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?

No I lost my mum suddenly whilst I was 36 weeks pregnant. Worse time of my life

And looking through huge rose tinted glasses..it was bloody awful in so many ways.

Absolutely shattered my mental health which has still not recovered. I did support it but it was horrendous for me.

Oh, if you check back, that poster can apparently see inside people’s heads. They are also adamant that those who got even a shred of positive experience from the lockdowns are narcissists who lack empathy.

Another vote for this thread being part of some weird data gathering experiment so new statistics can be produced saying "see, it was the right thing to do and lots of people enjoyed it, so anyone complaining about it is delusional".

Or worse, laying the groundwork for adapting to a life governed by AI where everything will be virtual so "outside life" won't be necessary and those not proficient in tech will have to be controlled or turned into slaves to serve the tech elite.

Yes, I sound unhinged, but no, it's not impossible - the world is hurtling towards change at a speed most people can't tolerate and keep their mental health intact, but as long as people can get their colours done eh?

And it was the pandemic that gave the green light, funding and impetus for it all.

Yep. And if the inquiry’s conclusion written and decided in 2021 is “we should have locked down harder, faster, longer, and we will next time”, I will not be surprised at all.

I think the AI debate is for another thread.

Yes, this is it in a nutshell. Perfectly put.

There already is one, and the AI zealots have a very similar tone to the "lockdown had it's positives" acolytes.

So what are you saying? That anyone who didnt have a hard time in lockdown or even enjoyed lockdown is an AI zealot?

Death's,job losses,MH issues,NHS dealing with the unknown yip the fun just kept on coming.
No positives in the slightest.

🙄

I obviously can't speak for here, but at the end of 'whatever period of time you would like to insert' aren't most of us more selfish about ourselves and our loved ones - especially our children if we have them?

That's true. One of the big issues at the time and as restrictions unwound, I think, was some people not being able to understand that their selfishness wasn't any more moral than other people's.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5358717-does-anybody-long-for-a-simpler-life

The sentiment on this thread isn't wildly different to the OP's on this one at its core yearning.

The key difference is that it isn't framed on a nostagia of a government policy that deeply wounded society for a generation that we are still trying to recover from.

I'm not saying that OP was one of the people scolding others for not enjoying "stay the fuck at home and watch Netflix", it's very highly likely that she wasn't. It seemed like there was an overnight turnover of posters for 18+ months, but the overall tone on MN for a prolonged period was shut up, put up and obey blindly. (And I am not criticising people toeing the line- very often there wasn't any other viable options because rebellion was a social not solo act). I just can't disassociate people in 2025 from repeating things that were said in 2020 with so much accompanying vitriol.

We didn't have to just get on with the "New Normal" we were expected to unquestioningly embrace it despite all the reasons why it was never going to stay that way.

So many vile things were said to people trying to admit to desperately struggling in 2020, that 5 years on I still have no patience for people feeling nostalgic about society being forcibly suspended. I don't know if I ever can forgive.
If the overriding tone at the time had been more sympathetic to people struggling, those wounds would possibly have been less deep and more managable. The narrative was very much that you were only allowed to care about Covid.

Threads that stick in my head from that spring include a mum and a toddler living in a flat with no outdoor space using an unsecurred sand pit to play. A mum of a child with additional needs trying to drive her child to an empty beach a mile away. A family with children with additional needs using each parent's "daily walk" to get the children out into the neighbouring field. Someone baking brownies and leaving them on a friend's doorstep. So. Much. Vitrol. Being blamed for spreading a virus that they didn't have and all the deaths that they would cause despite the clear lack of logic

I am not blaming OP for those times or even wanting a simplified life, but the wording and angle of the way the OP was written is very deeply triggering to many people for so many hurtful reasons.

Change the pace of your own life, but don't hanker after the rules that ruined millions of lives to facilitate it.

Everyone had a different lockdown experience, and people who enjoyed it are allowed to say so without those who didn't getting offended and rushing to say how awful it was.

I also loved lockdown OP. There were no expectations on me and I enjoyed the quiet streets and slow pace of life.

If I could have my family all home for a few weeks without distractions and the sun shining I absolutely would. If it could be done in a way that didn’t hurt anyone. I think I just need a holiday!!

Yes, I fondly remember packing a few tiny things and hurriedly bundling my kids into a car before rushing off to a refuge for safety. Lockdown was a gift to abusive bullying partners and mine escalated from 60-100 at breakneck speed.
such lovely times, thankyou for reminding everyone of the joys 🙄

It most certainly was. Which was spectacularly obvious at the time, but not talked about much because that would have been inconvenient.

The problem is there were hundreds of thousands (possibly millions) of people who didn't have family to go on blissful woodland walks with, to spend quality time with, who seriously suffered from lockdown. Many lost loved ones, most still worked.

It's self indulgent and quite short sighted to go on about how great it was when people were cut off from their support networks, lost jobs, and really struggled.

My sister lives on her own at the beginning she wasn't even allowed to bubble (that didn't happen until later). Both her and I have active lives, we aren't ones to sit around on our arses and watch netflix all day. Our lives were stopped, everything we enjoyed stopped. I remember going round to my parents and feeling like a criminal that first week. Or heaven forbid going to the shop twice in one day.

I originally read your comment as quite spiky to me when I wasn’t the one starting the thread, was responding to the original poster and made comment in my original post that I understand that everyone’s circumstances (or words to that effect) were different. Then I thought maybe you didn’t intend to be so sharp against what I put so shortened it

Posts like yours make me wish for a care emoji.

I remember early on saying that all lockdown was doing was shuffling the cards around and doing more harm to other people while sheltering others. I didn't need a hard hat for making that observation; I needed an armoured vehicle.

It did not suit the narrative at all to flag up that lockdown was creating danger and suffering and could cost different lives.

I hope life is better for you now.

Me. Me. Me.

Every day, people the world over go through hell. They live through hell. Some of them are living through hell to make our clothes, to grow our food, the tech we use to make these posts. People in China dying of pollution related illness, loads of them, daily, to produce all the shit we consume. Our national history. Our pillaging. The animals you eat. The animals our drugs are tested on.

Every single one of the people here complaining about others enjoying lockdown when they went through hell, are at this moment facilitating the suffering of other humans and sentient beings.

Cognitive dissonance. Only able to consider the self. We're all the same. All we are about on a truly deeply level is us and ours.

I agee, OntheBorder1.

It was good for me but I was aware of how difficult lockdown was for many and did what I could to help others who had problems caused or exacerbated by lockdown. I'm not going to talk about details but it is amazing what one can do from behind a computer, on the phone, organising things, etc. It was a question of making the most of opportunities. As a recently widowed, elderly person I was able to do a lot more good during that time than I have since, I'm now a lot older and pretty redundant :-).

Being under house arrest and not being able to see anyone was blissful? Blimey even I’m not that much of a misanthrope 😂

Wasn't that the lock down where women couldn't escape their abusers and a few were murdered? The lady from Canada springs to mind.

It is usually the wealthy with big gardens who enjoyed the lockdown the most. Many of us didn't.