on here at the time and have been several a year since the pandemic ended. I could perhaps tolerate posts this insensitive if they were new or eye-opening in some way but they're not, they're an unbelievable nauseating cliche.

I am also observing that for the past 5 years after the lockdown ended, if anyone posted anything about Covid etc on here it was quickly shut down. Many/most people couldn’t bear to even talk about it - were desperate to forget it, but you have had so many people sharing their feelings and experiences this time op.

It shows some recovery/processing is taking place for most people.

Thank you for putting it so beautifully - I really relate to everything you said. I’m so sorry about your dad and everything you went through. That slow pace you described… yes. It really stayed with me too and I’ve been thinking how to reclaim of that simplicity now, without needing something so awful to force it.

It’s an internet forum. If you don’t likd Whats posted, scroll on.

YANBU for feeling nostalgic for a time you enjoyed, but it was a very Marmite event, people either had a wonderful experience or an awful one, and for me it was the latter.

This level of thinking is what allows dictators and tyrants to gain control of entire nations.

No you're right, I don't have the right to censor anyone. But I do have the right to criticise anyone posting something which is both a) incredibly insensitive and b) desperately unoriginal. And I'll keep doing this until people stop banging on about it.

How could you 'enjoy' or 'love' it with the horror all around?

I still do my best to block out all memories of it, I was working in mental health at the time which is tough enough under normal conditions. I live alone and it was the worst time of my life and even now if I start to think about it, i do my level best to block out the thoughts. I had a family member who became suicidal and used to ring me at all hours (and I was very willing to listen to all that they had to say) and that was very challenging. I hated it, I was scared, I was lonely and I was always aware that I was bloody lucky compared to many. I think it took a terrible toll on the mental health of many of our young people and took the lives of people who would probably still be with us had it never happened.

You literally said “Sorry, you can feel as you feel but please keep it to yourself” @Thepeopleversuswork . That’s censoring @TidyOchreReader!

🤣🤣🤣

As someone who's naturally introverted, I LOVED lockdown.

Homeschooling, however..dear God...never again!

That said, I imagine for people working the front line with the necessary PPE, it was a very very different story. Or for people who need to socialise for their mental health and re-charge their batteries, or not being able to see loved ones, must have been very difficult.

Lock down was easier for me than for many

But I struggle to comprehend the "I'm all right Jack" mindset of celebrating lockdown when it was so awful for so many

Given that most of my life has been an utter shit show (including homelessness in hostels with a child in tow, using food banks, walking with almost no sold left on my shoes etc, losing all of my belongings, domestic abuse, poverty) I’ll be as self indulgent as I like. Actually feeling enjoyment and peace gof a short amount of time in the past 30 years.

It definitely won't for quite a while, at least!

I know what you mean about not feeling real though, I think people disassociate from it.

I really think some people must be deluded. Do they really think loss of liberty, people dying, losing jobs, not seeing loved ones, daily gaslighting by the government but celebrating making banana bread with a quick daily walk in nature is something to be held up like some kind of uptopia god I need more drink to get through this thread.

Tosh, it’s as unoriginal to talk about how awful it was, as it is to have had a positive experience. Long may it continue to hear people say that lockdown wasn’t a tragedy for everyone. Those people don’t have to withhold their thoughts to spare the feelings of others who feel differently.

That’s life.

I'm not the board police: I can't censor anyone. I'm just suggesting that if people want to post something thought-provoking or insightful they try a bit harder than showboating their own privilege under the figleaf of "simplicity".

It's triggering and deeply vulgar. As I said before, I could live with this if it were original but its a desperate cliche.

the clue is in the title of the thread.

It's triggering for you, don't read up!

Again, I though it was utter shit but I was still VERY privilege. People are still allowed to express opinion or their own experience. Since when should we dictate what people should feel or say?